Dr. Florence Grace Adongo during the NBDF
Kampala: Dr. Florence Grace Adongo officially assumed the position as the new Executive Director of the Nile Basin Secretariat (NileSEC) during the 7th Nile Basin Development Forum (NBDF) replacing Eng. Sylvester Anthony Matemu from Tanzania.
The NBDF which happens every three years was held at Speke Resort Munyonyo from 16th -18 October 2023, this year’s Forum was guided by the theme “Deepening Nile Cooperation: Accelerating the Achievement of SDGs in a Changing Climate”.
Adongo was officially declared the executive director for the next two years which is done on a rotational basis following the alphabetical order of the Nile Basin countries. Uganda is usually the last in the alphabetical order if you organize the countries. So right now, Uganda has taken over the leadership for two years as the executive director from Tanzania, and after that, it will be Burundi, and then followed by DRC Congo.
“My take as the new executive director is really to ensure that we maintain a vibrant platform for all the 10 Basin countries to come together and share knowledge, experience, and also dialogue, so that we can have common solutions to our common challenges. So that will be key and maintaining or sustaining the current achievements and ensuring that pending actions by other countries are followed so that at the end of it all, we come out with a legal body of the Nile Basin Initiative, which is the Nile Basin Commission,” Adongo said
According to Adongo, it will also be very important to facilitate the different countries to pursue their priorities in terms of developing and enhancing the resources for their various developments. “Of course, as the Nile Basin, we have a common shared vision, but also have a 10-year strategy that guides all our activities. So my work will be to ensure the implementation of the 10-year strategy, but also all the directives and decisions of the Council of Ministers. After that, I will be making reports and ensuring that they guide in the sustainability of the extension,” she explained
“I will also be doing one of the core functions of the NBI to facilitate dialogue, Hydro diplomacy is the term we use in terms of building negotiation, mediation, and communication skills around the Nile water resources so that we have the capacity of technical people who can carry forward the agenda of the Nile in an amicable way, coming together on a roundtable, but also ensuring that we provide different knowledge, technical knowledge about the Nile that can guide them in coming up with priority investments. That will enable them to improve their livelihoods,” she added
Another key area that has come out is because of the challenges of climate change being experienced in the Nile Basin countries, “we would like to come up with a framework that can enable us to manage disasters and reduce the risk of disasters caused by climate change. Of course, that will require a lot of information, real-time information that can be relayed and then communicated in time so that actions can be taken before disasters happen. This one we’re also going to pursue so that we have a network of technologies that relay information, and we analyze the data that we get translated into information and then relay it to the respective countries.” Of course, this shall be done with the national experts from each country coming together.
She also said that as an executive director, she is supposed to address the interests of all the 10 basin countries, but might find that within that certain priorities have been given by each country. If there are priority areas that Uganda has communicated, it will be up to her to follow up and ensure that those are implemented, and if there are any, she will consult every country to make sure that they implement all the priorities that are given by the countries for them to implement.
The new executive director also said that this kind of work is two-way where one does not work alone but rather consults and the biggest interest would be to make sure that they support countries to meet their priorities and investments ‘‘I would prefer, some of which are joint so we bring them together so that they can jointly implement such projects.”
“Like now we have between Uganda and Kenya, which is the Angololo Multi-Purpose Water Resources and Development Project coming up, between DRC Congo and Uganda, we have Lake Edward and Lake Albert fisheries and water resources management project coming up in phase three. We also have transmission lines, which are from Uganda to Olwiyo Juba, South Sudan, there are other transmission lines for electricity going to DRC Congo, and then there’s another one, which has just been finished going to run. So we’ll be following all those and then updating each country on progress and supporting them in resource mobilization, and any other area that we might be having,” she explained
Eng. Sylvester Anthony Matemu handing over to Dr. Florence Adongo
Matemu added his voice upon handing over to Dr. Florence Adongo to say that the event is a major gathering of the Community of Practice on transformative water cooperation and provides the people with a unique opportunity to share information, knowledge, and best practices, expand networks, build a common understanding of the development challenges and opportunities of the Basin and providing also suggestions for a common cause of the action for the sustainable management and development of the Basin for the benefit of all riparian for the Basin.
He also took the honor to congratulate and wish her the very best during her term of service, “I wish to congratulate the executive director elect Dr. Florence Adongo, I know we have been working together since 2016 and now I hand over to leave the NBI. This is pride for Uganda.”
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