UNESCO Transboundary Water Experience: FRIEND/Nile by Dr. Abdelaziz Zaki , UNESCO Cairo, , Land and Water Days in Near East & North Africa, 15-18 December 2013, Amman, Jordan

1. UNESCO
Transboundary
Water
Experience:
FRIEND/Nile
by
Dr. Abdelaziz Zaki
UNESCO Cairo

2. Challenges in the Nile
The transboundary Nile Basin: interaction of
population growth, water scarcity and regional
conflict.
Rapid population growth, 263 million =40% of the
African, half of which is estimated to live in the Nile
Basin
South Sudan
source: website of the NBI
100
80
60
40
20
0
Burundi
DRC
Egypt
Ethiopia
Kenya
Rwanda
S. Sudan…
Tanzania
Uganda
Environmental degradation, drought, weak
institutions, low financial capacity, inadequate
infrastructure and social instability are major
constraints
Population (million)
Million
>70% depend on agriculture….Fragile to natural shocks
(floods, droughts)

3. Good Practice
FRIEND/Nile Project
Funded thru the UNESCO-Flanders Science Cooperation
Networking
• Regional research teams / Young scientist
Institutional and human Capacity building
Integrated
Water Resources Management
WRRI - Egypt
• Over 200 experts, including female experts and young scientists, from the Nile
basin benefited from the project.
EcoErosion &
Hydrologic
Sediment
Transport
Modeling
Stochastic
Modeling
hydrology
Khartoum
Modeling
Nairobi
Kampala
Trust building / Research cooperation / Change from data sharing
to research outputs/results sharing
Dar es Salaam
• About 50 research project were implemented which wereKenya for a number of
base
Uganda
Sudan
Tanzania
suggested water resources management projects in the participating countries.
Capacity Building, Knowledge Transfer, Networking &
Experience Exchange

4. Output Example:
GLASOD map of The
Nile basin

5. Future Perspective
For Better Water Resources Management of the Nile
Water Resources, an Integrated System Capacity
Building for all Stakeholders is needed…..
Water engineers
and scientist
Water Negotiators
Decision makers
Legal specialist
Public at large
Environmentalists
Economists
Sociologists

6. Future Perspective
How to shift from
Promote Water Diplomacy counting on Soft
Power
Integrated Water Management interests
to
• Public Diplomacy
• Dialogue Parliamentarians, civil
Integrated basin management vision
(Land, Water, Natural Resources,….etc)
society/NGOs
Incorporating economic
• Shared Media programs development at
social, environment, sustainable
basin scale

7. Transboundary Water Management:
Negotiation Capacity Building
Transboundary Water Negotiation:
Water Engineers and/or Diplomats
How to Waterize Diplomats.…….
Dipolmatize Water Engineers…..

8. Future Perspective
Capacity Building and Networking among the Nile
stakeholders: water scientists, experts, water
negotiators, civil society association/public at
large, economists, sociologists, environmentalists,
legal specialist, are powerful tools in enhancing
and addressing the common problems, and thus
introduce sustainable and workable solutions to
these problem.

9. Thanks for your
kind attention