Nile River Basin Investment Program (NR-BIP)

The Nile River Basin Investment Program (NR-BIP) is a high-visibility flagship regional program of jointly identified transformative investment projects that are aimed at driving socio-economic development of the Nile River Basin while reversing environmental degradation within its watershed. The NR-BIP embraces a broader perspective of the role of river basins in fostering regional peace and socio-economic development.

The Nile River Basin Investment Program (NR-BIP) provides a means for identifying, prioritizing, marketing, mobilizing resources for, coordinating implementation, and monitoring and evaluating investment projects drawn from multiple sectors and sources, including the countries, RECs, RBOs and other actors in the Nile Basin. The NR-BIP is jointly prepared by the Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP); Nile Basin Initiative/ Eastern Nile Regional Technical Organization (NBI/ENTRO); Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD); Nile Basin Initiative/Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program Coordination Unit (NBI/NELSAP-CU); Nile Basin Initiative/Nile Secretariat (NileSEC); Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA); and African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD).

The long-term goal of the NR-BIP is the Shared Vision Objective, which is: "to achieve sustainable socioeconomic development through the equitable utilization of, and benefit from, the common Nile water resources."

The key objectives of the NR-BIP are the following:

1. To attain a state of water security in the Nile countries characterized by reliable availability of an acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods and economic production.
2. To improve food security through increased food crop production from rainfed and irrigated farming systems and regional trade in food products.
3. To improve energy security through increased production of hydropower and other renewable energy sources, and increased regional power trade in the Nile region.
4. To protect and conserve the watersheds and terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems of the Nile Basin, and promote their sustainable utilization for poverty reduction and socio-economic development by basin communities.
5. To improve resilience of water-related infrastructure to impacts of climate change, and reduce impact of water-related natural disasters on water-related sectors.

The Nile is a major north-flowing river that has dual origins in the Ethiopian Highlands and the Nile Equatorial Lake's region, and discharges into the Mediterranean Sea. The drainage basin of the river measures 3.18 million km2 (NBI, 2012 ) in area (which is about 10% of the land area of the continent) and traverses the territories of 11 countries (Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Egypt, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda). The 11 countries of the Nile Basin have a combined population of 556 million, about 272 of which resides in the basin (NBI, 2020 ).

Food insecurity continues to afflict the region. The level of food production in the basin is unable to cope with the increase in demand from expanding population, leading to rising levels of undernourishment. About 87% of the cultivated land in the basin is under rainfed production systems, and is characterized by small holdings, low inputs and low productivity. Irrigated farming systems, which are mainly located in the downstream countries, have a high water demand, and do not have the highest water use efficiency possible (Multsch et al. 2017 ).. There is very low irrigation development in headwater regions (NBI, 2020).

The Nile region is well endowed with energy resources that include natural gas, oil, hydropower potential, geothermal energy, coal, peat, biomass, solar and wind. Despite the endowments in energy sources, electricity supply in many Nile riparian countries is inaccessible, inadequate, unreliable and expensive. About half of the 556 million people residing in the Nile Basin countries have no access to electricity and mostly rely on kerosene and biofuels (firewood, charcoal and agricultural and animal waste) as the source of energy (NBI ,2020). The region's energy deficit is seriously stifling its economic growth and affecting job creation, agricultural transformation, and improvements in health, education and standards of living. Thermal plants are the dominant source of energy but hydropower is emerging as an increasingly important energy source in the region due to its renewable and pollution-free nature, long economic life and typically low unit energy costs. Only 42% of the region's hydropower potential, estimated at 31,000 MW, has been developed (NBI, 2020).

There are a number of regional organizations in the Eastern Africa region, the NBI inclusive, that have overlapping mandates, and overlapping geographical jurisdiction, that are involved in the promotion of multi-sectoral investments within the Nile Basin. At present, there is no framework for coordination of investment project identification and preparation among the various regional organisations, and no mechanism for basin-wide project prioritization, or ensuring that the multi-sectoral projects promoted by the regional organisations are optimized from a basin-wide perspective and designed to deliver equitable benefits to all Nile riparians states. Furthermore, there is a lack of a common integrated multisectoral and multi-agency investment plan for the Nile River Basin. Such an investment plan would be a key tool for mobilization of resources towards the sustainable development and management of the shared Nile Water Resources.

