Stakeholders in Water, Energy and Food sectors in Tanzania have been urged to find ways where they can effectively utilize resources to solve interconnected challenges in the three sectors.
Speaking during the Water, Energy and Food, WEF Nexus, National Dialogue meeting in Dar es Salaam on Friday April 8, Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Prof. Siza Tumbo said stakeholders in the three sectors usually fail to work together because they don’t want to share the resources that would help solve challenges in the three sectors concurrently.
“You are at this meeting to find means for effective collaboration. Most times such attempts have failed because some ministries want to be the sole beneficiaries of funding. If you have to work together, then you need to be open about resources,” said Professor Tumbo.
The Global Water Partnership Tanzania in collaboration with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Government of Tanzania hosted a national dialogue to provide a platform where stakeholders would discuss an integrated approach to resolving challenges in the Water, Energy and Food (WEF) Nexus.
The National Dialogue was organised under the Southern Africa Development Community- SADC- WEF Nexus Dialogue Project called "Fostering Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus Dialogue and Multi-Sector Investment in the SADC Region", which is being funded by the European Union and is being implemented by the Global Water Partnership Tanzania.
GWP Tanzania Executive Director Dr. Victor Kongo said the Dialogue accorded stakeholders in Tanzania an opportunity to discuss concrete solutions to challenges that the three sectors face and look at investment opportunities in these areas.
Said Dr. Kongo; “The WEF Nexus provides a holistic and integrated approach for securing water, energy, and food securities in the long term. The Nexus approach strives to put water, energy, and food needs, competing for the same scarce resources, on an equal footing. It also aims to balance interests in resource use, manage conflicts and identify synergies without compromising human wellbeing and healthy ecosystems.”
The overall objective of the WEF Nexus Project, which began in 2017, is to enable transformation that will address the increasing demand for water, energy, and food security in SADC, factoring in climate change. Developing an integrated nexus approach will be key to this.
During the National Dialogue meeting, stakeholders from different sectors such as water, energy, agriculture, finance, private sector, academia as well as development partners, discussed national investment projects in water, energy, and food sectors, among other topics.
During the meeting, Shamiso Kumbirai, GWPSA SDG Programme Specialist made a presentation titled SADC Nexus Regional Dialogue Phase II and linkages to investment opportunities which among others provided information on the background to the project.