Nile Information System

The Water Resource Planning and Management (WRPM) Project is one of the eight basin wide projects under the Shared Vision Program (SVP) of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) and is still ongoing. Water stress, fragmented management approach, inadequate capacity and regional differences, information management and exchange were all identified as critical issues to be tackled in the Water Resources Planning and Management project.

The project has three main components

• Strengthening capacity in the development and implementation of integrated water resources management policy through the preparation of good practice guides, training, and the provision of demand-driven advisory support to assist riparian governments in addressing policy formulation and implementation issues of concern at the national level.
• Enhancing capacity in water resources project design, preparation, and management through the development of guidelines and compendia of best practices, training, and provision of advisory technical assistance to support the practical application of skills in the development and management of multi-country projects.
• Developing a decision support system (DSS) for the Nile Basin, with attendant strengthening of human and institutional capacity, to provide a common, basin-wide platform for communication, information management, and water resources analysis to support NBI activities and other SVP projects.

In implementing its activities, the project works with a number of key stakeholders. The Project Steering committee provides strategic guidance, direction and oversight to the project, while two Task Forces, one on Water Policy and another on Project Planning and Management (PPM), as well as input to the respective work plans and facilitates the implementation of the components’ activities at national level.

WRMP, is an advisory group for data and information sharing among the Nile riparian countries and has provided guidance to the development of the Nile Basin Interim Procedure for Data Sharing. It also offers input to guide the process for the development of Nile Basin Monitoring Strategy.

The DSS Core Team takes the lead in the DSS development process while the Regional DSS Network provides inputs to the DSS development at the key milestones. And, finally, the National DSS Network provides inputs and support to the national DSS units in the riparian.

Project Management Unit (PMU) located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and is Operational in nine Nile Basin countries.

Project Objectives

The project goal is to ensure that the Nile Basin water resources are developed and managed in an equitable, optimal, and sustainable manner to support socioeconomic development in the region. The Project development objective is to enhance analytical capacity from basin-wide perspective to support development, management, and protection of Nile Basin water resources.

Key Outputs/Outcomes expected/achieved

The project contributes to the five NBI short-term outcomes, with special focus on two. One is increased convergence of legal, regulatory and policy frameworks of Nile Basin countries on trans-boundary issues in all themes and sectors. The second is enhanced basin- wide capabilities and capacities based on best practices, on trans-boundary issues in power development and trade, agriculture and natural resource management.

Key expected outcomes:

• Enhanced capacity in NBI Member States to formulate and implement water policies based on Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) principles and good practice guidelines addressing the trans-boundary dimension
• Increased capacity for successful preparation, planning and management of joint/cooperative projects in the Nile Basin Member States.
• Enhanced ability (Nile Basin DSS, Regional DSS Center, National DSS Units) to support basin wide communication, information exchange and identifying trans-boundary opportunities for cooperative development of the Nile Basin water resources.
• Improved learning and accountability of the WRPM project through the design, implementation and utilization of a comprehensive and results-oriented performance management framework.

Key expected outputs

• Baseline for national water policies for the NBI Member States established and gaps identified.
  • Guidelines and good practices for water policy formulation and implementation developed and disseminated.
  • The trans-boundary dimension in the national water policies of the NBI countries is addressed
  • Key staff of NBI and associated riparian organizations is trained in the essentials of Project Planning and Management.
  • NBI Project Management Guidelines and Training Modules on Project preparation and management developed and disseminated.(on-going)
  • Regional capacity to provide Project Planning and Management training developed.
  • Regional DSS center and National DSS units established
  • The Nile Basin DSS developed and operational. (on-going)
  • Nile Basin Knowledge Management System (Nile-IS) fully operational.
  • Nile Basin procedures for data and information sharing and exchange developed.
  • Strategy for long term basin monitoring developed (on-going).
  • Guidelines for data quality assurance prepared (on-going).
  • Results - oriented M&E system functioning and supporting the project decision making.

Capacity building:

Through the Water Policy (WP) component, the project has conducted several study tours, country-to-country visits and training on water policy, focusing on integrated water resource management for NBI Member States and SAPs to share experience and gain knowledge from international experience. In addition, the project has enhanced capacity of each NBI Member State in WP formulation, implementation and inclusion of trans-boundary dimension within the national WP.

Under the Project Planning and Management component, several modules have been developed and are still being developed. In addition, a number of training programs have been conducted in various areas of the project planning and management such as project management, project financial management, feasibility studies, procurement, stakeholders’ involvement and operational planning. The training has targeted the relevant professionals at SAPs and NBI Member States.

Within the Decision Support System (DSS), development capacity building is considered as a core function to ensure that the DSS is eventually operated and maintained by the national/regional professionals. Training has been conducted at both national and regional levels in DSS relevant areas. Furthermore, study tours have been conducted to other trans-boundary river basins such as Mekong and Colorado to gain experience in similar fields. The National DSS Specialist and IT/GIS/DB experts and the Government staff (DSS Core Team) have benefited from the capacity building. (please get rid of as many acronyms as you can.)

Lessons Learned

• An update of the Project Planning and Management content to reflect the needs of the Subsidiary Action Programs (SAPs) ensured that the component outputs are relevant to both NBI Member States and SAPs..
• A situation analysis and needs assessment conducted at the beginning of the implementation of each component was essential to base the implementation on the facts on the ground and hence relevance to the needs of NBI Member States and SAPs.

Strategy to sustain the gains/outputs

A sustainability matrix has been developed to indicate the right target for each of the project’s products. The NBI-Sec, SAPs, NBI Member States and some relevant regional/national institutions are the main targets to sustain the project gains.