The theme of the 2023 World Food Day is Water is life, water is food. Leave no one behind. Water is essential to life on Earth. It covers the majority of the Earth's surface, makes up over 50% of our bodies, produces our food, and supports livelihoods. But this precious resource is not infinite and we need to stop taking it for granted. What we eat, and how that food is produced all affect water. This means it is time to start managing water wisely
The 2023 World Food Day theme is very important to reflect on given the recent report from the Stockholm Resilience Centre that has warned that, ‘we are in six out of nine vital life support systems, we have blown well past the safe zone. And we’re now in the danger zone, where we – as well as every other species – are now at risk’.
The planetary boundaries concept presents a set of nine planetary boundaries within which humanity can continue to develop and thrive for generations to come. Crossing boundaries increases the risk of generating large-scale abrupt or irreversible environmental changes. Drastic changes will not necessarily happen overnight, but together the boundaries mark a critical threshold for increasing risks to people and the ecosystems we are part of.
The Planetary boundaries 2023 (Source: Helene Karlsson)
The planetary boundaries concept presents a set of nine planetary boundaries within which humanity can continue to develop and thrive for generations to come. Crossing boundaries increases the risk of generating large-scale abrupt or irreversible environmental changes. Drastic changes will not necessarily happen overnight, but together the boundaries mark a critical threshold for increasing risks to people and the ecosystems we are part of.
Boundaries are interrelated processes within the complex biophysical Earth system. This means that a global focus on climate change alone is not sufficient for increased sustainability. Instead, understanding the interplay of boundaries, especially climate, and loss of biodiversity, is key in science and practice.
In 2011, the Bonn2011 Conference: The Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus – Solutions for a Green Economy noted that achieving water, energy and food security, and consequently reducing hunger and eradicating poverty, is a central future challenge that is possible even under difficult and challenging global economic conditions.
One of the policy recommendations from this Conference, ‘to have a coordinated and interlinked approach to decision-making’ ties in well with the 2023 theme of the World Food Day. This will ensure achievement of water, energy and food security, optimum use of natural resources, effective demand management and efficient use of increasingly limited financial resources.
This looks at creating synergies both horizontally across the three sectors and the broader policy environment including climate change and urban development, and vertically between international, regional, national and local levels. Similarly it embraces the principles of the Green Economy in decoupling growth from resource depletion.
Achieving mutually beneficial approaches, multiple benefits and fewer unintended consequences requires political commitment and coherent policies to ensure that development pathways explicitly account for the inter-dependency between water, energy and food.
Energy provision and food supply options utilize water and land to varying extents and similarly water supply requires energy at differing scales and intensities. In prioritizing water, energy and food security and its contribution to poverty reduction, any trade-offs between alternative choices on resource utilization, technology, regulatory frameworks, incentive structures, fiscal and trade policy should be made on the basis of an integrated ‘nexus assessment, review and strategy.’
It would provide an open and full understanding of the implications of one choice on the other options as well as consequent requirements placed on natural resources and the risks of degradation. Multiple benefits and efficiency gains can be achieved by looking beyond single issue approaches.
In addition, cooperative structures and procedural mechanisms for implementation of a more interlinked ‘nexus’ perspective at international, national and local levels should be encouraged.
The objectives of greater interlinkage in policy formulation, planning, management and monitoring processes can be achieved by targeted cooperation, cross-sectoral relations, improved procedures and regulatory measures while concentrating on the fundamental need to improve sector performance.
Within sectors, financial incentives are required for innovation and replicating successful initiatives. Cooperation is needed at the national level through strategic planning and functional linkages to coordinate sectoral ministries and other stakeholders including civil society; in business through strengthened incentives, public-private partnerships and improved corporate responsibility programs; at the local level in ensuring access to basic services; and at the international level, for example through more effective coordination in implementing existing multilateral environment agreements and Green Economy considerations.
Similarly greater cooperation applies in formulating strategies to enhance resilience to natural disasters and improve adaptive capacities.
In 2011, the Bonn2011 Conference: The Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus – Solutions for a Green Economy noted that achieving water, energy and food security, and consequently reducing hunger and eradicating poverty, is a central future challenge that is possible even under difficult and challenging global economic conditions.
One of the policy recommendations from this Conference, ‘to have a coordinated and interlinked approach to decision-making’ ties in well with the 2023 theme of the World Food Day. This will ensure achievement of water, energy and food security, optimum use of natural resources, effective demand management and efficient use of increasingly limited financial resources.
This looks at creating synergies both horizontally across the three sectors and the broader policy environment including climate change and urban development, and vertically between international, regional, national and local levels. Similarly it embraces the principles of the Green Economy in decoupling growth from resource depletion.
Achieving mutually beneficial approaches, multiple benefits and fewer unintended consequences requires political commitment and coherent policies to ensure that development pathways explicitly account for the inter-dependency between water, energy and food.
Energy provision and food supply options utilize water and land to varying extents and similarly water supply requires energy at differing scales and intensities. In prioritizing water, energy and food security and its contribution to poverty reduction, any trade-offs between alternative choices on resource utilization, technology, regulatory frameworks, incentive structures, fiscal and trade policy should be made on the basis of an integrated ‘nexus assessment, review and strategy.’
It would provide an open and full understanding of the implications of one choice on the other options as well as consequent requirements placed on natural resources and the risks of degradation. Multiple benefits and efficiency gains can be achieved by looking beyond single issue approaches.
In addition, cooperative structures and procedural mechanisms for implementation of a more interlinked ‘nexus’ perspective at international, national and local levels should be encouraged.
The objectives of greater interlinkage in policy formulation, planning, management and monitoring processes can be achieved by targeted cooperation, cross-sectoral relations, improved procedures and regulatory measures while concentrating on the fundamental need to improve sector performance.
Within sectors, financial incentives are required for innovation and replicating successful initiatives. Cooperation is needed at the national level through strategic planning and functional linkages to coordinate sectoral ministries and other stakeholders including civil society; in business through strengthened incentives, public-private partnerships and improved corporate responsibility programs; at the local level in ensuring access to basic services; and at the international level, for example through more effective coordination in implementing existing multilateral environment agreements and Green Economy considerations.
Similarly greater cooperation applies in formulating strategies to enhance resilience to natural disasters and improve adaptive capacities.
