Since 1996, FAO and the Government of Italy have been collaborating on an ambitious project along the basin of the world’s longest river. The “Information products for the Nile Basin Water Resource Management” was the sum total of three consecutive projects carried out with ten countries in the Nile Basin. In October 2011, the project officially concluded and was handed over to the Nile Basin Initiative, an intergovernmental organization created in 1999 and headquartered in Entebbe, Uganda. A video about the successes and lessons learned during the Nile basin project is also available on-line.

In this issue of the NR Newsletter, we welcome 2012 as the UN-declared International Year of Energy for All, an opportunity to concentrate global attention on the challenges facing both developed and developing countries when addressing access to and efficient use of sustainable energy sources. We also take a look at an interesting land tenure project that aims to bring advanced technology land registration systems to developing countries, through low-cost open-source software. And finally, we review lessons learned and major achievements of a successful transboundary water management project in the Nile Basin.