Initiative:

NEXUS Gains

Environmental health & biodiversity

Other impact areas

Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA), East and Southern Africa (ESA), South Asia (SA)

No poverty

Zero hunger

Gender equality

Clean water and sanitation

Affordable and clean energy

Decent work and economic growth

Reduced inequlaties

Responsible consumption and production

Climate action

Life on land

Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Learn more about SDGs

Challenge

Today we face multiple interlinked global challenges of which climate change and biodiversity loss are the most pressing. Together these represent the greatest threats to economic development, livelihoods and human health in the 21st century. Against this background, sectoral interventions undertaken in isolation without due consideration of other sectors are one of the biggest challenges to delivering effective, sustainable solutions. The transboundary nature of many river basins makes integrated and sustainable management of water, energy, food and ecosystems particularly challenging. Systems approaches – facilitating integrated approaches across sectors to identify positive synergies and manage trade-offs – are a prerequisite for sustainable development.

The CGIAR Initiative on NEXUS Gains recognizes that water, land, energy, forests, and biodiversity are inextricably interconnected and critical to nutrition, health and food security, poverty reduction, livelihoods and jobs, climate adaptation and mitigation, and environmental health and biodiversity. The Initiative promotes systems thinking to avoid unintended consequences, enhance sustainable development and realize multiple benefits across the water, energy, food, and environment nexus. Good governance across boundaries and sectors requires strong institutions and actors willing to overcome siloed approaches and adopt new tools to support systems approaches.

Objective

This Initiative aims to realize gains across water, energy, food and ecosystems in selected transboundary river basins, by developing research and capacity to strengthen systems thinking, and providing tools, guidelines, training and facilitation for analysis and research for development.

Activities

This objective will be achieved through:

Applying trade-off analyses and foresight methodologies to support national and local government capacity in applying research evidence and data in policy and decision-making processes to assess and develop prioritized solutions for water, energy, food and ecosystems.
Boosting water productivity and water storage management to improve food and nutrition security and support socioeconomic development in water-scarce regions by co-developing tools at transboundary to local scales for use by decision-making bodies.
Energizing food and water systems by co-developing business and finance models for accelerated inclusive access to clean energy and water systems and supporting governments and other actors to take decisions to reduce the environmental footprint of food systems.
Strengthening water, energy, food and ecosystems nexus governance by, among other things, supporting cross-sectoral multistakeholder platforms and ensuring marginalized voices are heard.
Developing capacity for emerging women leaders by supporting women’s empowerment through technical and leadership skills development.

Engagement

This Initiative will work in five international river basins (the Aral Sea, Ganges, Indus, Blue Nile, and Limpopo/Incomati Basins) and, initially, the following countries as a priority: Botswana, Ethiopia, India, Mozambique, Nepal, Pakistan, South Africa, Sudan, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe.

Outcomes

Proposed 3-year outcomes include:

Basin policymakers, planners, researchers, and demand and scaling partners use results from foresight and interactive modeling tools to assess trade-offs and synergies and develop prioritized water, energy, food and ecosystems nexus innovations and policies in at least three focal regions.
Public-sector departments, international organizations, academia and investors use water productivity assessments and water storage diagnostics across scales and sectors to improve system-level water productivity through nexus interventions in all target basins.
Private investors and policymakers use scalable gender-sensitive energy business and finance models to accelerate rural energy access for more sustainable and equitable food systems in Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sudan.
Policymakers and stakeholders use science-policy dialogues, multistakeholder forums and a co-developed governance toolbox and guidelines to strengthen governance across water, energy, food and ecosystems in all target basins.
At least 40 emerging women leaders in government, private sector, academia and research institutions increase capacity to identify, assess and implement one or more nexus innovations per focal basin.

Impact

Projected impacts and benefits include:

	ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & BIODIVERSITY Co-design of and capacity development to use the latest Earth observation data and state-of-the-art digital tools to support effective uptake by planners and policymakers responsible for national policies and strategies for environmental sustainability and biodiversity, bringing 0.3 million hectares of land under improved management.
	NUTRITION, HEALTH & FOOD SECURITY Underlying environmental, social and policy conditions that enable affordable healthy diets and safe nutritious food production are addressed, resulting in healthy, sustainable diets becoming more widely available and affordable, directly benefiting 2.5 million people and indirectly benefiting 23 million.
	POVERTY REDUCTION, LIVELIHOODS & JOBS Rural poverty is addressed by increasing farm income through better access to clean energy, water and irrigation technology, higher resource-use efficiency, and generation of additional jobs and revenue opportunities for 2.5 million people, including women, youth and marginalized communities.
	GENDER EQUALITY, YOUTH & SOCIAL INCLUSION Initiative capacity and mentorship programs focus on women, youth and marginalized groups, directly benefiting 0.4 million women and 0.5 million youth. The Initiative also considers how to strengthen women’s agency in the development of guidelines and toolboxes, focusing on accelerating clean energy access, improving groundwater governance and supporting cross-sectoral multistakeholder platforms building on earlier CGIAR and other work.
	CLIMATE ADAPTATION & MITIGATION Scientific evidence on the impacts of climate-smart solutions across a range of sectors, and quantification of co-benefits and trade-offs, inform climate investments to ensure that they are effective and do not jeopardize system sustainability and resilience. Innovative financial models support inclusive and sustainable scaling, averting 2.5 million tonnes in equivalent emissions of CO2 and benefiting 2.5 million people.

Projected benefits are a way to illustrate reasonable orders of magnitude for impacts which could arise as a result of the impact pathways set out in the Initiative’s theories of change. In line with the 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy, Initiatives contribute to these impact pathways, along with other partners and stakeholders. CGIAR does not deliver impact alone. These projections therefore estimate plausible levels of impact to which CGIAR, with partners, contribute. They do not estimate CGIAR’s attributable share of the different impact pathways.

Partners

Partnerships are essential to the success of CGIAR Initiatives. The NEXUS Gains Initiative will work with a wide array of demand, innovation and scaling partners, including strong collaboration with national governments, civil society organizations, the private sector and academia, and international partnerships with universities, funders and investors.