event 03 jul. 2018

Policy Brief // Multi-stakeholder Dialogue: Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus and Implementing the SDGs

By Bassel Daher, Rabi H. Mohtar et al. This policy brief is a summary of the high-level WEF Nexus session at the World Water Forum in Brazil. This high-level panel complemented and built upon the earlier events to provide the opportunity for stakeholders outside of the water sector to engage in dialogue and address topics that cut across the multiple themes of the Brasilia Forum: water for energy, water for food, governance, financing, and communication.

Cover water energy food wef nexus and sdgs

The session included examples and discussions about the use of the tools of science and dialogue in pursuit of the implementation of SDGs. The lessons learned from the case studies presented, in the HLP and throughout the Forum, highlight the need for coherent, crosssectoral policies that achieve the closely related SDGs and WEF Nexus challenges they address. Stakeholder diversity and the cross-cutting topics facilitated a broader dialogue that extended beyond the scope of any single session. A primary objective of the coalition was to produce a policy brief to be used at the High Level Political Forum in July 2018, including recommendations for moving forward toward the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Key policy messages

  • The Water-Energy-Food Nexus Platform serves to identify and quantify synergies and competition across goals. It is specifically relevant to the implementation of SDGs 2, 6, and 7, and indirectly addresses all 17 SDGs.
  • Institutional Barriers impede implementation of SDGs: instructional structures and cross-institutional mechanisms are needed that allow and incentivize integrative planning and better coordination.
  • Science-Policy Communication requires the investment of time and effort to develop communication strategies at a level comparable to that devoted to modeling, quantification, and scenario development.
  • Transdisciplinary Research needs an honest investment in one-on-one relations that achieve common goals by working together to make the most of the synergy that arises from diversity.

Authors

  • Bassel Daher
  • Rabi H. Mohtar
  • Sarah Davidson
  • Katharine Cross
  • Louise Karlberg
  • Dominique Darmendrail
  • Carl J. Ganter
  • Jerson Kelman
  • Claudia Sadoff
  • Claude Nahon
  • Gustavo Fonseca
  • Jean Comby
  • Patrick Lavarde
  • Thadeu Abicalil
  • Lindsey Aldaco-Manner
  • Mary Schweitzer

Download

IWRA website

Published

July 2018

By

IWRA in association with WEF Nexus Consortium

In

IWRA Policy Brief No. 2

IWRA Policy Briefs are published by IWRA in association with IWRA partners. They aim to provide high quality analysis and practical recommendations for policy makers on important development issues. IWRA Policy Briefs are for the purpose of stimulating discussion and awareness; IWRA, as a neutral forum, does not necessarily endorse the views expressed.

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