getting Image
GERD:
An African project Initiated by Ethiopia
By ABN staff writer
The Nile, the longest River in Africa, traverses 10 countries, asserting that it’s a shared natural resource, for which also an intergovernmental partnership dubbed Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) has been forged by the countries in the basin, with a view of providing forum for consultation and coordination as well as to ensure cooperation among the riparian countries on and to jointly deal with issues of managing and sustainably developing the water resources for win-win benefits of the citizens of NBI. The ten countries that comprise NBI include Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, The Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Eritrea participates as an observer. The Nile Basin Development Forum (NBDF) is a high level 80
Abyssinia Business Network // ABN
regional event convened every three years by NBI and organized in collaboration with Member States and in partnership with development partners. It is an important event that brings together all stakeholders to discuss issues related to the Nile, and ways of fostering cooperation, boosting investment, and ensuring sustainable development within the Basin. The Forum is an essential platform to also share experiences and learn from one another.
Hosted by Ethiopia in hybrid, i.e. virtually and physically, under the theme, “Rethinking Regional Investments in the Nile Basin – Water | Food | Energy | Environment | Climate,” the 6th edition of NBDF has brought multi-stakeholders from within and out of the Nile Basin including Ministers in charge of Water ልዩ እትም 2013 Special Edition of GERD 2021
Affairs and other government officials in Nile Basin countries, Members of Parliament, water resource managers, environmentalists, economists, development planners, academia and researchers, to deliberate on opportunities and challenges of Nile cooperation. Other stakeholders are river basins organizations, regional, continental and international organizations, civil society, private sector as well as media practitioners. “We need to transform Africa; and GERD is a demonstration that Africa can actually make it.” While meeting physically for the closing ceremony of the Forum, ABN has approached some of the participants to hear from the horse’s mouth about the main deliberations of the Forum held from the 22nd February to the 7th of May 2021, as well as their views on GERD and related issues.
