The nexus in a nutshell

The document argues that sustainable governance of water, energy, and food requires an integrated nexus approach to reduce trade-offs and generate co-benefits. Using a scoping study of 85 organizations in Ethiopia's Tana and Beles basins, it demonstrates that social network analysis can identify the formal and informal relationships necessary to move beyond siloed sectoral management. The findings reveal that while some connections exist, relationships largely follow administrative and sectoral boundaries, with stronger vertical ties than horizontal ones, hindering the coordinated decision-making required for comprehensive solutions.

• The study identifies a critical interdependence between energy, water, and food in the Tana and Beles basins, where local reliance on biomass for energy leads to deforestation and land degradation, which subsequently harms hydropower production and agricultural productivity downstream.
• Analysis of 85 organizations shows that social networks are concentrated around a few highly connected key actors, primarily within federal and regional public sector line agencies, while NGOs and local government organizations typically remain on the periphery.
• Current organizational relationships in the study area tend to follow administrative and sectoral boundaries, with vertical connections (between different levels of government) being stronger than horizontal connections (between different sectors or locations at the same level).
• While the establishment of the Abay, Tana, and Beles river basin organizations aims to improve coordination, using river basins as the primary planning unit may create new challenges because many water-related problems originate in other policy fields like energy or agriculture.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2013). The nexus in a nutshell. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-DiscussionBrief-Stein-NexusBlueNile.pdf

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. The nexus in a nutshell. 2013. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-DiscussionBrief-Stein-NexusBlueNile.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=The nexus in a nutshell |date=2013 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-DiscussionBrief-Stein-NexusBlueNile.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2013nexus, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{The nexus in a nutshell}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2013}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-DiscussionBrief-Stein-NexusBlueNile.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }