The nexus in a nutshell

This discussion brief by the Stockholm Environment Institute examines the energy-water-food nexus in Ethiopia's Tana and Beles basins. Based on a scoping study of 85 organizations, it explores how social network analysis can identify governance gaps and facilitate the integrated management required to reduce trade-offs between water, energy, and food production.

• The energy-water-food nexus approach aims to understand the interdependencies between energy, water, and food systems to reduce trade-offs and create cobenefits through integrated governance. Because these challenges are linked biophysically and socially, no single actor can solve them alone, requiring collaboration across different sectors and scales.
• In the Tana and Beles basins, interdependence is evidenced by the fact that local reliance on biomass for energy leads to deforestation and land degradation, which in turn causes erosion and sedimentation that negatively impacts hydropower production and agricultural productivity downstream, as well as ecosystems around Lake Tana.
• A study of 85 organizations—including 56 governmental organizations, 8 NGOs, 6 research organizations, 4 government-owned companies, 3 bilateral development organizations, and 3 river basin organizations—revealed that social networks are concentrated around a few key actors, primarily in the federal and regional public sector.
• Governance in the Tana and Beles basins is characterized by relationships that follow administrative and sectoral boundaries rather than integrated ones. Connections are stronger vertically (between different levels of government) than horizontally (between different sectors or locations, such as upstream and downstream), and many respondents identified a lack of coordination as a key issue.
• To implement a nexus approach, Ethiopia requires organizational arrangements that cross hydrological, political, and sectoral boundaries. While the establishment of the Abay, Tana, and Beles river basin organizations aims to improve coordination among water users, using river basins as the sole planning unit may create new challenges for other policy fields like energy and 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} }