|
|
Annonces
|
Announcing Nile Media Awards-2010 |
|
|
Aucune traduction disponible
The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) proudly announces the second round of the Nile Media Awards. The Award seeks to recognise journalists for outstanding reporting on the work of NBI and about the sustainable management of the River Nile water resources in general.
|
|
Lire la suite...
|
|
|
Technical Advisory Committee to discuss the way to ensuring Nile Basin Initiative sustainability |
|
|
Aucune traduction disponible
Members of the Nile Technical Advisory Committee ( NILE-TAC) from the nine countries of the Nile Basin will meet in Entebbe, Uganda, from 11 to 12 May 2009. The purpose of the two-day meeting is to likely devise strategies to facilitate the transformation of the Nile Shared Vision into real, on-the-ground actions with a focus on ensuring sustainability. The 28th NILE-TAC meeting will be followed by the 6th Formal Nile Basin Trust Fund-C meeting which will be commissioned by Mr. José Endundo Bononge, Chairperson of the Nile Council of Ministers and Minister of Environment, Nature Conservation and Tourism of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Nile Basin vision of cooperation has been consistently supported by the riparian countries through the NILE-COM and the NILE-TAC and through their political, material and financial support for the Nile Basin Initiative. The riparian countries have consistently sought and welcomed the Worldbank involvement as the leading external agency. More than seventeen partners support the NBI through technical and financial support, largely through the Nile Basin Trust Fund, which was established by the Worldbank at the request of the Nile Council of Ministers as the preferred funding mechanism for NBI programs. |
|
|
Research Fellowships Available |
|
|
Aucune traduction disponible
AUTUMN 2009 WORKING GROUP ON:
THE INTERNATIONAL AID SYSTEM IN THE NILE BASIN
TEN SALARIED RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS are available for senior researchers from institutions in the Nile Basin countries (Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo) to participate in the Nile Basin Research Programme Autumn 2009 working group on the International Aid system at the University of Bergen, Norway
.
Outline of Research Agenda
This working group will bring together established researchers from the Nile Basin with shared interests in the history, roles, relations and impact of the international aid system. It will organize research on the international aid system and its roles in the Nile basin.
The international aid system is, undoubtedly, a very powerful and enduring structural force impacting institutional and policy development in the Nile basin countries. In many countries it finances the bulk of development interventions, shapes institutional arrangements, frames policy alternatives, as well as provides mediating structure(s) for conflict resolution. In other countries the aid system’s influence is more marginal. Nevertheless; its concepts, institutions, administrative arrangements and fiscal resources help shape the most critical aspects of development and politics.
The aid system in the Nile Basin could be analyzed as a new type of international social system, but with entirely new characteristics: conceptually and normatively concentrated around dominant ideas about development, democracy, human rights, gender equality, sustainability etc.; institutionalized in an economic context of gift economy; and politically organized as a balancing act between donor/receiver relationships and “partnership”. The system has played a very important role not only in terms of identifying and establishing development aid and the dominant development discourse, but also, due to its different forms of economic, political, conceptual and moral capital, it has impacted issues related to sustainability, resource policies, and democratic development -- in largely yet unknown ways in the Nile Basin.
The comprehensive understanding of the aid system and its impact remains elusive in part because of the state of research, as well as a lack of local and national perspectives that are based on solid research. Very few empirical studies exist that can help us explain and understand what has been happening and is going on.
In general two sets of literature exist on the aid system. On the one hand is an extensive, dominant and progressively increasing body of literature whose entry point, analytically, is the aid system’s developmental role. This literature points to the empirical fact that the aid system and its actors finance the bulk of development interventions in a number of countries. Thus the bulk of the literature, including numerous evaluation reports, examines the interventions of the actors in the system, highlights inadequacies of these interventions, and provides insights into how these limitations can be addressed. Characteristic of this literature is the relative lack of African voices and perspectives.
On the other hand is a body of literature which argues that the aid system undermines local and national development, as it establishes and perpetuates a set of relations and practices that, together, reproduce poverty on the continent. For instance it is argued that through its support, the system and its institutions insulate states, undermines their accountability and responsiveness to their citizens, and ultimately prevents the emergence of a developmental state that, historically, is central to any long term sustainable poverty reducing effort. A more ideological strand of the literature argues that through its discursive, institutional, political and financial power, the aid system promotes a depoliticised neo-liberal, market oriented conception of development.
The aim of this research project is not primarily to ask whether or not aid “works”, or in which cases it does, but to inquire into how the international aid system influences, and is influenced by, the national and regional political agenda of Nile basin countries. The aim is to review and analyze dominant views on development aid, democratisation etc, and to question how these issues are conceptualized and problematized within the international aid system itself.
