The event gathered development partners of the Nile Basin Initiative, i.e. Canada, Denmark, European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States to discuss proposals on the future of the activities of the Nile Basin Initiative cooperation in the context of the closure in December 2012 of the donors trust fund. GWP Eastern Africa regional coordinator, the Nile Basin Discourse manager, Nile Basin Initiative staff members, and members of the Nile Technical Advisory Committee were invited to contribute to the discussions.
Nile Basin Initiative secretariat, NELSAP and ENTRO strategic plans for the next five years have been presented including the findings of the institutional design study, NBI financing strategy and NBI progress over the last year. A movie, authored by T. Tvedt, on the history of the Nile basin in Rwanda and Burundi and their impact on the Nile basin has been presented to the Strategic dialogue meeting. The aim of the meeting was to gain indications of development partners interest in supporting NBI programme, and their preferred funding mechanism. The trust fund of the World Bank Cooperation in International Waters (CIWA) has been discussed as a potential source of new funding.