WEF Nexus

Webinar: The nexus and policies for a resource-efficient and low-carbon Europe
2020-06-23 10:00 - 12:30 UTC
Details
The webinar is for-free and will take place on 23 June 2020, between 10 and 12:30 CEST, including half an hour to demonstrate the SIM4NEXUS Serious Game: SIM4NEXUS Serious Game (12-12:30 CEST)
Find further information here
Register here. Once registered, SIM4NEXUS will send you a confirmation, and the ZOOM link shortly before the event.
About
The webinar will present policy recommendations for a resource-efficient and low-carbon Europe. The webinar is part of SIM4NEXUS (Sustainable integrated management for the nexus of water-energy-food-land-climate for a resource-efficient Europe, www.sim4nexus.eu), funded under Horizon 2020. Please find the agenda and SIM4NEXUS background here.
The webinar will include discussion, questions and answers based on statements by Floor Brouwer (Wageningen Research), Maria Witmer (PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency), Ingrida Bremere & Daina Indriksone (Baltic Environmental Forum – Latvia), Ben Ward (South West Water), Stefania Munaretto (KWR Water Research Institute). Feedback is foreseen from EEA (Lorenzo Benini) and JRC (speaker to be confirmed).

Webinar: Social Safety Nets and COVID-19: Can we protect food security and nutrition?
2020-06-11 09:30 - 10:45 UTC
About
Webinar entitled “Social Safety Nets and COVID-19: Can we protect food security and nutrition?”
Co-Organized by IFPRI and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)
Recorded JUN 11, 2020 – 09:30 AM TO 10:45 AM EDT
View full webinar recording here

Webinar Series on Farmer-Led Irrigation Development (FLI)
2020-06-11 - 2020-07-09
Please join us for an exciting, new webinar series on farmer-led irrigation development (FLI)! The first session will be held on June 11, 2020 at 13:00-14:00 UTC.
About
Farmer-led irrigation development (FLI) has gained increased attention by government institutions, development and implementation partners as one of the potential solutions to build climate resilience for smallholder farmers and transform food systems to support healthy diets for all. Furthermore, the knock-on effects of health-related disasters such as the Covid-19 pandemic on market disruptions impacting food and nutrition security, enforces the urgency to increase multiple purpose water access and increase local community resilience.
The question arises on how we can accelerate sustainable scaling of FLI given the challenges of underdeveloped irrigation supply chains, high upfront costs and lack finance/business models, lack or underdeveloped markets and agricultural value chains (especially for high value crops), gender and social inclusion gaps in access to and benefits from FLI, and limited water resource governance.
The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) together with the World Bank, The Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute and the Global Water Partnership (GWP) are hosting a virtual mini-series to discuss key issues and identify a way forward for operationalizing sustainable and inclusive scaling of farmer-led irrigation development. The webinar series is geared towards practitioners, policy makers, private sector and researchers interested in further advancing FLI globally and overcoming the often observed systemic barriers in reaching scale.
SPEAKERS
Regassa Namara, The World Bank Group
Claudia Sadoff, International Water Management Institute
Thai Thi Minh, International Water Management Institute
Nicholas Brozovic, Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute
Nicole Lefore, Innovation Laboratory for Small Scale Irrigation, Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture Development
Samir Ibrahim, Sunculture
Phil Woodhouse, University of Manchester, SAFI-network
For more information and to register click here

Global Landscapes Forum Digital Conference 2020
2020-06-05 - 2020-06-07 | Online
About
GLF Bonn Digital Conference 2020: Food in the time of crises
Human health and livelihoods depend on planetary health. So, how can we feed a growing global population without eating the planet? The 2020 theme of GLF is “Food and Livelihoods.” Today, food systems are one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, a main driver of deforestation and the greatest threat to biodiversity. We need to transform the way we produce food and, as the COVID-19 pandemic is showing, we need to start now.
With global health pandemics and climate change creating a world of unknowns, we still have the power to plan for the future of food and livelihoods –a future with long-term planetary health and human well-being at the fore. Get an inside look at the latest sustainable food innovations. See how the world’s leading organizations use landscapes to solve today’s most pressing challenges. Experience the GLF Bonn Digital Conference online, from wherever you are. Join discussions with farmers, chefs, policymakers, scientists and more and immerse yourself in a learning track designed to answer your specific questions and spark your imagination. Have your voice in the joint endeavor to ‘build back better’.
Check out GLF’s previous Digital Summit and learn more about these events here.
Learn more and Register Here

