Challenges for the practical implementation of the water-food-energy nexus

So far throughout the previous entries I have explained what the Water-Energy-Food Nexus consists of, how the uncertain future climate plays an important role in this nexus and looked at specific aspects of it such as the power sector and the improvement of water accessibility. This has all been done from a theoretical perspective and there is a reason for this. The WEF Nexus is a tool for policy makers to come up with sustainable policy decisions to promote sustainable development and poverty reduction (MED Spring, 2015) but it is still in development and more research is needed. 

Not everything is a straight path. There are numerous challenges and barriers that need to be discussed and overcome so that the Nexus approach does not end up seen as a utopia.

The Geography Compass Journal has published an article called “Tracing the Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Description, Theory and Practise” that exposes the underlying challenges and complexities of the practicality of the nexus approach that aims to raise awareness of the level of engagement needed from all the participants in order for this to be successful realistically.

• Resource insecurities and the drives are steep in uncertainty and resources interconnections    are highly complex. Uncertainties about social and economical futures worsens the situation
• Expertise and institutional capacity are not yet sufficient for supporting the nexus dialogue
• Often, when trying to implement the nexus approach we fall into encompassing only two sides of the three-way nexus such as energy for water.
• Resource allocation is often linked to political processes that are normally neglected and under presented in nexus modelling. If we want this approach to be a useful framework political economy must be more explicitly addressed.
• Normally the approach is seen as a top-down approach. Consequently, the household and village level (especially in rural contexts) is at risk of not being taken into consideration.
• There are historical vertically structured government departments and sector based structures of agencies that complicate the coordination for a cross-sectorial integration.
• Responsibilities for different elements of the nexus are situated within different government bodies and at different scales of decision-making and special scales.
• New institutional arrangements and administrative reforms may be necessary for advancing the nexus agenda but already established institutional arrangements can be highly resistant to change.

However, every cloud has at silver lining and the Global Green Growth Institute has published a paper called “Thinking to practise: Applying complexity. The Water-Food-Energy Nexus in Global Drylands” that looks into the case of Ethiopia and how the nexus approach can be used to help find a solution for the water, food and energy security.

This paper, apart from discussing the barriers of the nexus approach, it also bring some light into the discussion and gives some guide to how governments should behave towards such a complex issue.

1)    Perfect solutions are impossible to achieve when such complex and interconnected issues are discussed, therefore, stakeholders should focus on supporting and improving “good enough” decision making that can be put into action.  What this means is that what needs to be done is to develop objectives that are technically appropriate but also good enough to be tolerated by those who have the power to prevent the implementation.

2)     There should be a great focus on identifying and addressing bottlenecks to delivery. One question that could be asked could be “What are the root causes that hold back progress?

3)  The delivery system has to be more flexible to improve decision making by strengthening feedback loops on performance. This will create projects that are able to respond to local problems and be able to deviate from what was stipulated at first in order to adapt to the new circumstances.

Discussion

The outlook is very challenging but, in my opinion, throughout history every change is always seen impossible to achieve. Who was going to tell us that the world was going to be as connected as it is 50 years ago? No one. The nexus approach is a very innovative idea that needs patience and engagement from everyone in order to be successful. Maybe the institutions don't currently have the capabilities to adapt and to change but these capabilities can be learnt. Maybe what history shows us about governments seeking their own benefit its true, but we’ve come to a point where “their own benefits” need to be aligned with society benefits to guarantee resources security in the future. Lastly you maybe can allege I am being naïve but I believe that if we manage to make the nexus approach implementable, it would be an enormous step forward towards achieving sustainable development.