The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is developing an Approach to assess and manage the water-energy-food nexus. The Sahara Forest Project is case study in FAO’s key publication: “Walking the Nexus Talk: Assessing the Water-Energy-Food Nexus in the Context of the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative”.
The FAO report, featuring the Sahara Forest Project, shows how to carry out a water-energy-food nexus assessment approach to understand the interactions between water, energy and food systems and evaluate the performance of a technical or policy intervention.
A valuable tool
“This new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations will be a valuable tool in future assessments of the water-energy-food nexus”, says Joakim Hauge, CEO of The Sahara Forest Project.
The FAO report proposes how a nexus approach can be used by stakeholders concerned with the development and management of resources, and in line with the global sustainability agenda.
Help for decision makers
“We live in times of growing competition for natural resources. Highlighting the interdependencies of the water-energy-food nexus is necessary not only to develop better policies but also to improve resource and economic efficiency in the private sector”, says Joakim Hauge.
“Due to global transformational trends, such as population growth, economic development and climate change, energy, water, land and human resources are increasingly under pressure to support societal development and to maintain necessary services. Decision makers need improved tools in order to be better informed about trade-offs and synergies between different development and management choices, and to help them identify options on how to sustainably manage resources”, the FAO report states.
Concrete case
“This case study (The Sahara Forest Project) illustrates how an integrated food production facility grows high-quality and diverse food productions in desert areas, minimizing energy and freshwater needs”, says the introduction to The Sahara Forest Project chapter.
“The report is entitled “Walking the Nexus Talk”. We are proud that The Sahara Forest Project is brought forward as a concrete case for delivering on this message”, Joakim Hauge says.
FAO’s ultimate goal of the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus assessment is to inform nexus-related responses in terms of strategies, policy measures, planning and institutional set-up or interventions.
The “Walking the Nexus Talk: Assessing the Water-Energy-Food Nexus in the Context of the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative” can be downloaded here:http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3959e.pdf
