The next Brussels Briefing no. 56 on “Land-Water-Energy Nexus and the Sustainability of the Food System” is organized by CTA, the European Commission/EuropeAid, the ACP Secretariat and Concord. It will take place in the ACP Secretariat, Avenue Georges Henri 451, 1200 Brussels, Room C, and can be followed online through livestream. 

The Briefing will discuss the Land-Water-Energy nexus and its implications for the food system, with a focus on ACP countries. It will feature an exchange of views and experiences from a research and practice perspective on what we know on the nexus, with a discussion on the factors for success, their replicability, and potential for upscaling of best practices.

Programme

8h15-9h00        Registration

9h00-9h15        Opening of the Briefing: Isolina Boto, Manager, CTA Brussels Office

Introductory remarks: Patrick Gomes, Secretary-General, ACP Secretariat; Leonard Mizzi, Head of Unit, Rural Development, Food Security, Nutrition, Europeaid, European Commission; Michael Hailu, Director, CTA

 9h15-11h00 Panel 1: The Land-Water-Energy nexus: what do we know?

This panel will provide an overview of linkages between land-water-energy from a research and practice perspective and its implications for the sustainability of the agrifood system with a focus in developing countries and ACP countries in particular.

Panellists:

• Food-Energy-Water nexus: implications for developing countries

Paolo D’Odorico,Professor, Dept Environmental Science, UC Berkeley, USA

• Sustainable agriculture and the water–energy–food nexus

Sir Gordon Conway, Member of Malabo Montpellier Panel and Professor of International Development, Imperial College London

• Sustainability of resources and conflict prevention through the nexus approach

Craig Hanson, Vice President for Food, Forests, Water &the Ocean, WRI

• Policy dialogue on the water-energy-agriculture nexus: the EU-German Programme

Veronica Girardi, Policy Officer, Water Sector, European Commission, DEVCO

11h00-11h15 Coffee Break

11h15-13h00 Panel 2: Best practices in integrated approaches on LWE

This panel will look at specific examples of successful practices in linking Land-Water-Energy nexus, with a focus in developing/ACP countries.

Panellists:

• Space for Food Security: use of more efficient inputs through use of satellite data

Ruud Grim, Senior Advisor for Applications, Netherlands Space Office

• Overview of best practices in promoting a sustainable use of resources in Africa

Olufunke Cofie, West Africa Regional Representative, IWMI, Ghana

• Mitigating tradeoffs & promoting synergies in the Water-Energy-Food Security nexus

Dawit Guta, Center for Environment & Dev Studies, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

• Assessing the state of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus in South Africa

Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi, Researcher, School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Concluding remarks

13h00 Networking Lunch

More information

For more information and the livestream, visit the website of Brussels Briefings.