On 22nd February 1999, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the Nile Basin riparian states launched their first all-inclusive transitional institutional arrangement that was to succeed the then existing cooperation mechanism known as TECCONILE. Later in May of the same year, in Addis Ababa, the riparian states through their Council of Ministers of Water Affairs (Nile-COM) endorsed the name ‘Nile Basin Initiative‘ for the new transitional institutional arrangement.

The establishment of the NBI was a result of many intersecting processes within and outside the basin: prior cooperation among some Nile riparian states over hydro-meteorological studies going back to the 1960s; a renewed focus on challenges facing the basin towards the end of the 20th Century; and a post-Cold War international development environment that was supportive of regional integration efforts to strengthen peace and security and provide foundations for social development and economic growth.

Driven by Nile countries themselves, the establishment of the Initiative in 1999 marked the first time a truly comprehensive mechanism of cooperation had been agreed to among riparians. The NBI was launched as a ‘transitional’ arrangement up until ‘…a final Framework for Cooperation is put in place’, i.e. the Nile Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA) [LINK] that would provide a permanent legal and institutional basis for Nile cooperation.