The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) is an intergovernmental partnership of 10 Nile Basin countries, namely Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, The Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Eritrea participates as an observer.

For the first time in the Basin's history, an all-inclusive basin-wide institution was established, on 22nd February, 1999, to provide a forum for consultation and coordination among the Basin States for the sustainable management and development of the shared Nile Basin water and related resources for win-win benefits.

Objectives

• To develop the Nile Basin water resources in a sustainable and equitable way to ensureprosperity, security, and peace for all its peoples
• To ensure efficient water management and the optimal use of the resources
• To ensure cooperation and joint action between the riparian countries, seeking win-win gains
• To target poverty eradication and promote economic integration
• To ensure that the program results in a move from planning to action

Leadership

The highest decision and policy-making body of NBI is the Nile Council of Ministers (Nile-COM), comprised of Ministers in charge of Water Affairs in each NBI Member State. The Nile-COM is supported by the Nile Technical Advisory Committee (Nile-TAC), comprised of 20 senior government officials, two from each of the Member States.

The setup of NBI is informed by the principle of subsidiarity. Besides the Secretariat (Nile-SEC), which is responsible for the overall corporate direction there are two Subsidiary Action Programs (SAPs) offices, namely the Eastern Nile Technical Regional Office (ENTRO) for the Eastern Nile Subsidiary Action Program (ENSAP) and the Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program Coordination Unit (NELSAP-CU), for the Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program (NELSAP).

ENTRO and NELSAP-CU support identification, negotiation, and implementation of cooperative investment projects, with a focus on mutual and sustainable benefits for the countries involved.

This set up has enabled NBI to leverage the unique potentials and mitigate risks in the respective sub-basins.

Home to the southernmost source of the Nile, Burundi with a land area of 27,834 square kilometers is also the smallest country in the Nile Basin. The Nile Basin, in fact, is centrally important to the strength of Burundi’s economy. About 49 percent of the country lies in the Nile Basin (the other part lies in the Congo River Basin), and 59 percent of the population, which is almost entirely agricultural. The land is generally fertile, but Burundi is now coming to grips with years of intensive farming, a dense population and environmental degradation. Overgrazing and deforestation have made erosion on the hillsides a critical problem, and the waterways are filling with silt. Moreover, climate change is making rainfall unpredictable, water quality is declining under the pressures of a rapidly growing population, and drought and desertification are becoming problems in some parts of the country. These issues among others have made the Nile Cooperation important to Burundi.