To officially close the current phase of the project titled Knowledge Networks for the Nile Basin, NBCBN organized jointly with the Hydraulics Research Institute (The hosting of the network secretariat) and UNESCO-IHE a regional conference from 28^th -30^th November 2010 in Cairo, Egypt.

The conference aimed at bringing knowledge providers and knowledge users from the Nile region into one forum to exchange and share their knowledge on the current and future demands of the Nile water sector and to set priorities for capacity development activities in the near future.

The general objective of this Conference was to share experiences, to evaluate and to prepare with colleague experts from the NBCBN network, NBCBN network secretariat and UNESCO-IHE the past achievements, the current status and future directions for the NBCBN water professionals network.

The conference was a platform to present the output of the applied research component of the network activities. 23 research projects that have been implemented during the last phase were presented. The conference focused also on how capacity development can be further mainstreamed in the Nile basin in future and to develop innovative ideas to design the way forward towards sustainability in strengthening the capacity of the Nile Water professionals and institutions.

The important recommendation of the conference was the urgent need to extend and continue the network activities in a future phase. New research topics were suggested for next phase with a focus on climate change. More concrete activities on education and specialised training were recommended for future activities of the network.

Recognising the important role of NBCBN in capacity building of water professionals for the last ten years, the Dutch government appreciated the network activities and its role in the basin and showed its willingliness to support further the continuation of the network activities. The network will continue its activities in a bridging period until end of 2011. During this period NBCBN-SEC and Management Team will work on the preparation of the next phase proposal of the network 2012-2015 that will take into consideration all the recommendations from the conference.

Finally and based on the recommendations of the conference participants, Eng. Amel Azab, the network manager, announced for the; First NBCBN Nile symposium 2011-2012. More information regarding the Nile symposium will come soon.

For the conference outputs and publications, check the conference website and NBCBN platform.

NBCBN-SEC organized in collaboration with the Water Resources and Environmental Management (WREM) Project of UNESCO-IHE hosted by the National University of Rwanda (NUR) a regional workshop on “Capacity Building and Knowledge Sharing in: Water Resources & Environmental Management” for the three countries: Rwanda, Burundi and D.R. Congo in the period from 1-3 December 2009, Kigali, Rwanda. The main idea of this workshop was to assist the researchers and professionals from those countries to share their knowledge and to develop collaborative regional training and research activities.

For NBCBN, the main objective of this joint regional workshop is to have a common platform for the three countries to discuss their common research interests, and to initiate ideas for Sub-regional capacity building and cooperation activities. Another important objective is to share and exchange knowledge and experiences with the WREM alumni group. For WREM the main idea of co-organizing this workshop is to mark the conclusion of a 4 years project to develop and implement an MSc course in Water Resources and Environmental Management at the National University of Rwanda. The workshop was a discussion platform for all alumni graduated through this MSc program. The main workshop topics were:

• Small hydropower Development
• Flood, erosion and sedimentation
• Environmental aspects of Water Related Projects

These topics were selected based on the main interest of the network nodes members in these countries and being the main important and common problems that needs more focus and support.

As a conclusion, the workshop and its outcomes were highly appreciated by the participants. The idea to gather these three countries and to initiate the idea of the sub-regional cooperation for the common problems was very successful.

It was recognized that the participants have the wellness for this regional cooperation in order to exchange and gain more information to build their capacities, and to contributes in solving the problems facing their countries.