The FRIEND/Nile project was established by UNESCO in 1996 to improve understanding and management of the Nile River system through research and cooperation among Nile Basin countries. It established networks of water experts from six Nile countries and Flanders to conduct research on hydrologic modeling, erosion, stochastic modeling, ecohydrology, and integrated water resources management. Over 200 experts participated in activities like training, data collection, capacity building, and research. The project helped build relationships, exchange knowledge and hydrological data, and conduct over 50 joint research projects, providing an effective model for international cooperation on shared water resources.

1. UNESCO Cairo Office
Hydrology Programme
FRIEND/Nile: UNESCO Transboundary Water Experience
Executive Summary
The FRIEND (Flow Regimes from International and Experimental Network Data)
Project was first established by UNESCO as part of the International Hydrological
Programme (IHP). In general, the Global FRIEND project aims at creating the
necessary and sufficient knowledge in addition to understanding the flow regimes on
various scales based on regional data of experimental basins and hydrological
networks.
The FRIEND/Nile project is a member of the global FRIEND family. It was initiated
by UNESCO in March 1996. It aims at creating better understandings and
quantification of the river Nile system to enhance the management of the Nile water
resources and to improve the planning of water resources projects in the Nile Basin
countries through research, networking and regional cooperation. The project was
funded through the Flanders-UNESCO Science Fund-In-Trust cooperation during
the period 2002-2013.
Six Nile Basin countries have been actively contributing to the implementation of the
research activities of the project, namely: Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda,
Sudan and Egypt. However, the project is opened to all interested Nile basin
countries. The Water Resources Research Institute of Egypt is the overall
coordination center of the project.
Within the FRIEND/Nile project, a network of water resources experts in the Nile
basin and the Flemish community has been established. Five research teams have
been defined comprising researchers from the participating Nile Countries and
Flemish experts. The technical themes of FRIEND/Nile second phase (2006-2013)
are:
a. Hydrologic Modeling, coordinated by the University of Dar Es Salaam of
Tanzania;
b. Erosion and Sediment Transport Modeling, coordinated by the UNESCO-
Chair in Water Resources of Sudan;
c. Stochastic Modeling, coordinated by the University of Nairobi of Kenya;
d. Ecohydrology, coordinated by the Makerere University of Uganda; and
e. Integrated Water Resources Management, coordinated by the Water
Resources Research Institute of Egypt.
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2. The FRIEND/Nile project activities included the following activities:
• Training and exchange of experience
• Data acquisition for research implementation
• Institutional capacity building
• Joint research implementation
• Acquired knowledge and project outputs dissemination at national and
regional levels
• Quality Publication and Documentation
Over 200 experts from the Nile basin including project team members and a large
number of researchers in the participating countries in addition to the Flemish
counterparts have participated in the project activities. Female experts and young
scientists were involved in the project activities.
The project has provided new methodologies, tools, technologies, and software as
an effective approach for enhancing the institutional and human resources capacity
building in the field of the Nile Basin water resource management.
The available required data for the implementation of the research components of
the FRIEND/Nile components were collected and acquired through the research
team members in the participating countries.
Trust, confidence and better understandings have been built among the research
teams. The exchange of results among the different researchers has been a
successful exercise that has been achieved based on mutual trust and confidence
among the research teams in the course of the FRIEND/Nile project.
Furthermore, exchange of experience and hydrological knowledge between
researchers and scientists in the Nile countries and the Flemish community has
been achieved during the first phase of the FRIEND/Nile Project. Also, the project
enhanced the research cooperation between the implementing institutions in the Nile
basin countries in general and with the Flemish universities in particular. During the
period 2002-2013, about 50 research projects were jointly implemented by the
FRIEND/Nile research teams in the participating countries and the Flemish
counterparts. This is a good model for South-North and South-South cooperation
that has been envisaged as one of the main project objectives. It worth mentioning
that 22 technical papers were published in international previewed journals during
2006-2013; which is an indicator of the project work quality according to the
achieved capacity building.
Finally, it can be concluded that the FRIEND/Nile project has successfully achieved
the following results:
• improved institutional and human resources capacity building in the field of
water resources of the Nile basin countries;
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3. • fostered networking, regional cooperation and experience exchange among
water experts and institutions in the Nile basin countries;
• enhanced knowledge and understanding of the hydrological processes of the
River Nile;
• enhanced research cooperation among Nile Basin countries, through applied
hydrological research in priority areas identified by the participating countries;
and
• developed methodologies and promoted relevant applied hydrological research
in the Nile basin.
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