Spilling Blood over Water? The Case of Ethiopia 303
Council of Ministers of Water Affairs of the Nile Basin states was formed act-
ing as the highest decision making body. At its third meeting at Arusha,
Tanzania in 1995, the council of ministers endorsed the Nile River Basin
Action Plan that identified several projects of regional and sub-regional inter-
est. One of the projects is known as the Nile Basin Cooperative framework
(otherwise known as Project D3). It was endorsed by all the countries and is
currently being implemented with the support of the UNDP.
In 1995, the council of ministers requested the World Bank to take a lead
role in coordinating the inputs of external agencies to finance and implement
the Nile River Basin Action Plan. This was accepted by the World Bank,
which undertook the task in partnership with UNDP and CIDA. A review of
the Nile River Basin Action Plan was undertaken and led to the formation of
what is currently called the Nile Basin Initiative.
The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) was officially launched in Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania in February, 1999 at an Extraordinary Meeting of the Nile Basin
Council of Ministers. For the first time, all Nile Basin states became members
of the NBI, with the exception of Eritrea. It is envisaged that the initiative will
serve as a transitional mechanisn pending an agreement to be reached
amongst the Nile riparian countries on a permanent legal and institutional
framework under the ongoing Nile Basin cooperative framework that is pan
of the NBI.
The NBI is governed by a Council of Ministers of Water Affairs of the
member countries. This Council is the highest decision-making body and has
the responsibility of setting out policy and guidance on issues related to the
Nile waters. Under the council is a technical advisory committee that con-
sists of two senior officials from the member countries who give suppon and
technical advice to the council of ministers. A secretariat was also established
in Entebbe, Uganda, which began operations from June 1999.
The NBI is guided by a commonly agreed shared vision: -... to achieve a
sustainable socio-economic development through the equitable utilisation of,
and benefit from, the common Nile Basin water resource^':^'^^ translate the
shared vision into concrete actions, the NBI comprises two main comple-
mentary strategic action programmes, namely, the Shared Vision Programme
(SVP) and the Subsidiary Action Programme (SAP).
The SVP is a basin-wide programme that is intended to create an enabling
environment for cooperative action in the Nile Basin through building trust,
and negotiating capacities and skills of the different delegations. Projects aim
to contribute to building a strong foundation of mutual trust among the Nile
Basin countries by enlarging human and institutional capacity and creating
the opportunity for basin-wide engagement and dialogue. These, it is believed,
will facilitate agreement on a permanent legal and institutional framework.
The framework is currently under negotiations by the riparian countries
as part of the Nile Cooperative Framework Project. The SVP currently