Africa Water Vision 2063: ANBO places basin organizations at the heart of action

On 7 August 2026, the African Network of Basin Organizations (ANBO) took part in a working meeting devoted to the development of the first Implementation Plan for the Africa Water Vision 2063, to strengthening the engagement of basin organizations in this process, and to ensuring alignment with the ANBO Strategy 2026-2035. The meeting notably brought together the ANBO Permanent Secretariat, its President and the AMCOW Secretariat.

At the heart of the discussions was a decisive challenge for the future of water governance in Africa: translating the continent’s ambition into concrete actions, investments and results at basin level. The Africa Water Vision 2063 embodies the ambition of a resilient Africa in which water contributes fully to development, integration, peace and prosperity.

For Mr Nabil Ben Khatra, Executive Secretary of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) and President of ANBO, basin organizations have a particular responsibility at this new stage. It is at their level that cooperation among States over shared resources becomes operational, that Integrated Water Resources Management is put into practice, and that common solutions can be developed for the benefit of territories and populations.

“Our collective responsibility is to ensure that the ANBO Strategy is fully aligned with the Africa Water Vision 2063 and contributes concretely to its implementation. These two frameworks are part of the same momentum: making Africa’s basins spaces for cooperation, investment, resilience and shared development,” he recalled.

This ambition underpins the ANBO Strategy 2026-2035, which aims to strengthen the Network institutionally, ensure that the voice and experience of basin organizations are better reflected in African water policies, and enhance its capacity to provide practical support to its members. It is built around resource mobilization, the development of sustainable and bankable projects, stronger climate resilience, the promotion of IWRM, capacity development and knowledge sharing.

The Africa Water Vision 2063 also recognizes the major role of transboundary basins in regional cooperation and integration, water diplomacy, peace and security. For ANBO, this calls for going further: strengthening basin institutions, better integrating their experience into continental decision-making, and creating the conditions needed to move from cooperation to investment.

The priority is now to ensure that basin organizations contribute fully to this new stage of Africa’s water agenda and have the institutional, technical and financial means required to fulfil their role. The Network intends to play its full part in turning the Africa Water Vision 2063 into reality and in making Africa’s basins genuine drivers of cooperation, innovation, investment, resilience and shared development.