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Researchers from SEI Africa and the Centre for Training and Integrated Research in ASAL Development (CETRAD), will present how the Water-Energy-Food Nexus framework can promote Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EbA), with demonstrated experience from the ongoing project, ‘Applying the Water-Energy-Food Nexus to Promote Ecosystem-Based Adaptation in the Ewaso Ng’iro North Catchment, Kenya’ at the Workshop for Accelerating Progress on the Water-energy-food-ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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The year 2025 marks a decade since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, yet Africa’s progress on the SDGs remains slow. The 2024 Africa Sustainable Development Report highlights that only 6% of SDG targets are on track, with increasing poverty, hunger, and climate vulnerability posing significant challenges. The water-energy-food-ecosystems (WEFE) nexus presents a crucial approach for integrated resource management, promoting synergies between key sectors to accelerate sustainable development. However, Africa continues to struggle with weak cross-sector coordination, underfunded energy investments, and growing climate-related risks.
Advancing SDG 6 (water) and SDG 7 (energy) requires a whole-of-government approach, strong governance frameworks, and increased investment in sustainable solutions such as hydropower and renewable energy. With agriculture being the largest water consumer in Africa, policies must ensure efficient water use as energy access expands. Climate change further exacerbates these challenges, impacting food security, ecosystems, and vulnerable communities, especially women.
To address these issues, regional collaboration is essential. Some African nations, in partnership with UN agencies, are implementing integrated climate, land, energy, and water system (CLEWs) modeling to align SDG progress with the Paris Agreement. Despite Africa’s vast renewable energy potential, it has received only 2% of global renewable energy investments in the past two decades. Scaling up financing and policy action on the WEFE nexus will be key to ensuring a climate-resilient, sustainable future.
This regional workshop will showcase success stories, identify barriers, and explore transformative solutions for accelerating SDG progress. Discussions will focus on governance, inter-ministerial coordination, policy action, and climate finance, aiming to strengthen future strategies for implementing the WEFE nexus across Africa.
The objectives of the workshop are to:
The workshop opening sessions will review the current international and regional frameworks and stocktaking of regional progress related to WEFE.
The rest of the Workshop will consist of several sessions reviewing progress on the nexus issues in line with SDGs 2, 6, 7, 15 and 17, as well as interlinkages with all other SDGs to implement the nexus for accelerated action in line with systems-thinking. The sessions will be composed of presentations by national representatives, international experts, scholars, practitioners, and actors, followed by Q&A and discussions. While most of the sessions will take place in plenary, group work and breakout sessions may also be used as needed.
The Workshop participants will primarily include policymakers at all levels, as well as civil society, local communities, youth, academia, and the private sector. Country delegations will be composed of inter-ministerial representatives and/or national focal points designated for WEFE nexus or SDG coordination.
The Workshop will focus on sub-Saharan African countries, with a particular focus on LDCs, LLDCs, SIDS, and countries emerging from conflict.
The Workshop will develop key messages that participants would like to convey to the international community regarding the successes, lessons learned and good practices they identified concerning the implementation of the selected SDGs, as well as the main theme of the Workshop. In addition, a Workshop Report documenting the presentations and discussions on the entire integrated agenda will be produced. Both the key messages and the report will be published and posted on UNOSD’s Website.
The Workshop is organized by the United Nations Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD) of UN DESA, Division for Sustainable Development Goals (UN DESA-DSDG) in cooperation with UNECA and UNESCO, and in coordination with UN RCOs/UNCTs, African Union programmes, and the Opportunities and Issue-based Coalition 4 (OIBC4) on climate change in the region.
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