Welcome to Development of an Effective Nile Basin Dialogue
The establishment of a civil society body to engage effectively in the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) has been tried through a series of meetings starting as early as January, 2001 in Gland, Switzerland. This meeting was followed by others in Entebbe, Uganda (June, 2001) and Cairo, Egypt (June, 2002). This process led to the formation of the “Nile Basin Discourse (NBD)”. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) funded the establishment of the NBD office in Entebbe, Uganda and its initial phase of activities. However, due to issues raised by the Nile Basin Society during the 3rd World Water Forum, further funding for the NBD was not granted by the funding agencies involved in the NBI. The NBD office was closed early 2004.
Dr. Alan Nicol, of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), UK, on a contract from DfID, was the original facilitator of this e-consultation. Unfortunately, it was discovered that this e-consultation was a 'smoke screen' to give legitimacy to the consultation process. In fact, Dr. Alan Nicole, concentrated only on consultations with the old NBD culminating in a meeting in Addis Ababa in March 2004. Moreover, Dr. Nicole drafted a secret fund proposal to the EU Water Facility reviving the NBD as it was. The NBD is now refunded.
Dr. Alan Nicole had removed himslef from the group and is now facilitated by Dr. Nabil El-Khodari, founder, Nile Basin Society.
The Nile Basin Society was selected by the facilitator to host the e-consultation on its discussion forum http://nilebasin.com/discus/. However, due to perceived difficulties and to allow for more global participation Dgroups was selected to host the e-consultation.
The struggle for real NGO participation that is driven by NGOs (as opposed to funding agencies) will continue.