The African Great Lakes Conference benefits from a wide range of partners, each playing a key role to make the Conference, and its linked information platform, a success.
If you represent an entity that would like to join the growing list of partners below, please click here for more information, or contact Dr. Modesta Medard, African Great Lakes Project Manager.
Funding Partners
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation supports creative people, effective institutions, and influential networks building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. MacArthur is placing a few big bets that truly significant progress is possible on some of the world’s most pressing social challenges, including global climate change, nuclear risk, and significantly increasing financial capital for the social sector. Now led by President Julia Stasch, MacArthur is one of the nation’s largest independent foundations, supporting organizations that work in about 50 countries around the world.
Founded in 2000, the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund is a global leader in enabling civil society to participate in and benefit from conserving some of the world’s most critical ecosystems. CEPF provides grants for non-governmental and private sector organizations to help protect biodiversity hotspots, Earth’s most biologically rich yet threatened areas. CEPF is a joint initiative of l’Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International, the European Union, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment. UNEP work encompasses 1) assessing global, regional and national environmental conditions and trends, 2) developing international and national environmental instruments and 3)strengthening institutions for the wise management of the environment.
Lead Organizing Partners
TNC is a global charitable environmental organization, with a mission to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends. TNC has proven expertise conducting large-scale ecological planning across watersheds and providing results to help policymakers and managers make science-based conservation and development decisions that benefit people and nature. In Africa, TNC has prioritized conservation efforts in the African Great Lakes Region, making its first investments on Lake Tanganyika working directly and supporting partners in the basin for nearly a decade.
LTA was established by the governments of Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Zambia and promotes the regional cooperation required for socio-economic development and sustainable management of the natural resources in the Lake Tanganyika basin. LTA works with TNC on fisheries co-management in Tanzania—including the Tuungane project—working at the village scale to help communities live healthier lives while protecting biodiversity.
Organizing Partners
Agricultural and Livestock Ministries/Departments from AGL countries
ARCOS is a non-governmental organization with the mission to enhance conservation of critical ecosystems and promote sustainable development in the Albertine Rift through collaborative actions between various partners in the region.
AU-IBAR provides leadership in the development of animal resources (including fish) for Africa. By supporting and empowering the African Union (AU) Member States and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), AU-IBAR’s vision is that of an Africa free from hunger and poverty in which animal resources make a significant contribution within the global arena.
BirdLife International is widely recognized as the world leader in bird conservation and uses a local-to-global approach to deliver high impact and long-term conservation for the benefit of nature and people. BirdLife International’s Africa Secretariat is acting as the Regional Implementation Team for CEPF’s East Afromontane hotspot.
EAC is a regional intergovernmental organization of five partner states, comprising Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, with the mission to widen and deepen economic, political, social and cultural integration in order to improve the quality of life of the people of East Africa through increased competitiveness, value added production, trade and investments.
FAO is the United Nation agency whose goal is to achieve food security for all—to make sure people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. Its three main strategic objectives are the eradication of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition; the elimination of poverty and the driving forward of economic and social progress for all; and, the sustainable management and utilization of natural resources, including land, water, air, climate and genetic resources for the benefit of present and future generations.
Environment Ministries/Departments from AGL countries
The Department of Fisheries, Malawi
The Department of Fisheries is mandated to protect and conserve the national fish heritage of Malawi through research and management for the development of the fishery sector in Malawi.
Fisheries Ministries/Departments/Research from AGL countries
Friends of Turkana is a non-profit organization focused on working with local partners on providing services in Turkana, an area in northwestern Kenya that is home to Lake Turkana, the world’s largest permanent desert lake.
International Lake Environment Committee (ILEC)
ILEC works to promote rational and sound management of lakes (natural and anthropogenic) and their catchment areas, consistent with sustainable development policies. In addition to maintaining the World Lake Database, ILEC is promoting Integrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM) in collaboration with partners throughout the world as the appropriate means of managing lakes and other lentic waterbodies for sustainable use of their ecosystem services for humanity and the environment.
