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FAQ's
Commissioners are appointed by their country governments from the ranks of senior officials, usually at the level of national director or permanent secretary. The Commissioners can be permanent or non-permanent members. Appointment of permanent members is for the duration of the official's government post. The Commission has an annual statutory meeting, with provision for extraordinary meetings.
OBSC members are technocrats selected from relevant departments of national governments and meet twice a year, also with provision for extraordinary meetings. Task forces and project management committees meet on demand, but task forces usually have their major meetings each year in May before the OKACOM annual meeting. The location of meetings rotates among the three countries.
OKACOM's work is advisory in nature and is guided through meetings of the Commission and the Okavango Basin Steering Committee (OBSC). It is informed by the technical advice of its task forces and special advisors which are representative of all 3 member states. OKACOM's Secretariat provides day to day support for the Commission's work, including partner organizations, projects funding and carry out activities on the ground to implement the Cubango-Okavango Strategic Action Programme.
The Secretariat was established in 2007 as an internal organ of OKACOM to implement decisions of the Commission. This was done when the three contracting parties (member states) signed a new agreement for the organizational structure for the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission, establishing the Secretariat , along with the Commission and the OBSC. The Secretariat is responsible for providing administrative, financial and general secretarial services to OKACOM as well as leading information sharing and communication on behalf of the Commission. It was agreed that Botswana would be the first host for the Secretariat in 2008, initially set up offices in Maun, headed by an Executive Secretary. The office later moved to Gaborone where it is currently located.
The Cubango - Okavango River flows from the highlands of Angola, through Namibia and into Botswana, where it forms the Okavango Delta. The basin consists of the areas drained by the Cubango, Cutato, Cuchi, Cuvelei, Cuebe, Cueio, Cuatir, Luassinga, Longa, Cuiriri and Cuito Rivers in Angola, the Kavango River in Namibia and the Okavango Delta in Botswana. The river plays an important role not only in the lives of local populations residing along the river, but also at national level. Water-based tourism is the second largest foreign currency earner for Botswana, and most tourism activities are centered on the delta system, which forms part of the larger Okavango River system.
The river sustains over half a million people who use the plant and animal resources found in the river to support livelihoods. For Namibia, the "Kavango River" as it is known in that region, drains along the town of Rundu and provides support to riparian communities' livelihoods through a diverse set of ecosystem goods and services. The Okavango Delta has rich biological diversity and is internationally recognized as a site of ecological importance. It has, as a result, been declared a RAMSAR Site (a wetland of international importance).
OKACOM is the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission established through the OKACOM Agreement signed on 15 September 1994 between the Governments of the Republics of Angola, Botswana and Namibia. The OKACOM Agreement (1994) commits the member states to promote coordinated and environmentally sustainable regional water resources management of the Cubango-Okavango River Basin which is situated across those 3 states. OKACOM's main mandate is "to act as technical advisor to the Contracting Parties (the Governments of the three states) on matters relating to the conservation, development and utilisation of the resources of common interest to the Contracting Parties..."
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Photo Credit: Kostatin Luchansky, National Geographic, Okavango Wilderness Project.