Dresden Nexus Conference
2020-06-03 - 2020-06-05
*COVID-19 (Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2) Update
DNC2020 will now take place as a virtual conference.
We hope to use this crisis as an opportunity to enable broader participation worldwide and will thus offer this event entirely free of charge. If you have already registered for the conference, we will completely reimburse the delegate fees.
In order to keep up to date, please check our website regularly. We will keep you informed about the developments of the programme, the new digital formats, and all related procedures.
The third Dresden Nexus Conference (DNC2020) will take place 3–5 June 2020 under the theme “Circular Economy in a Sustainable Society”. Dresden is one of Germany’s most dynamic cities; the capital of Saxony is known for its indomitably pioneering approach, advancements in high technology, and strong research landscape.
DNC2020 aims to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable economy by focusing on identifying and discussing the concepts that nexus thinking offers to support the transition towards a circular economy. A Nexus Approach shares many synergies with the concept of a circular economy – a system that eliminates waste, keeps resources in use, and contributes to regenerating natural systems.
Providing a platform for exchange on this topic is crucial to ensure the findings and good initiatives from the scientific community are communicated to the right actors for implementation – political decision makers as well as local stakeholders and representatives of the business community. DNC provides the scientific community opportunities to inform their initiatives through dialogue about the needs and challenges of political decision makers as well as local stakeholders and representatives of the business community. Across the scientific community itself, this platform is important because the discussion around the Nexus Approach must be inter- and transdisciplinary, involving, for example, the social sciences as well as practitioners.
Registration for the virtual conference will open soon
For more information click here

AfriAlliance MOOC on Social Innovation in Water and Climate Change in Africa
2020-06-02 - 2020-07-12
AfriAlliance is delighted to announce that it’s Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on “Social innovation in water and climate change in Africa” will be held from 2 June to 12 July 2020!
Register and Learn More Here

6th International Symposium on Knowledge and Capacity for the Water Sector
2020-05-27 - 2020-05-29
About
The 6th International Symposium on Knowledge and Capacity Development: From Capacity Development to Implementation Science will bring together scholars, decision-makers and practitioners to discuss the current and future role of capacity development within policy, operational practice and education. As in previous years, the event will act as a catalyst to build commitment among participants, leading to future action and collaboration. For this 6th edition, which will take place online, the Symposium will pay particular attention to effective implementation and aim to move towards a concept of implementation science for the water sector.
For a preliminary programme of the event, please click here. Interested to read more about who is involved? Follow these links for information on Key Notes, the IHE Delft Organizing Committee, and our Advisory Committee. To register for the Symposium, please follow this link. Registration ends on May 5, 2020.
Focus of Symposium
In this 6th International Symposium on Knowledge and Capacity in the Water Sector, IHE Delft, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, OECD, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, Cap-Net/UNDP, Deltares, the UNHABITAT/Global Water Operator Partnership Alliance, Rand Water and others will convene leaders in the water profession and beyond to explore what the future is likely to bring and how new developments in implementation science can help us to act by strengthening institutional capacity. By bringing together key stakeholders to consider the most pressing challenges and emerging solutions in the field, the Symposium aims to identify and improve upon the concepts, priorities, strategies and tools to develop institutional capacity and share knowledge at a global scale for addressing these challenges. The Symposium will help outline the core skills, knowledge and attitudes the world’s water professionals and the institutions will need, and to build clear commitment to identify and act on concrete multi-stakeholder actions.
COVID-19 Response
Update on the 6th International Symposium on Knowledge and Capacity for the Water Sector: From Capacity Development to Implementation Science, GOES ONLINE
Given the most recent advice from the Dutch Government on coronavirus, and with the safety of our communities a top priority, we have made the decision to move forwards with the Symposium as an online event. We are now busy working to adapt the format, and provide online delivery that will allow the same mix of plenaries, panels and interactive small-group discussions that we need.
So keep the dates free and continue to register – but prepare to engage with the global water community from much closer to home
For more information and to register please visit website here

