About the workshop

As a follow up to the webinar “The WEFE nexus approach: International experiences and potential for the Hindu Kush Himalaya” held on 11 August 2021, we are organizing a half-day workshop to explore the potential for implementation of the water-energy-food-ecosystem (WEFE) nexus approach in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH).

We are organising the workshop in collaboration with the Transboundary Rivers of South Asia (TROSA), OXFAM, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Water Convention, to explore the potential for implementation of the water-energy-food-ecosystem (WEFE) nexus approach in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH). TROSA is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

Objectives

• Further concretize the framework for the WEFE nexus implementation in the HKH
• Discuss the methodology for its implementation
• Identify potential areas/sites for its implementation in HKH

Participants

The webinar is targeted to a select group of experts, managers, and practitioners involved in the WEFE nexus for the HKH region and beyond.

Background

The interlinkages among water, energy, and food have been acknowledged within the WEF nexus approach. More recently practitioners and researchers have highlighted the key role of ecosystems in this nexus due to their intermediary role among the water, energy, and food components and their strong linkages with each individual component. The approach highlights potential synergies and identifies critical conflicts between components.

The WEFE nexus also includes the main drivers of climate change – agriculture and energy for food security, and the main affected sectors – water and environment. So, to mitigate climate change, the WEFE nexus approach needs to be mainstreamed into development policy, planning and practice?

Challenges related to data, information, and knowledge gaps in the nexus interlinkages, and issues concerning operationalisation of the nexus approach are particularly relevant to the HKH region. Furthermore, the ability to unpack the nexus has often been limited by the lack of systematic tools that efficiently improve on the opportunities from interlinkages between its components and regulates conflicting outcomes from the trade-offs amongst them.