Consultancy Firm to provide Training on Transboundary Groundwater Governance

Introduction:

The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) is a cooperative arrangement initiated and led by the Nile riparian countries to promote joint development, protection, and management of the common Nile Basin water resources. With the financial support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Nile-SEC will implement its first groundwater study project with the objective of enhancing knowledge and capacity for sustainable use and management of trans-boundary aquifers and aquifers of regional significance in the Nile Basin. This project will also enhance the understanding of the implications of impacts of potential climate change scenarios on the overall basin surface and groundwater resources in the Nile. The socioeconomic context is also an important issue in groundwater management for sustainable use and protection that needs to be properly addressed through stakeholder’s engagement in a participatory approach for adequate groundwater management systems.

Introduction:

The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) is a cooperative arrangement initiated and led by the Nile riparian countries to promote joint development, protection, and management of the common Nile Basin water resources. With the financial support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Nile-SEC will implement its first groundwater study project with the objective of enhancing knowledge and capacity for sustainable use and management of trans-boundary aquifers and aquifers of regional significance in the Nile Basin. This project will also enhance the understanding of the implications of impacts of potential climate change scenarios on the overall basin surface and groundwater resources in the Nile. The socioeconomic context is also an important issue in groundwater management for sustainable use and protection that needs to be properly addressed through stakeholder’s engagement in a participatory approach for adequate groundwater management systems.

Background:

Three aquifer areas have been chosen for the current intervention, namely the Kagera aquifer shared among Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda; the Mt Elgon aquifer shared between Kenya and Uganda; and the Gedaref-Adigrat aquifer shared between Ethiopia and Sudan. The aquifers are in diverse ecological zones ranging between arid, semi-arid and tropical. This project is described briefly as follows: –

Project objective: To enhance knowledge and capacity for sustainable use and management of trans-boundary aquifers and aquifers of regional significance in the Nile Basin

Assignment Details

Consultancy/Assignment Objectives:

• Regional technicians, academics, and senior planners at national, sub-regional and regional levels will be capacitated on key requisite techniques on groundwater governance tools and policy making methods for sustainable management.
• Regional decision makers will have increased their understanding on the importance of groundwater and capacitated to develop and adopt recommendations emerging from the analyses related to groundwater governance and conjunctive management facilitating policies.
• Regional decision makers will recognize groundwater as a potential recourse buffering climate change impacts when sustainably managed
• Regional decision makers will recognize the importance of awareness issues associated with groundwater management policies.

Consultancy/Assignment Scope

• The Consultancy Firm will prepare training modules and conduct (2 days) regional training on Transboundary Groundwater Governance. The Preparation of Training Modules will build on the Shared Aquifer Diagnostic Analysis Report (SADA) that was prepared by NBI International consultants.
• The Consultancy Firm will design training modules that will address shared groundwater resources governance issues taking in consideration both technical and policy making aspects.
• This training will be designed to address regional decision makers, technicians, academics, and leadership in communities) and assist with sector-specific training for policy makers, researchers, NGOs, and private sector.
• The designed training should be tailored to aid the post-project sustainability and to support the use and protection of groundwater resources regionally.

Assignment outputs

The consultant shall prepare:

1. The Consultancy Firm will in 10-days, design a training module to address shared groundwater resources management and governance issues in The Nile Basin, taking into consideration both technical and policy making aspects and conduct a 2-days regional training.
2. The Consultancy Firm will provide a detailed report on training workshop satisfaction and evaluation proof.

Expected Outcome of the Assignment:

• The final outcomes of this consultancy service will include: –
• A designed regional training modules on groundwater resources management and governance issues taking in consideration both technical and policy making aspects.
• A 2-days regional training to address the shared groundwater resources management and governance issues taking in consideration both technical and policy making aspects.
• A detailed report on the consultancy service design, workshop concept, delivery, and training satisfaction evaluation proof.

Details of the assignment can be found by downloading the terms of reference here