Virtual Event - Discussion of the 2020 Global Food Policy Report
2020-04-28 10:00 - 11:15 UTC
About
Co-Organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of the Netherlands, IFPRI, and Food & Business Knowledge Platform
APR 28, 2020 – 10:00 AM TO 11:15 AM EDT
Register Here
Event information
IFPRI’s 2020 Global Food Policy Report was officially launched on April 07 and highlights the critical role that inclusive food systems can play, looking specifically at the obstacles and opportunities as well as the tools and technologies for building inclusive food systems.
COVID-19 is having an immense impact on our health and food systems on a global scale. The coronavirus pandemic therefore has an immediate and long-term effect on poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition levels; especially for marginalized people in the developing world. As a consequence, the awareness and need to work towards inclusive food systems is accelerated by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of the Netherlands together with IFPRI and the Food & Business Knowledge Platform (F&BKP), invite interested food and nutrition security professionals to participate on April 28 to learn about the results of the report and to discuss the report and the impact of COVID-19 on our food systems.
Chair

Paul van de Logt, Head Food and Nutrition Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of the Netherlands

Speakers

John McDermott, Director, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH)
Johan Swinnen, Director General, IFPRI
Rob Vos, Director, Markets, Trade and Institutions Division, IFPRI

Discussants

Meike van Ginneken, Chief Executive Officer, SNV
Wijnand van Ijssel, Senior Advisor Food Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of the Netherlands
Chris de Nie, Senior Policy Officer Agribusiness International & Food Security, Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, Government of the Netherlands

Moderator

Rajul Pandya-Lorch, Director, Communications and Public Affairs & Chief of Staff, Director General’s Office, IFPRI

Nexus Seminar Series - The Second Life of Water: Harnessing Trade-Offs and Synergies
2020-04-27 14:50 - 16:20 UTC
Details
Lecturer: Dr. Serena Caucci (Senior Research Associate, UNU-FLORES)
Event date: 27 April 2020 at 14:50-16:20 ONLINE
Register Here
About
A sustainable development that integrates the environmental, social, and economic dimensions has been the pillar for the introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for promoting sustainable policy actions. This lecture will look into the relevance of water reuse in the circular economy for both the Global North and Global South and will highlight synergies and trade-offs within sustainable water management. Sustainability assessments are tools that can support proper management and translation of knowledge into policy actions. Sustainability assessment of water reuse, especially in agriculture, could be a valuable tool to support the achievement of SDG 6 and 12 considering that agriculture accounts for 70 per cent of the worldwide water abstraction. Unfortunately, sustainability assessment often differs in theory and practice. This lecture will highlight the relevance of water reuse in the circular economy globally and will review the congruency of sustainability assessment in theory and practice. In detail, this presentation we will focus on the dimensionality of the assessments, the boundary in which sustainability indicators are applied, and the gaps for a truly holistic approach will be highlighted. The lecture will also discuss the demo-geography of the regions in which water reuse is applied in agriculture and whether local needs could affect the sustainability assessment criteria. Paths towards the use of a standard but flexible integrated indicator-based assessment methods for sustainable water reuse will be explored. The establishment of a standard set of holistic sustainability indicator factors could be the initial step forward to test sustainability assessment of water reuse in agriculture globally thus contributing to the achievement of the SDGs.
Nexus Seminar Series

UNU-FLORES, in collaboration with PRISMA – Centre for Sustainability Assessment and Policy on behalf of TU Dresden, is delighted to present the Nexus Seminar Series. The joint seminar series, which launched in 2015, features lectures by senior scholars that highlight all dimensions of research on the Nexus Approach, ranging from hands-on implementation strategies to theoretical debates. The Nexus Seminars serve not only as a platform for scientific exchange and cooperation between UNU-FLORES and TU Dresden but also a medium for the partner institutions to discuss their research with a broader audience. Taking place once a month, each seminar is open to the public and under the current circumstances will be delivered via a virtual Zoom videoconference. Please find all past Nexus Seminars here.

