African Water Development Report 2006 - United Nations Economic ...

African Water Development Report 20061970s, soon after most African countries gainedindependence. As a result, a number of intercountrycooperation mechanisms in the formof transboundary river/lake basin organizations(RBOs) were set up in the 1960s and 1970s. Insuch major river/lake basins as the Nile, Zambezi,Congo and Lake Victoria basins, wheresuch mechanisms do not exist, efforts are presentlyunderway to set them up for cooperationamong their riparian countries. Yet, the numberof such mechanisms existing and/or emerging isstill low when compared to the number of majortransboundary river/lake basins in Africa. (over80). For example, there are fewer than ten transboundaryriver/lake basin organizations in Africaand serious efforts are underway to set themup only in two or three others.Most of the existing RBOs set up in the 1960sand 1970s initially had considerable politicalsupport from their member countries and substantialtechnical and financial support from theinternational communities and donor agencies.Some of these RBOs prepared ambitious developmentplans and strategies and some like theSenegal River Basin Organization, the ManoRiver Union, the Niger Basin Authority (Box11.5), the Lake Chad Commission (Box 11.5)and others were initially successful in mobilizingresources and implementing a number of suchdevelopment programmes and projects. Somebasic features of the existing transboundary River/LakeBasin organizations in Africa are shownin table 11.5.However, over the years, some of these RBOsfaced multiple problems, including lack of politicaland financial support from their membercountries and reduction in technical and financialsupport from donor agencies. Some of theseRBOs even had their headquarters temporarilyrelocated because of political instability in theirhost countries. These problems severely affectedtheir performance, especially in the implementationof development projects in their respectivesubregions.Box 11.5The Niger Basin AuthorityThe most important tributary of the Niger is the river Benoue, which takes its rise from Chad, flows throughCameroon with a number of tributaries in Cameroon. Cameroon is a signatory of the November 25th, 1964agreement with eight other countries (Benin, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso)creating the River Niger Commission charged with fostering the promotion and co-ordination of studies andprogrammes relating to the utilization and development of the resources of the River Niger Basin (UN, 1984).This agreement came into effect in 1966 but due to the poor performance of the Commission the agreementwas superseded by two conventions in 1980, creating the Niger Basin Authority (NBA) and a Niger Basin DevelopmentFund. The aim of the NBA is to promote the co-operation among member states and to ensure anintegrated development of the resources of the Niger Basin particularly in the fields of energy, water resources,agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, forestry exploitation, transport, communication and industry.Problems the NBA has faced include:(a) Lack of adequate political and financial support from member countries. For example, the head of state summitscheduled to hold every year in ordinary session has only met 5 times in the last 20 years and only 2 outof the nine members are up to date with their financial contributions (UNECA, 2000). The financial problemsare partly due to the irregularity of summit meetings. Donors view the lack of frequent meetings as an indicationof lack of interest on the part of member states. In 1987, the Summit of Heads of States agreed andsigned an agreement creating a development fund to provide the NBA with the means to initiate major capitalprograms. Till date, this decision has not yet been implemented;(b) The NBA has institutional weaknesses (administrative, managerial), which have not been fully addressed as themission of the NBA has evolved. This led to frequent changes in leadership of the NBA, which did not inspireconfidence in member states and donors and contributed to the financial problems of the NBA with late or268