The World Bank and NBI

The World Bank has been supporting the Nile Basin Initiative since 1997, when the Nile Council of Ministers (Nile-COM) first requested assistance to coordinate donor involvement and establish a Consultative Group to raise financing for cooperative projects.

 

The Bank agreed to support the NBI, in partnership with UNDP and CIDA, to facilitate dialogue among the NBI countries and to chair the International Consortium for Cooperation on the Nile (ICCON) Consultative Group Meeting in Geneva, Switzerland in June 2001. At this conference, development partners committed about US$130 million to the Initiative.

 

A multi-donor Nile Basin Trust Fund was established to efficiently channel these funds to NBI. There are 10 contributing partners to the NBTF. The World Bank administers the NBTF and works closely with NBI and other development partners to facilitate dialogue and cooperation and provide technical assistance to NBI’s Shared Vision Program and its sub-basin investment programs.      

World Bank support to the NBI is provided through its Nile Basin Coordination Unit and an extended cross-sectoral Nile Team. This team includes specialists in water resource management, environment, social development, project financing, and agricultural development.

The World Bank, the NBI and Regional Development

 

With the launch in July 2001 of the New Partnership for Africa's Development NEPAD), African leaders have been pursuing regional integration to overcome the Continent’s fragmentation and reduce its economic marginalization. The World Bank's supports the agenda for regional integration as part of its Africa Action Plan (AAP).

 

Regional cooperation programs are components of national Country Assistance Strategies (CAS), because regional approaches can complement and leverage national programs. Examples include transport corridors, regional power systems, telecommunications systems, trade facilitation, agricultural research, financial sector integration, and river basin development, food security, sustainable management of regional natural resources and transnational environmental issues, and the weather-related vulnerability of rural communities.

 

The Bank’s Nile Basin program is one of many such regional initiatives. Others include the Senegal River Basin, the West Africa Power Pool, the East Africa Trade and Transport Facilitation Project, and the West Africa Gas Pipeline.

 

The Bank’s regional lending in Africa in fiscal year 2006 totaled more than $475 million -- three times that of fiscal 2005 -- and is expected to be 10 percent of IDA funding to the region in 2007.