Africa Climate Week
2020-04-20 - 2020-04-24
UPDATE: Event Postponed – dates to be announced
About
Africa Climate Week 2020 will convene under the theme, ‘Partnering for Transformation towards a Low-carbon Climate-resilient and Prosperous Africa: Managing Risks, Seizing Opportunities’. The event aims to mobilize and enhance partnerships and collaborative approaches, including to respond to the urgent need to understand the risks and impacts of climate change and integrate this knowledge in planning at all levels and in all sectors.
Africa Climate Week 2020 will bring together representatives from the public and private sectors to exchange ideas and identify synergies in discussions, meetings and exhibitions on a diverse set of themes related to climate action and sustainable development. Taking place in 2020, the year when countries are expected to increase the ambition of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement on climate change, the event will seek to facilitate NDC implementation and help deliver on the SDGs. The event will be steered by an inter-ministerial committee, led by the Prime Minister of Uganda.
Africa Climate Week is an opportunity to move forward on crucial climate action work at a national and regional level, taking regional priorities into consideration.
Focus Areas
The Africa Climate Week aims to enhance the engagement of the private sector in implementation and delivery of national climate action plans under the Paris Agreement (Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs). The Africa Climate Week aims to achieve this across three core tracks

Partnering for whole society engagement in implementation This track will demystify the various provisions of the UNFCCC and turning them into tangible/actionable items for actors in the regions. This track will also enable an assessment of the best practice in society-wide and economy-wide approaches to cutting greenhouse gases and building resilience. These events will also generate groundswell momentum for timely implementation of the commitments made under the UNFCCC processes, including the provisions of the enhanced transparency framework.
Managing climate risks This track will allow deeper collaboration between all actors on scoping the extent of the climate risks faced in Africa across the dimensions of hazards faced, sectors impacted and a levels of governance involved. Events will focus on the development of solutions for and enhanced partnerships related to these risks. For Africa Climate Week 2020 this track will focus on water and food security and in this context address topics related to ecosystems and nature-based solutions and resilient infrastructure development.
Seizing transformation opportunities This track will provide a platform explore solutions to deliver climate action and support at a scale that puts the region on a low-emission development pathway. Related events under this focus area will provide a basis for partnership, engagement and capacity development on best practice policy, resource mobilization and technology development and deployment with a focus on energy, infrastructure and mobility.

Details
Location: Kampala, Uganda; Speke Resort and Conference Centre
Registration Deadline: April 19, 2020
REGISTER HERE

Webinar: Why increasing the role of renewable energy mini-grids is essential to transforming agricultural productivity and food security in Africa
2020-03-31 14:00 - 16:00 UTC
About

TOPIC: Why increasing the role of renewable energy mini-grids is essential to transforming agricultural productivity and food security in Africa
Discussion of lessons learnt from policy innovations and programmatic interventions from Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda
WELCOME REMARKS :
Dr. Ousmane Badiane, Malabo Montpellier Panel Co-Chair
PRESENTER:
Prof. Nuhu Hatibu, Regional Head (Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda), Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa – AGRA
MODERATOR:
Mr. William Brent, Chief Communications Officer, Power for All
This webinar will explore opportunities for synergies between the expansion of mini-grids and strengthening Africa’s agricultural value chains.
Linking decentralized renewables and agriculture can provide mutually beneficial outcomes across the energy-food nexus. In particular, renewable energy-powered technologies ranging from cold storage to solar pumps can accelerate agricultural growth and reduce food waste, without which food import dependency in Sub-Saharan Africa will triple between now and 2025, reaching over $110 billion.
Leveraging complementary investments in agriculture and electricity access can yield double dividends in terms of poverty alleviation. Aligning mini grid investments with agricultural development targets can maximize joint benefits from the expansion of rural electricity access and the increase in value-added along the agricultural value chains, both of which are directly linked to improved quality of life in rural communities.
The Malabo Montpellier Panel’s 2019 report Energized focuses on what six African countries – Ethiopia, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, and Zambia – have done successfully in terms of institutional and policy innovation for energy expansion in support of agriculture and rural areas. Drawing on his experience, Professor Nuhu Hatibu will discuss in this webinar the experience of Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda in connecting rural areas to energy.
More information and to register click HERE

E-Learning Course: RE-Thinking Access to Energy Business Models: Ways to Walk the Water-Energy-Food Nexus Talk
2020-03-26 02:00 - 15:30 UTC
RE-Thinking Access to Energy Business Models: Ways to Walk the Water-Energy-Food Nexus Talk
Background
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Africa Office Energy Unit and the Ecosystem Division (Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities) in collaboration with the Renewable Energy Solutions for Africa (RES4Africa) are joining forces to organize a series of online webinar trainings on the WEF Nexus. The first training will take place on Thursday, 26 March 2020, from 2:00-3:30 PM (EAT). It will mainly focus on the contribution of renewable energy towards the implementation of the Water, Food, and Energy (WEF) Nexus.
You are invited to participate in this first online webinar training whose emphasis will be given to re-thinking the access to energy business models through WEF Nexus approaches and cross-sectorial partnerships, paving the way for Africa’s long-term sustainable economic growth.
Further, a brief presentation on “Water-Energy-Nexus” with a focus on the contribution of wastewater to this nexus will be delivered. This could serve as a path for providing an introduction to the second webinar that will be focusing mainly on the contribution of water towards the implementation of WEF Nexus.
Speakers

