ICBA will help water-scarce countries improve the productivity, social equity and environmental sustainability of water use through an integrated water resource systems approach, with special emphasis on saline and marginal quality water.

A series of expert consultations initiated by the IDB in 1992 outlined the objectives and activities of the new institute. In November of that year, the IDB Board of Executive Directors approved financing for start-up operations. The Bank commissioned an international consulting firm to undertake a detailed feasibility study for the development of the center. The consultants identified the major irrigation and salinity problems in the Arabian Peninsula and determined that productive agriculture and effective greening projects could be conducted with highly saline irrigation water, particularly at salinities between 6,000 and 15,000 parts per million (ppm). They also found that little was known about salt-tolerant plants, and that adequate infrastructure for evaluating salt tolerance or for developing management strategies for effective use of saline irrigation was unavailable.    

A Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) was established to advise the consultant during the feasibility and development phases. The committee was comprised of members from Australia, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the UK and the USA. TAC ensured that ICBA would make major contributions to both its target countries and to global biosaline technology. It also helped develop the early phases of ICBA’s networking program.

Consultations between the Bank and the General Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) led to the selection of the UAE as host to the new center. In 1996, an agreement was signed between IDB and the Government of UAE, represented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, establishing ICBA as a formal entity. IDB also attracted additional financial support for the center from the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and the OPEC Fund. In 1997, the Municipality of Dubai donated 100 hectares of land at Al Ruwayyah, 23 km south of Dubai. The site was developed in 1997 and 1998, with 35 hectares being leveled and prepared for irrigation trials by the Municipality of Dubai. The remainder of the station has been kept in its original state of native rangeland.

Interviews for the initial professional staff positions were held in November 1998, and the first appointments were made in August 1999. The Center's first Director General, Dr Mohammad H Al-Attar, took up his post in September 1999. The initial work of this core group of staff was to develop the center's initial program of work and strategy.