Democratic Republic of Congo |
| Despite the absence of a DRC NDF, and while waiting for its establishment, some NGOs and CSOs of the Democratic Republic of Congo involved in the development of the Nile Basin established an Interim National Forum and an interim Steering Committee, comprising representatives of NGOs involved in the development of the Nile Basin activities. Given the immensity of the country and that the Congolese Nile Basin is located in the Eastern part of the country (about 2,500 km from Kinshasa, the capital city of the country), Dr Freddy Mbakata, a member of the DRC delegation to the NBD General Assembly, held in Nairobi in December 2003, was charged with mobilizing the stakeholders in the Congolese Nile Basin. In addition, Mr Juakali Kambale was engaged in mobilizing those who live in Kinshasa area and its surroundings and keeping contact with NBI institutions and government officials. The division of responsibilities was due to the particularly high cost of air travel within DRC. |
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Objectives |
| The main objective of the DRC NDF is to foster and develop awareness on the NBD and NBI, and to sensitize the general public to Nile Basin issues. Due to the large size of the country and recent political turmoil little attention has been paid to these important development issues. For a long time the eastern part of the country lived virtually separately from western DRC and it was very hard for people to organize effectively in addressing development issues. Under the ongoing peace process and subsequent national elections, the DRC NDF can now begin more constructively to involve civil society involvement in the NBI in DRC. |
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About DRC NDF |
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Current and Upcoming Activities The DRC NDF resource centre has been established and equipped with some of the necessary materials although they are still in the process of sourcing for more materials from different organizations. Contact has been made with the Parliament of DRC at two levels, national and provincial. At the National level, the NDF had to make a presentation on the NBD during a two days workshop organized with the National Parliament in Kinshasa, in October 2007. At the provincial level, DRCDF held a meeting with the parliamentarians of the province of North Kivu, Eastern DRC, in June 2007. It was a sensitization meeting on Nile issues in order to involve these parliamentarians at the provincial level as they are the elected representative of the people at the local level. According to DRC constitution, provinces are decentralized entities and are endowed with provincial governments and parliaments. Twenty parliamentarians out of 42, mostly those in charge of Environment and Infrastructures, participated in the meeting. Some were aware of the existence of the NBI but wanted not know what advantages DRC people are supposed to benefit from this regional institution. Their main concern was how to get hydropower energy in the DRC Nile Basin. It was agreed that this contact should be followed by others at a regular basis in order to raise awareness on Nile issues among these policy and decision makers in the provinces involved in the Nile basin development. At the next stage, the DRCNDF will target the parliamentarians of the Oriental Province, North Eastern DRC, in the city of Kisangani (more than 1000 km from Kinshasa). Having an already existing Media Network on the Nile created by the NBI, the DRCNDF has tried to enforce this network with more emphasis on media professionals operating in the DRC Nile basin area. Useful contacts have been developed with media professionals in each DRC Nile basin area focal zones of Goma (south), Butembo (middle) and Bunia (north). The objective was not only to get those media professionals informed on the Nile Basin issues and NBD/NBI activities but also to bring them to network throughout the Nile basin area and join the mainstream NMN. For obvious reasons, the media operating in the Nile basin area were delighted to network and popularize as much as they can the information from NBD/NBI and participate in feeding the NDF newsletter with articles from their respective areas. DRCNDF has tried to establish a partnership with some FM radios in the area. Realizing the need for resourceful people the DRCNDF has found it necessary to partner with university scientists for a partnership in collecting credible data in the DRC Nile basin. A one day workshop was held in Butembo in June 2007 with representatives of the Catholic University of Graben and Official University of Ruwenzori. The two universities have a department of Environment studies whose professors and researchers committed to work with the NDF in collecting scientific data related to Environment and Water Resources Management. |
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Contact DRC NDF |
| Kamate Kambere DRC National Discourse Forum, 15, Basoko Avenue-Nagliema, P.O.Box 13704, Kinshasa, DRC Tel: +243 81 5205175 Email: visskamy@yahoo.fr |
©2008