Roberto Vigotti (Secretary-General of RES4Africa Foundation)
Marco Aresti (Access2Energy Programme Manager at RES4Africa Foundation)
Luca Traini (Senior Business Development and Partnership Officer at RES4Africa Foundation)
Birguy Lamizana (Programme Management Officer for wastewater management at UNEP)

Who Can Participate?
Anyone who is interested!
Registration and Access
Concept Note

7th Climate Change Online Conference (CLIMATE2020)
2020-03-23 - 2020-03-30
Overview
The Research and Transfer Centre ‘Sustainability and Climate Change Management’ (FTZ-NK) of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany, will convene the seventh Climate Change Online Conference (CLIMATE2020). Taking place exclusively on the internet, CLIMATE2020 is guided by and will contribute to SDG 13 (climate action). Specific themes to be addressed include:

Resilience and Capacity Building;
Intelligent Climate Policy and Governance;
Education, Awareness and Adaptation;
Climate Finance and Access to Funding;
Intelligent Climate Planning, Small Islands and Developing Countries; and
Climate Change as a Threat to Biodiversity.

Event Information

You will have with free unlimited access to all kinds of high-quality scientific articles, climate projects and further learning opportunities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Get involved in international dialogues and the exchange of ideas with experts from the academic, political, economic and social sectors and the rest of the community.

CLIMATE2020 is guided by and will contribute to the Sustainable Development goal 13 (Climate Action).

The objective of the on-line conference is to convey the most recent research results on climate change and its impacts, as well as to provide especially early career researchers from all over the world with the opportunity to present their findings at a global level. This event fills a knowledge gap in respect of thematic discussions on climate change mitigation and adaptation, which will be performed both in an integrative and interactive way. The conference also offers you insights on numerous climate projects, initiatives and strategies, which are currently being implemented on the five continents and considered to be latest examples of worldwide climate change adaptation and mitigation activities.
REGISTER HERE
More information on website

AGEP Winter School: An interdisciplinary perspective on the Water-Energy-Food Nexus
2020-03-16 - 2020-03-18 | Gustav-Stresemann-Institut, Langer Grabenweg 68, Bonn, 53175, Germany
UPDATE: Event Cancelled
“Following the recommendations concerning health precautions, the Nexus Winter School is canceled for now. We very much regret the situation and hope to be able to offer the event again in the course of the year.”
Interdisciplinary Workshop for students, DAAD Scholarship Holders and young researchers.
Overall topic of the workshop is the scientific coverage of the so-called water, energy and food nexus by an interdisciplinary approach. With this interdisciplinary approach the interlinkages, similarities but also differences of the mentioned three sectors, new insights and different perspectives will be achieved and a deeper understanding will be created. Another focus lies on the network benefits of this workshop, which arise when students, scholars and interested people will collaborate in such a cross-cutting scientific topic and will take into consideration the different perspectives of the “global north” and the “global south”.
Experts of different research areas from the GIZ, DIE-GDI, UNU, TH-Köln, Uni Darmstadt, Uni Bonn, and GSI will present latest research findings on the focus areas water, energy, soil and food. Additionally the participants will work in various working groups on the lecture inputs using the Open Space method.
The detailed program for the workshop will be available by mid-February.
Participation and registration:
Attendance fee is 40,- € (60,- € for participants who want to be accommodated for 2 nights at the conference center).