INBO’s 168 members and permanent observers consist of basin organizations, government water administrations, as well as bi- and multi-lateral cooperation agencies that support the implementation of integrated water resources management in the basins of rivers, lakes and aquifers. It links basin organizations and other governmental agencies responsible for river basin management in order to promote exchanges of experience and expertise among them, and to develop effective tools for better water resources management at the transboundary, national and local levels.
Lake Kivu and Rusizi River Basin Authority (ABAKIR)
The Ministries of Water Resources Management in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda cooperatively formed the trilateral ABAKIR, focused on the sustainable and responsible management of waters of the Lake Kivu basin for the benefit of present and future generations within the region.
LVBC is an institution of the East African Community that is responsible for coordinating the sustainable development agenda of the Lake Victoria Basin. LVBC activities include efforts to harmonize policies and laws on the management of the environment in Lake Victoria and its catchment area, continue to manage and conserve aquatic resources, and boost the economic development of fishing, industry, agriculture and tourism. LVBC is committed to poverty eradication and the participation of local communities in its projects.
LVFO is an institution of the East African Community with the mandate to promote sustainable management and development of fisheries and aquaculture in the Lake Victoria region. It is composed of the fisheries management and research institutions in the EAC Partner States, and is coordinated by the Secretariat based in Jinja Uganda. LVFO adopted a co-management approach to fisheries management and thus has organized key stakeholders into legally recognized associations and networks. The fishing communities are organized into Beach Management Units (BMUs) and a Regional BMU Network while Fish Farmers and Fish Processors have National and Regional Associations. The LVFO Technical Committees bring on board these Networks and Associations as co-partners in decision making for the management of the fisheries resources. The LVFO strategic vision is to have a competitive and sustainable fisheries and aquaculture industry in the East African Community for food security and wealth creation.
NBI is a partnership of nine partner countries that provides a forum for cooperative development of the water resources of the Nile River. The shared NBI shared vision is to achieve sustainable socio-economic development through equitable utilization of, and benefit from, the common Nile Basin Water resources.
NELSAP is an investment program under the Nile Basin Initiative that promotes investments in power development, power transmission interconnection and power trade, water resources management, management of lakes and fisheries, agricultural development, and control of water hyacinth. In response to this mandate, the countries of the NELSAP have identified a number of projects to promote poverty alleviation, stimulate economic growth, and reverse environmental degradation in the sub-basin. The Nile Equatorial Lakes region includes the six countries in the southern portion of the Nile Basin—Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda—as well as downstream Egypt and Sudan.
PRB informs people around the world about population, health, and the environment, and empowers them to use that information to advance the well-being of current and future generations.
Research and Academic Institutions from AGL countries
The mission of the Copperbelt University is to contribute to the development and sustenance of the well-being of the people of Zambia and the world through the provision of flexible, innovative, entrepreneurial, inclusive programs of teaching, learning, research and service.
MWE has the responsibility for setting national policies and standards, managing and regulating water resources and determining priorities for water development and management. Its mission is to promote and ensure the rational and sustainable utilization, development and effective management of water and environment resources for socio-economic development of the country. The Ministry includes the Directorates of Water Resources Management, Water Development and Environmental Affairs.
The University of Burundi the main public university in Burundi, with over 13,000 students in eight faculties, including the Faculty of Agronomy and Bioengineering, as well as three institutes. The University of Burundi is part of the Inter-University Council for East Africa.
The University of Dar Es Salaam offers various academic programs leading to the award of certificates, diplomas, and degrees. 65 undergraduate degree programs are offered at various academic colleges and institutes. The university is part of the Inter-University Council for East Africa.
The University of Nairobi is considered to be the leading public university in Kenya and includes 35 faculties, schools, institutes and centers. The university is part of the Inter-University Council for East Africa.
Water Ministries/Departments from AGL countries
