A major water governance concern is how to coordinate the complex relationships of the water, food, and energy sectors and the resulting economic, social, and environmental consequences. Focusing on the challenges in one sector (e.g. water shortage in the water sector) and making decisions without considering other sectors will not solve these problems; rather, it will create a new problem (the decline of food production) in the food sectors. The nexus approach is a novel method to represent the interrelated challenges of the water, food, and energy sectors by considering the sectors’ policies to achieve sustainable development. The present study analyzes the social network of nexus actors in the Yazd-Ardakan aquifer, Yazd province, Iran. For this purpose, 54 partners in the nexus network were first identified in various public, private, semi-private and non-governmental organizations. Three types of interactions (knowledge and information exchange, budget transfer, and collaboration) were analyzed among the actors. The actor-network was, then, assessed at the levels of the entire network and individual actors. Then, a coherence analysis was performed by the density index at the entire network level, and the power analysis was carried out using in-degree, out-degree, betweenness, closeness, and eigenvector centrality indices at the individual actor level. Social network analysis criteria were, then, incorporated with the multi-criteria decision-making model ELECTRE I to select the key and powerful actors in the nexus network. Next, the powerful actors were identified and introduced with respect to 15 criteria employed in the social network analysis. According to the results, the power structure in the nexus network of the research area is not at equilibrium. Most of the power lies with the public sector. The water, food, and energy sectors act alone and they do not exploit their maximum organizational capacities to establish relationships with one another.

This document presents the key findings of the evaluation of an integrated agricultural production and water management project implemented by IFAD in Netrakona district, in northern Bangladesh. The aim of this eight-year project was to boost the incomes and food security of small farm households and arrest their decline into marginalisation and landlessness.Outcomes of the project include: sustainable changes have been brought about by the projectimpact surveys show that 85% of respondents now use the skills and knowledge they received from training and will continue to do sobetween 1995 and 2000 the amount of land used to grow vegetables increased by 186% from 2,750 to 8,950 hectaresnew training and community centres facilitate communication on marketing issues or availability of social servicesimplementation was not participatory: greater expertise in participatory development and group mobilisation is needed in future projects of this kindthe potential for livestock development should be given higher priority and where NGOs are involved in government projects more effective coordination between the two is vital.Key insights from the evaluation include:lack of credit for small farmers is a constraint to agricultural development and needs strengtheningparticipation is the key to people-centred development yet it was understood differently by various partners. Greater expertise and knowledge of participatory development and social mobilisation during the planning stages would ensure that sound concepts and implementation strategies are adopted from the outsetstronger project design such as the flexibility to modify project activities during implementation, if necessary, would ensure greater impact.[adapted from author]