Food Loss and Waste – Can we end it by 2030?
2020-03-12 09:30 - 11:00 (America/New_York)
Co-Organized by IFPRI, Champions 12.3, Embassy of Denmark in Washington, DC, World Resources Institute (WRI)
MAR 12, 2020 – 09:30 AM TO 11:00 AM EDT
With just ten years to go before the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG 2030) is to be met, eliminating food loss and waste is increasingly urgent.
Building on the 2019 inaugural event, this special event will discuss whether, as a global community, we can or will end food loss and waste and presenters will share on their efforts to reach SDG 2030 targets.
Breakfast will be available starting at 9:00am. Event begins promptly at 9:30am.
How to Register:

Eventbrite – Register for this FREE event here
Facebook – coming soon (join IFPRI Live Group and watch livestream)
Website – Find speaker list, event details, and register directly here

E-Learning Course: Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems: The Nexus between Water, Energy and Food
2020-02-10 - 2020-07-27
Overview
In this course you will become familiar with the ideas of the water-energy-food nexus and transdisciplinary thinking. You will learn to see your community or country as a complex social-ecological system and to describe its water, energy and food metabolism in the form of a pattern, as well as to map the categories of social actors. We will provide you with the tools to measure the nexus elements and to analyze them in a coherent way across scales and dimensions of analysis. In this way, your quantitative analysis will become useful for informed decision-making. You will be able to detect and quantify dependence on non-renewable resources and externalization of environmental problems to other societies and ecosystems (a popular ‘solution’ in the western world). Practical case studies, from both developed and developing countries, will help you evaluate the state-of-play of a given community or country and to evaluate possible solutions. Last but not least, you will learn to see pressing social-ecological issues, such as energy poverty, water scarcity and inequity, from a radically different perspective, and to question everything you’ve been told so far.

Level: Intermediate
Commitment: 4-6 hours/week
Language of Instruction: English
Pass all graded assignments to complete the course

View Syllabus Here
Enrollment and Dates
Enroll can be completed on the Coursera website. This course is offered a 8 weekly intervals with the upcoming enrollment and start dates:

10 February 2020 (enrollment closing 15 February)
6 April 2020 (enrollment closing 11 April)
1 June 2020 (enrollment closing 6 June)
27 July 2020 (enrollment closing 1 August 2020)

Intended Participants
The course is directed toward upper-division undergraduate and graduate students from a wide variety of disciplines (environmental sciences, engineering, agricultural sciences, social sciences) as well as professionals (NGOs, think tanks) and policy makers concerned with sustainable development in both developed and developing countries.
Instructors
Mario Giampietro, ICREA Research Professor
Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA)
Andrea Saltelli, Guest researcher
Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA)
Tarik Serrano, Post-Doc Researcher
Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA)
Course Creator
The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) is a public university located in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. International in its outlook, it is fully consolidated within its local surroundings, and offers quality education in close association with research activity, the transfer of scientific, technological, cultural and educational knowledge, the promotion of its human potential and the responsible management of available resources. The UAB currently offers 81 degrees, 130 official Master Programmes and 183 UAB-specific Masters Degrees. In addition, it offers 174 lifelong learning programmes and 65 PhD Programmes, 27 of which have been distinguished through Quality Awards. The UAB has a total of over 3,500 teaching and research staff, over 2,000 administrative staff and over 40,000 students.

Conference: Prevention and management of conflicts linked to the governance of natural resources in West Africa: opportunities and challenges
2019-11-12 - 2019-11-14 | Niamey, Niger
About
The Civil Peace Service and the Frexus project, both implemented by the GIZ, are organizing an international conference on the theme: “Prevention and management of conflicts related to natural resource governance in West Africa: challenges and opportunities.” The conference takes place between November 12th and 14th 2019 in Niamey, Niger. The conference aims to inform and create synergies between different actors from West Africa and elsewhere, sharing their capacities in the prevention, reduction and transformation of conflicts related to the management of natural resources.
View Conference Document Here

Webinar: Changing Farm Structure and Rural Transformation in Africa
2019-10-24 12:00 - 13:00 UTC | Webinar
About
Presenter: Thomas Jayne, University Foundation Professor of Agriculture, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University
The rise of medium-scale farms in Africa is affecting the region in diverse ways that are difficult to generalize. Many such farms are a source of technical change and commercialization of African agriculture; they attract agribusiness investment and improve market access conditions for all nearby smallholders. However, medium-scale land acquisitions may exacerbate land scarcity in favorable rural areas, raise land prices, and crowd out young peoples’ access to land for farming. While much more research is necessary to effectively guide African governments, our findings indicate that medium-scale commercialized farms can be a dynamic driver of agricultural transformation but this does not reduce the importance of agricultural ministries maintaining a clear commitment to supporting smallholder farms. Strengthening land tenure security of indigenous rural people to maintain land rights and support productivity investments by smallholder farm household remains crucial.
Register Here

