Water-Energy-Food nexus Resilience and the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter addresses the economic concept of resilience and how it relates to the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus within the context of the sustainable development goals (SDG). While the SDGs are not explicitly about resilience, resilience from WEF nexus forces is key to ending hunger, poverty, accessing clean water and affordable energy, as well as building human capital. The chapter discusses consumption smoothing-based resilience, adaptation and technology adoption resilience strategies, and migration resilience strategies. Many shocks that lead to non-attainment of SDGs come from the WEF nexus: food shortages, drought, flood, energy poverty, and thus resilience to WEF nexus shocks are a core concept of the SDGs, but one with significant trade-offs. We show an interrelationship between WEF nexus shocks and attainment of SDGs such as freedom from poverty and hunger and human capital investments. WEF nexus shocks (droughts, typhoons, floods, excess heat, etc.) reverberate throughout rural economies in poor countries affecting human capital investment, migration, and market access among others. Reverberations from the WEF nexus across multiple sectors require household resilience to attain the SDGs, but resilience strategies can also imperil SDGs. Supporting basic consumption SDGs may miss investments in household resilience to mitigate vulnerability of long-run human capital accumulation to WEF nexus shocks.