Conference Agenda

The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus is gaining scholarly and policy attention. Despite growing evidence on which type of nexus governance works, little is known about the consequences of such governance for social justice. Implementing the nexus requires decision-making about trade-offs between the use and production of water, energy and food, which are particularly acute at household and community levels. This raises justice questions of whether the nexus can benefit all, who makes decisions and at what levels. In South Africa, where access to water, energy and food are strongly influenced by a history of Apartheid and inequality, there is a need to study the challenges and opportunities of a socially just nexus implementation from the bottom up. This panel session presents papers from an interdisciplinary [project name removed to anonymize] research project involving 4 universities in Europe and South Africa. We introduce the concept of WEF communities, inspired by EU legislation for energy communities to produce their own renewable electricity. We study how similar communities in South Africa could be legally recognised and expanded to include water use and food production, and with what consequences for social justice, particularly for the poorest and women. Incorporating WEF communities in South Africa’s legal frameworks may enhance social justice from the bottom up, yet this is uncertain given inequalities in (legal) access to energy, water and land. This panel includes papers that draw on analyses of multilevel governance and legal frameworks in the EU and South Africa, as well as household assessments on WEF interlinkages and decision-making in two communities in the Eastern Cape and Northern Cape in South Africa.

The rationale behind the water-energy-food nexus (WEF) is particularly appealing in those geographical contexts where resource demand is expected to increase the most and resource security issues are on the daily agenda. It is not by chance that most of the research on the topic has been conducted in countries from the Global South. The WEF nexus in the African continent has been through conceptual, intellectual and social development in recent years, particularly in South Africa. Different regional organisations and research institutions are adopting the concept and are committed to facilitating cross-sectoral engagement. Nevertheless, there is still a huge gap between nexus theory and practice, and sectoral approaches in policymaking are still dominant. The theory-practice gap is not unique to the African context, but it is reported globally in the literature. Too little attention to the institutional, socio-economic and political aspects of the nexus, in favour of a prominent focus on the materialistic and technical aspects of it, can somewhat explain the challenges of WEF nexus operationalisation and institutionalisation. Although there has been a recent increase in studies looking at the governance and management practices of the nexus, they often build on assumptions that are verified, such as: i) there are no interactions among actors from the water, energy and food sectors; ii) this lack of interaction is the cause for water, energy and food issues; iii) actors’ interactions and coherent policies will yield better results. However, this reasoning neglects that new solutions will necessarily be built upon existing governance arrangements and networks of relationships and will have to consider how different actors and institutions develop narratives about WEF nexus problems. It also downplays the (often strong) incentives against nexus governance. We argue that better understanding the status quo is fundamental before rushing into general calls for more coordination and interactions. In this paper, we adopt a qualitative approach to capture how different actors interpret the relationship between water, energy and food delivery issues and the codependences of these sectors in South Africa. We aim to understand what kinds of interactions are in place, which are not and why, and which are considered part of the problem in WEF delivery and thus need improvement. We develop our argument on policy documents, interviews and workshops conducted with government officials at the national, provincial and local levels in South Africa.

Unmet realities of water, energy and food (WEF) cannot be reduced unless there is serious threat to possibilities of elite-class accumulation, due to inequalities. However, various classes have varying affinity and access to these resources. This has bi-directional effects on institutional arrangement influencing rights to use, own and manage, proffering significance of resource politics and examining processes hindering access and control over resources; providing alternative, transformative and just futures. However, institutional inefficiencies affect how groups and classes are represented. Political ecology demonstrates that institutional dynamics and discourse shape outcome. It exposes the social and ecological ramifications and uneven outcomes of political, economic and cultural power for WEF resources, recognizing the unneutral and unobjective resource policy and evaluations. There has been a neglect of micro-politics that (re)shape (in)securities and (in)equalities in resource governance. The study sought a nexus understanding, acknowledging the political nature, as well as lived and experienced realities in a case of three heterogenous sites in South Africa, marred by inequality, micro-institutions and accumulation from below, drawing attention to political nature of class inclusivity in WEF governance. Inclusivity in this instance referring to giving voice and expanding frontier of who has specific rights, has remained superficial when structural reproductions of discrimination are overlooked. Scrutiny was achieved through assessing how agricultural, water and energy user groups, ward committees and forums for integrated development plans were inclusive in their community-level WEF decision-making and determinants thereof. Cross-tabulation and binary logistic regression were used to analyze a cross-sectional survey of 1,184 households. There was heavy presence of ward committees, more effective (perceived) in community-level WEF decision-making with extensive considerations (both in process and outcome) of age, gender and disability as well as taking community recommendations on board. Various vices such as corruption, lack of empowerment and participation were identified as hampering community level WEF participation in decision-making. This has been compounded by decision-making being inadequate, inaccurate and untimely; not accommodating the poor and unrepresented and less objective and independent. Lack of cohesion was a major determinant of inclusivity in agricultural, water and energy user groups as well as ward committees while community-based action reliant on recommendations was significant for forums around integrated development plans. In conclusion, there are differentiated levels of inclusivity (both in process and outcome) in community level WEF decision-making with lack of cohesion and recommendation-based action being significant determinants. The study recommends tailor-made inclusivity criteria for the differentiated institutional arrangements.

Power outages have been occurring often in South Africa since 2016 and have gotten worse over the past two years, 2021 and 2022. Every sector of the economy has been impacted, including the vital industries of food and water. The President of South Africa, Mr. Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, has since declared an energy state of emergency because of the shortages. In contrast, citizen-led, communal energy initiatives have been reinvigorated in Europe. Communities organise themselves on their own and produce their own electricity from renewable sources. The incorporation of renewable energy communities (REC) and citizen energy communities (CEC) into EU law in 2018 and 2019, respectively, helped to legalise, foster, and strengthen energy communities. Importantly, the idea of "water-energy-food (WEF) communities" was inspired by legislation mandating energy communities to produce their own renewable energy. Energy communities in the EU support local ownership and participation in the energy sector while enhancing and bolstering local social justice and energy security. The EU might have introduced a practical solution that can meet South Africa's energy requirements and advance social justice. This article explores the energy communities in the EU and investigates their legal possibilities in South Africa for a WEF nexus.

The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus has gained traction internationally as an integrated approach to accelerate transitions towards sustainable development. Although growing evidence exists on which nexus approaches work, how and why, most of this is based on analyses at one level of governance, mainly at the national level. Moreover, it is not clear what pursuing the nexus approach means for social justice, for example around resource allocation. While some degree of conflict is considered necessary for nexus approaches to be effective and address trade-offs in the allocation of water, energy and food, the consequences for social justice, including around gender, have not often been studied. In order to address some of these knowledge gaps, we combine different analyses on the extent to which, how and why household-level interlinkages between water, energy and food resources are (not) incorporated into local, regional and national policies and/or policy processes, and with what consequences for social justice. We zoom in on South Africa, a country with long-standing inequalities, including around water, energy and land allocation. We pose the following questions: How and to what extent are water, energy and food resources and the lack thereof interlinked at household level in South Africa? How and why do multilevel governance and legal frameworks (not) take account of these interlinkages? And what is the role of local communities therein? Our research is part of an NWO-WOTRO project and is based on fieldwork with 1,184 household surveys in two locations (Northern Cape and Eastern Cape); workshops and focus group discussions among local communities; interviews with local, regional and national policymakers; and analyses of legal and policy documents. With this research, we not only generate empirical insights into multi-level nexus governance in South Africa, but also contribute important theoretical insights into how and under what conditions WEF nexus approaches increase social justice at multiple levels of governance.