Africa’s food system is unsustainable, with the number of people facing hunger and malnutrition continuing to increase. Climate variability and change are increasing risk and uncertainty, making it more challenging to stabilise the situation. While water plays a critical role in building resilient food systems, the interconnectedness of food systems with multiple other sectors, such as environment, biodiversity, and health, requires a nexus approach. The inadequacy of sector-based approaches to dealing with complex systemic problems is now widely recognised, with calls for systematic approaches, such as nexus planning, which consider broader systemic issues and promote a sustainable, equitable, inclusive transition and resilient food systems.
The systemic cross-sectoral nature and the intricate interdependencies and interactions of food systems require transformative approaches that address challenges in an integrated manner and simplify human understanding of complex socio-ecological connections. The session will provide a broadened water-energy-food (WEF+) nexus perspective to understand the drivers of food systems’ unsustainability, trade-offs, and synergies for food systems transformation.
Target audience: Researchers/Academics, policymakers, practitioners
Keywords: Sustainable food systems, WEF nexus, climate change
Session Lead: Dr. Mohammed Mohsin Hafeez; m.hafeez@cgiar.org
African Regional Working Group (AFRWG) was established in 2000 with the objective of promoting strong communications and networking among African countries as well as regional and international institutions for enhancing cooperation and coordination.
