The Growth Engine for Africa— From a Water Perspective

Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Boston

As we peer into the future, there are a number of development challenges that require an exploration of the interconnections among water, energy, and food.  Countries still struggling with provision of basic services and that have not yet adapted well to historical climate variability face the additional challenges of growing needs and climate change.  Several regions in the world are facing unprecedented challenges in frequent and severe drought, water security, high energy production costs, food security and evolving climate conditions to countries of high and low GDP alike.  These changes are not merely limited to the biophysical ecosystems, but also socio-economic systems in complex ways.  This has real impact on local and regional economic value added and at a larger scale on the country’s GDP.  These different aspects are converging within the Nexus of Water-Energy-Food. The application of these approaches to address the Nexus manifest itself through three sectoral approaches: water resources, energy production and agriculture development.

However, there are many evolving opportunities to address these challenges from global to local levels – ranging from new approaches relating to open data and integrated systems analysis to new technologies and investment paradigms that recognize this nexus. 

The objective of this round table is to present the varied multi-sectoral perspectives required to address the challenges of this nexus – with practical case studies related to water resources optimisation, energy efficiency, and analyzing the Water-Energy-Food nexus.  The case studies will illustrate the interaction among the different components of the Nexus and how they are intertwined in different contexts.

An improved understanding of this Nexus can be used at different decision making levels, impacting household consumption, agriculture development and industrial processes.  Such analyses would help decision makers to better shape policies and develop sustainable plans for water allocation and energy production.  A shared understanding of these multi-sectoral inter-linkages is critical to crafting sustainable socio-economic development solutions. Moving forward, the WEF nexus provides an effective approach for government, industry, academia, and civil society to enhance and sustain natural resource and agricultural productivity and resilience.

The round table starts with a keynote opening by Prof. Peter Rogers on understanding the Water-Energy-Food Nexus.  Then, the program features experts and policymakers in the field of water, energy and agriculture, sharing practical cases, including: the application of modern data and analytical approaches to integrated watershed management, Harvard Pilot Project on water conservation, desalinization for resource optimisation, and WEF application through the OCP process.  Finally, the discussion session and conclusions will pave the way to new projects and to outline the main aspects of a water-energy initiative between Harvard, the OCP Policy Center, and the University Mohamed VI Polytechnique.