The NBDF is organized by the Nile Basin Initiative every two years, as a continuation of the Nile 2002 conferences to continue dialogue among stakeholders on their needs, challenges and opportunities. The 2011 theme was 'Climate change and its implications for sustainable development and cooperation in the Nile basin: Threats and opportunities'.
More than 200 participants from within and outside the Nile Basin countries, including Ministers in charge of Water Affairs in the basin, Members of Parliament in the Nile Basin countries, representatives of international and regional organizations, water managers, researchers, civil society, media, civil society, representatives of diplomatic missions and development partners took part in the 3rd NBDF organized by the Nile Basin Initiative in collaboration with the Ministry of Natural Resources of Rwanda.
The participants discussed the impacts of climate change on the Nile waters, natural resources and socio-economic development. They also addressed trans-boundary cooperation and benefits for adaptation under a changing climate; governance issues for climate change adaptation and mitigation; challenges and potentials for financing adaptation; as well as opportunities for food and energy security under a changing climate in the Nile Basin.
Simon Thuo, GWP EnA regional coordinator highlighted the context of water governance in climate change, i.e. the lack of attention to land and water management and population issues in policy making. He described the three pillars of governance, i.e. policies or legislations, institutional and organization frameworks and IWRM issues, including water demand along with water supply management. He requested from AMCOW to position water in the whole constellation of the climate change arena at the regional and international levels of UNFCC process. Simon Thuo pinpointed the need for development to reach rural areas, hence the development of a key partnership between GWP and FAO as well as the need to transform research findings into recommendations, which GWP aims to facilitate in IWRM climate related platforms. As such, the ratification of the UN Convention should be promoted, based on the two key principles it furthers, i.e. equity and accountability.
A member of a Nile Basin Discourse national forum asked about how NBI and GWP will assist the countries to implement climate mainstreaming in their policies and strategies. GWP answered with a proposition of a reporting system for the communities. As a result, World Food Programme and the World Bank would be looking at concrete proposals of climate change that are furthered by the communities.
Finally, the third Nile Basin Development Forum issued a statement for recommendations along with a Declaration. The recommendations stressed the role of civil society to give value to communities practices of climate change adaptation, and maybe mitigation, by stressing the development aspect of climate change responses and the methods of participation and consultation in decision-making. ‘The role of Civil Society Organizations needs to be strengthened as an intermediate between the governments and citizens to increase awareness and to learn from best-practices for climate adaptation from the community-level’. Economic integration for poverty reduction has been requested through a call for empowerment to implement climate change measures for water efficiency. ‘We call upon the international donors, bilateral and multilateral financing institutions and friends of the Nile community to extent technical, financial, moral and other types of appropriate support to our collective efforts to build multi-tiered institutional and technical capacities and for joint adaptation projects in the Nile Basin that significantly will make improved livelihood, economic growth, and environmental sustainability in the Nile Basin countries and its peoples’. Finally, cooperation is the pivotal aspect of the steps that have been highlighted to address the impacts of climate change in water and land resources management and development.
For the proceedings, ministerial declaration, launched products by the Nile Basin Initiative, please visit the following sites:
http://nilebasin.org/nbdf/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=45&Itemid=64