The NR-BIP will introduce strategic shifts in the approach to investment project development and promotion, as a way of addressing the aforementioned problem. The main aspects of the change in approach are the following:

• Inter-sectoral coordination - strengthening, and helping to institutionalize, inter-sectorial coordination processes within countries with the aim of improving the aligning of the regional Nile investment agenda to national investment priorities and funding windows.
• Transboundary facilitator - strengthening NBI's service function to Nile riparian countries on investment pipeline coordination and preparation, with a focus on leveraging the comparative advantage of NBI's ability to provide the basin context to national projects, provide a jointly agreed approach to key transboundary challenges, and facilitate the conclusion of agreements amongst riparians for projects with transboundary impacts.
• Basin-wide investment programing - moving, at regional level, towards a basin-wide "Nile Investment Program" and introducing coordination mechanisms that provide high-level endorsed for Nile investment projects, and visible framework for prioritizing and mobilizing resources for investments aligned to the basin development goals. The NBI will also seek to bring together and leverage the NBI development agenda into continental and regional investment agenda that Nile Basin member countries have subscribed to.
• Scaling up - building on the Rusumo experience to nurture and scale-up NBI's ability in facilitating joint investments in water resources, and using it to foster closer cooperation in infrastructure development.

Nile River Basin Investment Program (NR-BIP): Development of the Projects Portfolio and Program Management Support i.e. develop the Nile River Basin Investment Program (NR BIP) Projects Portfolio and establish the BIP program management function.

NR-BIP Results include:

1. The Nile River Basin Investment Program (NR BIP) Projects portfolio developed:

#1.1 Implementation arrangements established, and Action Plan agreed with all Stakeholders
#1.2 NR BIP candidate projects portfolio compiled, eligibility and ranking criteria agreed and options/scenarios for portfolio composition generated.
#1.3 Economic Assessment of the NR BIP project portfolio completed
#1.4 Strategic Water Resources Analysis (SWRA) of the NR BIP project portfolio completed
#1.5 Integrated Assessment of the NR-BIP project portfolio including SEA completed
#1.6 Updated BIP Program and Portfolio Document agreed
#1.7 Consultation process completed

2.The Nile River Basin Investment Program (NR BIP) program management function, especially resource mobilization, communication and monitoring & reporting established

# 2.1Implement the NR BIP resource mobilization action plan
#2.2 Implement the NR BIP communication action plan
#2.3 Maintain the online AID platform for the NR-BIP and partners
#2.4 Compile the annual NR-BIP State of Investment Portfolio Report

Enabling Environment and Needs assessment
MS 1: Concept
MS2: Pre-Feasibility
MS3: Feasibility
MS4: Detailing Structuring
MS5: Financing
MS6: Tendering
MS7: Construction
MS8: Operation

Agreed BIP project eligibility and ranking criteria

Since not all projects can be considered for the NR-BIP candidate project longlist, a set of high level "eligibility" criteria will be set out. The aim of these criteria will be to sift out projects that clearly don't fit into the NR-BIP programme.

The ToR describe a two-step process:
Step 1 is described as "pre-screening of projects to eliminate non-eligible projects"
Step 2 is stated as for developing ranking criteria, involving "scoring against multiple criteria and ranking to develop the portfolio of projects

Methodology

1. Projects criteria assessment method and tool (based on excel projects database)
2. Scenarios of options for NR BIP projects portfolio composition
3. Integrated Assessment of the NR-BIP project portfolio including SSEA
4. Economic Assessment of the NR BIP project portfolio
5. Hydro-Economic Model Assessment
6. Economists Meetings
7. Strategic Water Resources Analysis (SWRA) of the NR BIP project portfolio
8. NR-BIP Program and Portfolio Document agreed (countries consultations)

NR-BIP is under Preparartion