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By Andualem Sisay - Capital
14 December 2006
Ethiopian journalists working in both private and state owned media founded Thursday the Nile Media Network-Ethiopia Chapter in Hilton Addis.
Journalists of nine Nile Basin countries formed an independent media group works in collaboration with the Nile Media Network on December 22, 2005 in Alexandria, Egypt said Ato Amare Aregawi, its Chairman.
The network aims to inform and educate about the prospects of the Nile Basin cooperation and its benefits apart from equitable utilization of the common water resources.
30 journalists attended a two-day workshop of the Nile Basin Initiative December 6-7 at the end of which the Ethiopia Chapter of the network was formed.
Nile Basin Initiative mooted the idea of the Nile Media Network to deliver accurate information of the activities of the Initiative to the public of the Nile River countries.
Each country chapter receives an annual budget of about 30,000 USD from the Nile Basin Initiative. Except Eritrea , every Nile River Basin country has formed its own country chapter of Media Network
After an intensive first phase of 1997-1999 intensive dialogue among members to develop a platform of trust and a shared vision, the Nile Basin Initiative as a partnership was launched in 1999 by the riparian states of the River Nile through the Council of Ministers of the water affairs in the Nile basin states.
During the second phase (1999-2001) a strategic planning was developed and donor support mobilized, most notably at the International Conference for Cooperation on the Nile (ICCON) held in Geneva in 2001 where the development partners committed about USD 130 million to the Initiative.
The major objective of the Nile Basin Initiative is to avoid conflict among the Nile Basin member states on the usage of the river in cooperation on a win-win basis.
The Initiative is funded by the Nile Basin Countries, African Development Bank, Global Environment Facility, Islamic Development Bank, World Bank, United Nations Development Program, and government of Canada , Denmark , Finland , Germany Italy, Netherlands , Norway , Sweden and the United States .
The Initiative has accomplished a lot facilitating discussions among member states and project designing. The 1959 Agreement signed between Egypt and Sudan to use 100% the Nile River is not yet replaced to enable ten riparian states of fair use.
Ethiopia , Sudan , Egypt , Kenya , Rwanda , Burundi , Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Eritrea (as observer), Tanzania , and Uganda are the ten Nile Basin Initiative Countries.