New learning resources place equity at the heart of water–energy–food–ecosystem nexus management

By Haley Zaremba

Original blog published on Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT on December 21, 2023

Imagine a rural community with limited access to water. Now imagine the community members: a stay-at-home wife and mother with no mobile phone, whose husband is an illiterate farmer who relies on rain to water his crops; a well-off, educated male farmer who owns farmland with easy access to clean water; an illiterate widow with no income and no access to electricity…

Now ask yourself: which of them will be able to receive and read a text alert about flooding? If there is a prolonged drought, whose livelihood will be negatively impacted?

This mental exercise, adapted from a Power Walk Activity for the water sector by the CGIAR Initiative on NEXUS Gains, demonstrates how identity and social standing greatly determine a farmer’s ability to manage essential resources, respond to shortages, and cope with resource-related shocks and stresses.

It also sheds light on how water issues are never just about water. Water access is inextricably interconnected with energy, food, and ecosystems, and the way that different individuals and social groups interact with this nexus is essential to understanding its management, its impacts, and its fair and effective development.

The full blog from Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT also shares a new learning module to support equity in water–energy–food–ecosystems nexus management.

This work was carried out under the CGIAR Initiative on NEXUS Gains, which is grateful for the support of CGIAR Trust Fund contributors: staging.cgiar.org/funders

Header image: Women collecting water in pitchers, by hand, from a deep well in Pakistan. Photo by Muhammad Usman Ghani/IWMI.