SNIP: Chris Scott Seminar
2019-10-08
Strategic Networks and Initiatives Program (SNIP) Fall Speakers Series
On October 8th, Penn State hosted Christopher Scott for seminar titled: “Sustaining Groundwater Irrigation in Breadbasket Regions: A Water-Energy-Food Nexus Diagnostic Assessment”
Prof. Scott serves as Director of the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, Professor of Geography and Development, and Director of the Consortium for Arizona-Mexico Arid Environments – all at the University of Arizona. He is founding co-director of the AQUASEC Center of Excellence for Water Security. He was a 2018-19 Leshner Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science, focusing on water-energy-food security. He earned PhD and MS degrees at Cornell University and BS and BA degrees at Swarthmore College. His research and engagement are concentrated in the Southwest US, Mexico, and India, as well as Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and Nepal. He speaks Spanish and Hindi, as well as conversational Portuguese and Nepali.
Watch Recorded Presentation Here

African Climate Risks Conference
2019-10-07 - 2019-10-09 | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
The African Climate Risks Conference (ACRC) is an open platform for sharing the latest African climate research among researchers, policy makers, practitioners and development partners. The ACRC will offer a prime opportunity to promote the uptake of new data, tools and knowledge; brokering new research collaborations and more targeted donor support. It will also stimulate increased contribution of African experts to, and improve coverage of Africa, in the IPCC assessment reports; and bring together development partners to deliberate on how to improve programming to support African-led climate research and service priorities. The overarching theme of the ACRC is:
Dismantling barriers to urgent climate change adaptation actions.

8th World Conference on Ecological Restoration
2019-09-24 - 2019-09-28 | Cape Town, South Africa
We proudly invite you to Cape Town for the 8th World Conference on Ecological Restoration from 24-28 September 2019, jointly hosted by the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) and the South African Water Research Commission. We are excited to bring together colleagues from across Africa and around the world in this spectacular setting to discuss and debate the many issues and challenges inherent in planning, designing, implementing, and monitoring successful restoration programs in all biomes and on all continents.

SNIP Speaker Series
2019-09-20 11:00 - 2019-10-23 12:30 UTC | Pennsylvania State University
Strategic Networks and Initiatives Program (SNIP) Fall 2019 Speaker Series at Penn State
“Building a Food-Water-Energy Nexus Community of Transformative and Convergent Research”
Upcoming Events:

Friday, September 20, 11:00 AM

Seminar with Claudia Ringler, Deputy Director of Environment and Production Technology Division at IFPRI, entitled:
“The Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Insights from Global, Basin and Local Case Studies of Growing
Natural Resource Scarcity in the Eastern Nile Basin”

Friday, September 20, 4:00 PM

Geography Coffee Hour with Claudia Ringerl, IFPRI, entitled:
“Achieving nutrition outcomes through improved agricultural water management: What are the options?”

Tuesday, October 8, 12:00 PM

Seminar with Chris Scott, Professor and University Distinguished Scholar at University of Arizona, entitle:
“Sustaining Groundwater Irrigation in Breadbasket Regions: A Water-Energy-Food Nexus Diagnostic Assessment”

Wednesday, October 23, 12:30 PM

Seminar with Steve Davis, Associate Professor, Earth System Science at University of California Irvine, entitled:
“Integrated and Transdisciplinary Analyses of Food-Energy-Water Systems”
Dates and times of the following to be determined:
Webinar by Arjen Hoekstra, Professor in Water Management at University of Twente, Netherlands
Mathew Kurian, Research Assistant Professor at Penn State and former Academic Officer at UNU-Flores, Germany

SNIP: Claudia Ringler
2019-09-20
Strategic Networks and Initiatives Program (SNIP) Fall Speaker Series
On September 20th, a seminar and coffee hour with Claudia Ringer was held at Penn State University. Claudia Ringler was appointed deputy division director of the Environment and Production Technology Division at IFPRI in 2011. Claudia manages IFPRI’s Water Research group and since 2015 is also the Natural Resource Management Theme lead.
Seminar title: “The Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Insights from Global Basin, and Local Case Studies of Growing Natural Resource Scarcity in the Eastern Nile Basin.”
The geography coffee hour title: “Achieving Nutrition Outcomes through Improved Water Management: What are the Options?”
Watch video recording of seminar here

