Evidencing and showcasing the added value of the WEF Nexus approach
Water, Energy and Food (WEF) are vital resources for every human being and constitute driver forces for food security, income generation, and socio-economic development. As the world population surpasses 8 billion, the demand and consumption of such resources raises concomitantly. However, they are not unlimited, and cannot grow in the same pace as our society. Hence, an efficient resource use and management is essential to promote a sustainable growth and guarantee WEF availability for everyone.
The WEF Nexus provides an approach that aims at addressing these concerns through a sustainable and gender-oriented perspective. It considers the interlinkages that exist among WEF sectors and proposes solutions to maximize potential synergies while minimizing trade-offs. For instance, agriculture uses a major share of global freshwater resources, global energy consumption is used for food production and supply, and global power generation is water-intensive. Projects that consider such cross-sectoral perspective contribute to promoting efficiency and increasing access to clean energy while ensuring WEF-security in the long run.
— Antonio Levy, Regional Coordinator in Latin America and the Caribbean.The WEF Nexus is a novel approach that challenges the established sectoral silos of water, energy and food, in favor of a more collaborative analysis for developing wholistic solutions. It encompasses the efforts to promote ‘win-win’ solutions to the challenges brought forth at the intersection of these three sectors.
The benefits of the Nexus approach: beyond monetary terms
A WEF Nexus project improves synergies between at least two WEF sectors or increases the resource-use efficiency of at least one sector, without compromising others. Adopting such approach in decision making and economic activities can result in several benefits for society. It contributes to saving energy, time and inputs, thereby reflecting in higher revenues, income, profits and employment rates. Overall, the resulting improved efficiency can increase economic productive capacities and drive socio-economic welfare.
Such outcomes are among the core objectives of Nexus projects and constitute noticeable advantages over conventional sectoral projects. Thus, Nexus projects are often developed envisioning the highest impact rather than the highest profit. Their successful implementation hinges on policy makers and investors’ awareness on these benefits, in order to institutionalise the approach in their respective agendas, mobilize resources and scale up. However, providing an accurate measure for benefits that go beyond the monetary sphere is often challenging. It is therefore crucial to develop an appropriate methodology that allows quantifying these advantages, either in qualitative as in monetary terms, including market and non-market added value.