The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Water Energy Food (WEF) Regional Governance Framework is expected to strengthen WEF Nexus governance in the region. The Framework together with the web- based regional investment project screening and appraisal tool form part of the milestones achieved during the first phase of the WEF Nexus Project implemented from January 2017 to December 2019. The WEF Nexus Phase One has also been key to promoting the WEF Nexus agenda in the SADC region, attracting high-level political buy-in in the region and interest beyond the SADC region.
Africa is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to a number of interlinked challenges, including land degradation, poverty, and extreme weather events. The continent also has a low adaptive capacity, in part due to financial and technical constrains, and a heavy reliance on rain-fed agriculture.
Social inclusion and gender equality are long-established, core values of the GWP Network and manifested in the GWP Gender Strategy and the GWP Gender Action Piece. In a series of inter-regional discussions, GWP Senior Gender & Social Inclusion Specialist Liza Debevec sets out to identify what GWP as an institution can do to apply the concepts in these documents. Her first discussion is with Amy Sullivan and Andrew Takawira, who are both involved in a large Pan-African project on gender transformative water and climate investment. The discussion topic is institutional leadership and commitment, which is the first of 4 action areas in the Gender Action Piece. Their message is clear: leadership makes all the difference.