A robust understanding necessarily requires an approach that brings out the complexity of the roles, relationships and impact of the Aid system. This requires a research strategy that i) develops theoretical /analytical frameworks that capture the complexity of the aid system and its relations and impact in Africa, ii) provides empirical documentation of how the system functions on a national and regional level and finally iii) integrates African perspectives.
The different researchers from the different countries should aim at describing and analysing the particular national sub-system of the international aid system; what is the national aid architecture; how is it institutionalised (who are reporting to whom and pays for what), who are the actors and how important are they (UN-organisation, individual donor countries, NGOs, research institutions etc.), what are the dominant relationships (donor/recipient/partnerships etc. and rhetoric and reality), how does the national aid system function; how has it developed over time (when did it start, how has it grown over the years, achievements/setbacks/changes in development slogans) etc.? The research efforts should aim at answering some of these questions, based on new empirical research and the collection of new data.
The aim of this working group is to improve understanding of this system and how it functions and relates to the Nile Basin countries, and to the discourse on sustainability, poverty, democratisation, resource politics, peace and conflict in the region. The approach of the group will depart from the dominant research tradition on the aid system in two important areas in that we seek to analyse the aid system as a whole; i.e. the linkages and connections between the multilateral organisations; the bilateral organisations; NGOs; Nile Basin States, and how they influence each other and are related to the external world.
Research Topics: Possible research topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
• The History of the Aid System in NB-countries
• The development and character of the Aid Architecture in NB-countries
• NGOs, Civil Society and the Aid System in NB-countries
• The Aid system and Democratisation in NB-countries
• The Aid system and the Poverty Agenda in NB-countries
• The Aid system in the peace and conflict Agenda in NB-countries
Eligibility: We seek scholars and/or researchers holding positions at institutions in the Nile Basin Region who have a research background and interests on issues related to the architecture, operations, relationships and impact of the international aid system. During the fellowship period in Bergen, the researchers in the working group will collaborate to identify critical research questions of relevance to the general themes of the working group, identify and collate relevant data, analyse the data and publish the results as co-authored papers in the international peer-review literature. The success of the working group depends critically on good knowledge of the existing data and literature from the region, and we therefore seek fellows having good knowledge of, and access to, existing data and literature that can be utilised by the working group for analyses.
To facilitate the comparative nature of the analyses, the fellows will be expected to collect data on the aid system in their respective countries using a common template prior to coming to Bergen. Limited funding will be available for this comparative data collection exercise. The fellowships are for five months, starting in August 2009, and the working group will be located at UNIFOB-Global (www.global.uib.no), where the working group has excellent working facilities including administrative support, office space, computers with internet access, and access to research facilities such as software, databases and the University of Bergen Library. The Nile Basin Research Programme will sponsor workshops with international guest lecturers, and offer opportunities for applying for additional funding to attend relevant international conferences. The research group will cooperate with researchers at the University of Bergen and at other universities in Norway
who have worked on these issues.
Fellowship: The successful applicants will be offered a salary as a Senior Researcher at the University of Bergen (about 5100 USD a month before tax as of 24.10.08), one economy class return airfare between their home institution and Bergen, medical insurance and work permit. Female researchers are especially encouraged to apply.
Application deadline is April 15, 2009.
For further information about the programme and application procedure, eligibility, selection process, etc., please refer to: www.nile.uib.no/vacancies.php.
|
|
|
MAINSTREAMING ADAPTIVE STRATEGIES TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN MANAGING AFRICAN TRANSBOUNDARY RIVER BASINS |
|
|
Aucune traduction disponible
The GTZ, InWEnt and UNEP with support from GWP are organizing a seminar on mainstreaming adaptive strategies to climate change in managing African transboundary river basins to be held between 26-29th August 2008 in Entebbe, Uganda.
The seminar aims at strengthening the capacity to manage transboundary river basins in Africa. About 35 executives, senior program coordinators and project managers of shared watercourse institutions in Africa (river basin organizations, lake authorities, transboundary ground water aquifer agencies) will be invited to the seminar.
Discussions at the seminar will be stimulated by presentations from high level regional experts on climate change scenarios and impacts, the multiple challenges for the water sector, the environmental, social and economic dimensions as well as the institutional implications of adaptation to climate change.
The focus of the deliberations at the seminar will be on sharing knowledge and exploring suitable adaptation strategies. The seminar is expected to draw conclusions, recommendations and follow up activities to strengthen the capacity to react.
|
|
|
|