SNIP: Ben Ruddell
2019-09-13
Strategic Networks and Initiatives Program (SNIP) Speaker Series
Ben Ruddell, Ph.D., P.E., Director Associate Professor of the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems at Northern Arizona University and Director of FEWSION project, held the webinar, “FEWSION, a National U.S. Mesoscale Supply Chain Network” on September 13th.
FEWSION is an empirical description of the U.S. food, energy, and water system. The FEWSION project is a Big Data Fusion project to create and explore the first mesoscale map of the U.S. food, energy, and water (+everything) system. It is the first complete footprint database for every US city (water, greenhouse gases, etc.) along with vulnerability and resilience benchmarks.
Click here to view recorded webinar
Click here to explore the FEWSION website
Click here to view the FEW-View educational map tool

UNFCCC Technical Expert Meetings on Mitigation (TEM-M)
2019-06-20 13:00 - 2019-06-21 19:00 (Europe/Helsinki)
The UNFCCC Technical Expert Meetings on Mitigation will be held at The Bonn Climate Change Conference (SB 50) in Bonn, Germany on June 20th and 21st from 11:00 to 19:00 (CEST). UNFCCC will be running a live webcast available to those not in physical attendance.
The meetings aim to promote sustainability of the water-energy-food nexus to address the issues related to increasing demand for food from a growing global population which, in addition to climate change, is placing significant pressure on agricultural production and natural resources.
During the sessions, governments and non-party stakeholders will explore high-potential mitigation policies, practices, and technologies with significant sustainable development co-benefits, with the potential in increase pre-2020 climate ambition. It will be led and organized by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), supported by the UNFCCC secretariat.
The event will consist of the following six sessions:
Session 1: Decarbonizing the primary production phase of the agri- food chain
Session 2: Decarbonizing the post harvesting phase of the agri-food chain
Session 3: Circular economy solutions/innovations in water and energy management for the agri-food chain
Session 4: Nature based solutions to integrate energy and water aspects into the agri-food chain
Session 5: Making Water-Energy- Food integrated policies work for food security and the climate
Session 6: Replicating and upscaling innovative solutions for securing clean energy and water access for the agri-food chain
Session five in particular will focus on the Water-Energy-Food Nexus and feature Margaret Koli as a speaker. In light of the outcomes of the workshop in Nigeria and the initiation of the WEFS nexus online platform, the session calls upon experts to address the questions below related to learning from what works and where we are regarding policy and governance solutions aimed at promoting renewable energy and smart water use in the agri-food chain and socio-economic benefits of such solutions by discussing case studies, examples and their work experience:

What policy and governance solutions are available/used to help accelerate the scaling up of renewable energy and smart water use in the agri-food chain?
How these solutions benefit the agri-food chain, particularly in rural areas?
What can Parties and non-Party stakeholders learn from these policy options and governance frameworks, including the enablers and challenges/barriers, to result in emission reductions and sustainable development co-benefits?

Penn State University African Studies Program 7th Annual Conference
2019-04-17 - 2019-04-18 | Pennsylvania State University
“Africa on the Rise! 60 years after 1960”
The African Studies Program at The Pennsylvania State University, 7th annual conference, on April 17th-18th, 2020, titled “Africa on the Rise! 60 years after 1960,” commemorates the “Year of Africa.” 1960 significantly cascades the independence of African nations, as no less than 17 countries gained their freedom from colonial rule in that year alone. Significantly, with the struggles for independence and decolonization, new nation states became mired in internal ethnic clashes, racial discrimination, dictatorships and kleptocracy, foreign interventions, exploitation of natural resources, and urban and rural environmental issues, to name some of the challenges. On the other hand, and more so in the last 20 years, there has been significant growth of African economies. We see leapfrogging of technologies (i.e. cell phones, internet, e-commerce); resurgences and entirely new creative cultural forms particularly in the arts (literature, music, visual, performance, and digital media); women at the forefront in public leadership roles; and, an activation of a politically minded Pan-African youth population ready to change the future. This conference aims to trace the development of Africa since 1960 through formulations such as Global Africa and Theories of the Global South. It aims to bring together humanities and social science scholarship to critically review issues with regards to the decolonization of Africa, Pan-Africanism, the self-reliance of national economies, nation-building experiments, postcolonial challenges, creative arts and new technologies, and the future development of the continent.

For further inquiries, please email psuafr@gmail.com.
REGISTRATION FOR THE CONFERENCE IS FREE AND OPEN TO ALL
