Water–Energy–Food Nexus Narratives and Resource Securities: A Global South Perspective provides a knowledge synthesis on the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus, focusing primarily on the global south. By presenting concepts, analytical tools, and case studies, the book serves as a practical resource for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in sustainability and functional roles across all three sectors. It addresses key issues related to data availability, tools, indices, metrics, and application across multiple scales, beginning with a summary of existing knowledge. Finally, it examines the WEF nexus, presents global insights, and discusses future considerations and implications. This book presents an overview of existing knowledge on the WEF nexus and examines how such research aligns with emerging global WEF nexus perspectives, making it ideal for professionals, government entities, private industry, and the general public.

This manual walks users through a programmatic process to develop the capacities of water-energy-food-ecosystems (WEFE) nexus actors, with an emphasis on women professionals. The program is designed to support diverse participants in navigating the complexities of managing the WEFE nexus in an integrated and equitable way to drive sustainable development efforts around the world. This manual describes the program structure and contents, along with clear guidance and practical facilitation strategies to enhance WEFE nexus knowledge and practices. While the program was developed in Nepal, the manual and the program it describes are intended for an international audience. As such, this program can serve as a flexible resource adaptable for a broad range of settings.

This learning module shows how gender equity and social inclusion (GESI) considerations can be identified and integrated in programmes and initiatives in the Water-Energy-Food Environment (WEFE) Nexus. Intentionally focusing on gender and social inclusion in designing, implementing and monitoring Water-Energy-Food Environment initiatives is critical to ensure that these initiatives benefit and do not harm women and other marginalised groups and communities. At the end of this module, learners will be able to: (1) Explain the importance of gender equity and social inclusion for achieving sustainable development outcomes in the WEFE Nexus, (2) Describe common gender and social inclusion challenges and issues that WEFE projects face, (3) Describe the main steps for better addressing gender and social inclusion considerations. This module is intended for a broad audience that is working on, or interested in, cross-sectoral issues around sustainable use of water, energy, food and ecosystems, including decision-makers in public and private sectors as well as from civil society, practitioners and project implementers, graduate students and researchers, and donors

This study investigates the determinants of access to safe water and reliable energy for households in Sudan using nationally representative data from a recent labor market survey. The results show that urbanization, education, and wealth significantly enhance the access households have to these essential services, while rural areas and less developed regions, particularly in the Darfur and Kordofan regions, face substantial challenges. Access to reliable energy correlates with better food security and health outcomes within households, and improved access to safe water significantly enhances the health of household members. Policy recommendations supported by these research results include targeted rural infrastructure investments, educational improvements, and regional interventions to address disparities in household access to safe water and reliable energy across Sudan.

With adverse impacts of climate change growing in number and intensity, there is an urgent need to reduce emissions from food systems to net zero. This can only be achieved if rural areas in low- and middle-income countries gain access to clean energy. A review of the research and capacity building contributions of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) over the last 10 years suggests important contributions in the areas of energy policy and energy investment planning, cost and feasibility frameworks, and business models for clean energy technology uptake. WLE has also conducted successful pilot projects on solar irrigation to provide an evidence base for scaling up innovative energy initiatives. Finally, the program also considered non-agricultural uses of energy where relevant to food systems, and implemented capacity building activities. Going forward, CGIAR has a key role to play in providing information, supporting access and piloting innovative, scalable clean energy interventions to support the achievement of multiple impacts for the poorest and most food-insecure women and men farmers and entrepreneurs.

The countries sharing the Niger River suffer from poor access to clean water and energy as well as food insecurity. The Niger River Basin Authority is tasked with advancing progress in all these areas while also reducing environmental degradation. To help the basin authority and its investors prioritize portfolio activities that support multiple securities of interest, we developed a mixed-methods approach that engaged basin countries in qualitatively ranking projects to meet energy, environmental and food security goals, complemented by quantitative modelling for the more complex ranking of water and environmental sustainability goals, necessitated by complex upstream–downstream linkages.