UNESCO-IHE recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Nile Basin Capacity Building Network (NBCBN) and the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). The institute’s role in the partnership is to support NBCBN in providing overall management and coordination advise; providing scientific input and backstopping to the different collaborative research, training and education activities; and transferring the knowledge and experiences of networking and knowledge sharing to the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) and its member Nile Basin countries.
The strategic partnership will include establishing a framework for cooperation and the implementation of a sustainable strategy for a variety of capacity building activities (Research, Training and Education).
The MOU considers the need for building professional and institutional capacity, which is still considerable. Limited capacity is one of the most serious obstacles for the further development of the water sector in the Nile Basin as a whole and for the individual riparian countries in particular.
It also considers the importance of creating a collaborative environment through which professionals from the water sector can exchange ideas, best practices and lessons learned and the successful role that NBCBN was able to play in this respect in the last ten years.
The MOU was therefore signed to confirm the mutual missions and ambitions of the organizations involved to further strengthening and intensifying the cooperation and to promote, initiate and co-ordinate joint activities in building the capacity of the water sector of the Nile region.
About NBCBN
The NBCBN network was initiated in the year 2000 under The Netherlands Government funding through a partnership between the Hydraulics Research Institute (HRI) in Egypt and UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in Delft, the Netherlands, who both - for the time being - legally represent NBCBN. The Network has since become a regional knowledge network of over 500 water sector professionals active in the Nile basin with focal institutes (nodes) in each of the countries.
The aim of the Network is to strengthen the human and institutional capacity of the riparian countries through building strategic partnerships among water professionals, education, training and research institutions and government authorities.
The establishment of NBCBN network was endorsed by the Nile Council of Ministers (NILE-COM) in charge of Water Affairs in the Nile Basin countries in its meeting of March 2002 and placed the NBCBN network under the umbrella of the NBI.
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