9 October 2013: The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat and the Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWP-SA) held the 6th Multi-Stakeholder Water Dialogue on the theme ‘Exploring the Water, Energy and Food Nexus.’

The meeting, which took place from 1-2 October 2013, in Lusaka, Zambia, brought together participants from across Southern Africa with the aim of: creating awareness and understanding of the water, energy, food nexus; discussing concrete projects within the region to foster further collaboration across sectors and facilitate political uptake of the nexus concept; and ensuring elevation of the nexus concept to the highest political levels.

The Dialogue addressed, inter alia: developing infrastructure and institutions that can use the current resource endowment in order to grow economies; using integrated water resources management (IWRM) as a means of addressing the nexus; and addressing the challenges of silo structures. Other issues raised included: the need for champions to drive nexus thinking, clear policies and regulations; expansion of regional institution mandates, such as those of river basin organizations (RBOs); engagement with the private sector on nexus issues; and institutionalization of the nexus approach. [SADC Press Release] [GWP Press Release]