- Managing the present impacts of the intra-seasonal and inter-annual variability of the Basin’s climate has the potential to better prepare water managers for dealing with long-term climate change impacts.
- Global climate models project only modest changes in precipitation over the Basin (mostly between -6% and +7%, on average +2%) and all climate models project significant increases in temperature, mostly between 1.50C and 30C for 2050 (on average 2.10C or 8%). The average projected decline in runoff is only about 2%; most models project an average change in runoff between -18% and +10% with a maximum projected decline of 20%; 25% of GCM runs project a decline of at least 10%.

Plans to prepare the Action Plan for Sustainable Development (SDAP) were first made in February 2002 at the 7th Summit of Heads of State and Governments in Abuja. The summit requested that the Niger Basin Authority (NBA) develop a clear, shared vision in order to create a cooperation-instigating environment.

When the Heads of State and Government signed the Paris Declaration in April 2004, it was a reiteration of the same request, recognising the need for all to adopt integrated water resource
management principles. Last of all, at their meeting in May 2005, the Council of Ministers of the NBA described the SDAP as being a strategic document to define and guide the "shared vision" process conducted by all the Niger Basin countries by means of integrated management of their water resources and the associated ecosystems in order to improve the living standards and the prosperity of their populations by 2025.
This report is the SDAP first phase report, the Appraisal Report. In other words, it is an assessment of the issues and priority development themes in the Niger catchment area.
The top priority concerns and potential action of the SDAP are (i) the conservation of the basin's ecosystems, (ii) the development of socio-economic infrastructure, and (iii) capacity building and stakeholder involvement. These priority concerns are all intricately linked to sustainable development which cannot exist without them.

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The Master Plan for Development and Management of the Niger Basin under the Action Plan for the Sustainable Development of the Niger Basin (SDAP) translates the 2025 Shared Vision into tangible actions to alleviate poverty, protect the Niger Basin environment and strengthen cooperation between NBA member countries. The definition of the shared vision was adopted in 2005 by the NBA council of ministers:

"The Niger Basin, a shared region of sustainable development achieved through the comprehensive, integrated management of water resources and their associated ecosystems, to improve everyday living standards and prosperity by 2025."
The strategic guidelines for development and the operational instructions and technical principles for its implementation are derived directly from the nine principles of the Paris Declaration.

 

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RESOLUTION N°3 of The NBA Council of Ministers meeting in an Extraordinary Session held on 26th July, 2007 in the Conference Hall of Palais des Congrès of Niamey, Republic of Niger, Relating to the Development of the Socio-economic infrastructure for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Action Plan (SDAP).

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Download the Synthesis of the report of Sustainable Development Action Plan (SDAP) for the river Niger Basin

The NBA Investment Programme is the crowning point in the Shared Vision process. The part it is to play is one of federation and integration. It must combine and unite all the other present and/or future NBA activities.

The institutional set-up for the implementation of the IP must therefore look to meet two types of need:
- Short term: it must be compatible with the implementation of the WREM-DP and other ongoing projects and programmes (RSWDT, SCP, support to the HYCOS project, ES-NBA capacity building project, etc.) and enable gradual harmonisation of the operating modes of the various activities,
- Medium term: it must break away from the project and programme logic ("classified" by fund donor) and move ahead towards an implementation of the IP as the sole programme implemented by the NBA. In other words, the institutional organisation must evolve. It must step away from the "project = fund donor" principle towards a rationale that reproduces the structure of the IP (field, component and sub-component).

 

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The Investment Program falls under the continuity of the Master Plan for the Development and Management of the Sustainable Development Management Plan (SDAP), adopted during the Extraordinary Session of the NBA Council of Ministers held in Niamey on 26th July 2007. It constitutes one of the main outcomes of the implementation of the Shared Vision process.

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Within the framework of the Shared Vision process, a study of identification and characterization of the Niger river basin water stakeholders and users has been elaborated around seven (7) topics in order to allow a better involvement of civil society in NBA the institution life and elaborate actions for the basin sustainable development.

The themes used as basis for this study are : Agriculture and stockbreeding, Fishing and navigation, Drinking water and sanitation, Ecosystems protection, Dams, Tourism, Mines, industry and craft industry.
This study helps to better know actors, their various forms of organization and structuring, the importance of certain uses of water in the basin. This improved knowledge of uses and users of water resources, and more widely of the basin natural resources, will help to facilitate and strengthen their participation in the Shared Vision process.

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In their decision to make NBA a tool of regional cooperation and of integrated development promotion of the basins, the member countries requested that a clear and Shared Vision of NBA be developed with the support of partners so as to create an <enabling environment> for cooperation and to elaborate a Sustainable Development Action Plan (SDAP) agreed upon by all stakeholders of the basin.
For this purpose, NBA decided to achieve, a national multi-sectoral study in each member state to make an inventory of fixtures, to assess the opportunities, constraints and priorities per development sector in the national portions of the basin.

Then, it mandated a team of two regional consultants to:
- prepare a regional synthesis document, from the nine (9) national multi-sectoral studies;
- facilitate the formulation of the proposed formulated Shared Vision for the sustainable development of the Niger basin;
- define strategic GUIDELINES required for the quest of synergy and for the comprehensible coherence of NBA actions with the other regional economic integration strategies.
The current report is the outcome of the regional consultation.

 

For more details, download the synthesis report