Abstract:
For many decades after independence, particularly since the 1980s, the African countries within the Nile River Basin have engaged in numerous bilateral and multilateral diplomatic initiatives in an attempt to resolve the long-standing dispute over the Nile River (Adar and Check 2011; Kimenyi and Mbaku 2015; Azarva 2011; Degefu 2003). The East African Com-munity (EAC) through its parliamentary body, the East African Legisla-tive Assembly (EALA), for example, has stated its position on the issue by suggesting that the 1929 Egypt-British treaty should be revoked to accom-modate the interests of the other riparian states (East African Community 2004). These developments as well as the evolving intra- and inter-state socio-economic and political needs of the eleven riparian countries of the River Nile Basin region—Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda—have led to many initiatives to resolve the long-standing dis-putes. The initiatives have eventually culminated into a recent broadly based Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA) also known as the Entebbe Treaty or Entebbe Agreement concluded in 2010 (Mekonnen 2010; Kimenyi and Mbaku 2015). The riparian states concluded the treaty in Entebbe, Uganda, where it was opened for signature. This study proceeds from the premise that regional organizations through their multilateral diplomacy can play useful contributory roles on international regime construction with potential ramifications thereof on regional stability.