Project Partners

IAEA, UNESCO, Countries, Joint Authority

IAEA

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) serves as ‘Executing Agency’ for the project. This entails responsibility for overall project management including the recruitment of a project manager, assuring that the project delivers the expected results and working directly with the four countries. It will also lead the technical components of the project given its expertise in the groundwater sector and utilization of cutting-edge isotope techniques.

The IAEA has already been involved in numerous technical assistance projects for the NSAS countries, both at the national and regional levels, as well as in groundwater and water management projects in other parts of the world. It is therefore ideally placed to take on the management of this project and to ensure that the efforts of all of the partners are targeted, synergized and optimized.

UNESCO

As a ‘Cooperating Organization’, UNESCO will guide the implementation of the legal component of the project. UNESCO is an UN organization with extensive experience with international basin agreements and in codifying international groundwater law. Via the ‘International Shared Aquifer Resource Management’ (ISARM) initiative, UNESCO is currently providing technical and legal advice to the UN International Legal Commission (ILC) responsible for the formulation of a Convention on International Groundwater.

Countries

The four NSAS countries are the main beneficiaries of the Nubian Project. They are responsible for implementing activities at the national level and agreed to actively contribute to the project and provide institutional and financial support (according to the already agreed amount of co-funding). Unless the project is country-supported and country-driven, its outputs will not be optimal. In many respects, the Nubian Project is a test case as to what extent the four NSAS countries can further their cooperation and joint activities.

Each country will identify their National Focal Institutions and National Project Coordinators (NPCs), establish and coordinate national inter-ministerial committees and coordinate the necessary national expert teams. The National Focal Institutions are:

• Chad: The Direction de l’Hydraulique/Ministere de l’Environnement et de l’Eau

• Egypt: Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation

• Libya: General Water Authority

• Sudan: Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources

Joint Authority

The NSAS Joint Authority will provide the institutional framework at the regional level and has an important role in project implementation.