A.  Preparatory, operational and extension phases

   Project design calls for all aspects of the research programme to be conducted in full collaboration with the national fisheries authorities and institutes of the respective lacustrine States i.e. the Département des Eaux, Pêches et Pisciculture in Bujumbura (Burundi), Service National de Développement de la Pêche and Centre de Recherche en Hydrobiologie (DRC), Department of Fisheries and the Tanzanian Fisheries Research Institute (Tanzania), and Department of Fisheries (Zambia). The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations serves as the project's executing agency and the University of Kuopio, Finland, as its Scientific Coordination Unit. Field activities are managed from LTR Headquarters in Bujumbura by the Project Coordinator.

   Two permanent committees were established in early 1992 to ensure the direct participation in the project by the four States. The LTR Coordination Committee and the LTR International Scientific Committee both have an advisory and liaison function with respect to the project's programmes of work and the relevance of these to the national policies of fisheries development. A total of seven Joint Meetings of the LTR Committees have been held as follows:

• First Joint Meeting in Bujumbura, Burundi (20-22.05.1992);
• Second Joint Meeting in Lusaka, Zambia (14-15.10.1993)*;
• Third Joint Meeting in Kigoma, Tanzania (28-30.11.1994);
• Fourth Joint Meeting in Bujumbura, Burundi (15-17.11.1995);
• Fifth Joint Meeting in Rome, Italy (25-26.11.1996)*;
• Sixth Joint Meeting in Lusaka, Zambia (22-23.06.1998); and
• Seventh Joint Meeting in Lusaka, Zambia (18-21.05.1999)*