The consulting services are carried out in the context of the project “Support to the Integrated Management of Water Resources of Lake Kivu and Ruzizi River” which aims at improving the hydrological and operational management of the transboundary Lake Kivu and Ruzizi River Basin, adopting a Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus-based approach, and building on a sound understanding of the basin’s resources and their integrated management across sectors and national boundaries.

Water resources decision making and development across the basin remains determined by the national legislative and regulatory framework of each riparian state. Whilst each country has a solid legal framework for environmental and water resources management, land use planning and agricultural development, they do not provide a harmonised approach across the basin. This impedes the protection and conservation of the basin’s water resources, preventing integrated, sustainable management.

With the signature of the International Convention for the Integrated Management of the Water Resources of the Basin of Lake Kivu and the Ruzizi River in 2014, the authorities of Burundi, DR Congo and Rwanda created the Lake Kivu and Ruzizi River Authority (ABAKIR) to implement cooperation for the sustainable and equitable management of water resources and for an improved socio-economic integration between the three nations in the basin. The Convention also commits the three nations to “cooperate in the design and implementation of harmonized rules and standards applying to the management of water resources in the Basin.”

The services aim to support this commitment through the development of concrete recommendations for harmonized legal, regulatory, and/or policy framework minimum standards (depending on the appropriate case) from a basin perspective contained in a common orienting document, policy brief and fact sheet that can readily be used to inform policy development based on agreed good practice recommendations.