ABSTRACT
Despite poverty, terrorism, and conflict in the West and Central Africa region, the Niger Basin Authority (NBA), created in 1964 and refunded in 1980, has a highly developed legal framework as well as strong planning, allocation, and monitoring instruments. In the absence of significant national financial resources, the NBA is increasingly called upon by its member states to attract donor funding for projects. For larger projects, interesting developments are moving the riparian countries towards possibly deeper cooperation and cost-benefit sharing, such as in the case of the Fomi dam in Guinea, where insufficient funding is pushing the government to seek a joint regional approach. This chapter focuses on the lack of financial resources as a possible driver of increased cooperation at basin/regional level with impacts on conflict prevention and conflict management.
