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SFS-MED Webinar: Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus to increase food systems' resilience to climate change and conflict's cascading effects in the Mediterranean region

The webinar will bring together stakeholders from across the Mediterranean to share practical experiences of their engagement in adopting WEFE Nexus solutions and demonstrate the more comprehensive socio-economic benefits of their proposed practices on the food system at large, going beyond a fragmented system of sectors and players. Stakeholders will share case studies and tangible examples of WEFE Nexus technical solutions applied in the Mediterranean region, with emphasis on the MENA, reflect on success factors and challenges, and discuss ways to facilitate replication and upscaling solutions across the Mediterranean, and influence policy change. Particular focus will be given to the participation of stakeholders involved in WEFE Nexus demonstration sites.

The webinar will aim to address a key question: how could the application of the WEFE nexus influence food systems transformation in the Mediterranean, towards increased resilience to climate change and conflicts?

Climate change affects the Mediterranean region significantly more than the world average, endangering the sustainable provision of water, energy, food and ecosystem services. Furthermore, the unfolding crisis in Ukraine and the ongoing fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic have disrupted commodity markets and threatened global food security, jeopardising sustainable development and resource efficiency in the specific hard-hit Mediterranean. Addressing this situation effectively necessitates urgent, deeper, and more substantial transformation to sustainable food systems.

In this context, a holistic, integrated and transversal approach to resource management represented by the WEFE Nexus is pivotal to a successful transition to a green economy and sustainable development. Interlinkages across sectors (water, food, energy) and the natural resources base (water, land, soils) are understood but not adequately reflected in policies. Despite its potential, full adoption of the Nexus approach has been hindered by a lack of actionable strategies and effective governance to guide its deployment on the ground.

Experts and ministerial representatives from the Mediterranean countries have recognised the urgency of congregating scientists and stakeholders in a Mediterranean WEFE Nexus Community of Practice (NCoP) to ensure that nexus solutions emerging from research and innovation activities can be applied broadly across the region.

Increasing food insecurity in the region, further aggravated in the post-COVID-19 context and by the cascading impacts of the recent Ukrainian war, presents a timely need and opportunity to showcase solutions with tangible impact on the sustainability of food systems and concrete opportunities for securing food supplies, preventing a looming food crisis.

 

The outcome document of this webinar is published at this link and the recording is available here below:

Published on June 22, 2022
Event start date
07:00 am
06/07/2022
Event end date
08:30 am
06/07/2022
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