Community of Practice

The water-energy-food-ecosystem Nexus approach (or WEFE Nexus) can form the basis for long-term social and economic stability through the sustainable development of natural resources. While WEFE Nexus has wide acceptance worldwide, it is largely lacking in practice at the governance level (local, national, regional) and virtually unknown in public circles. In countries of Central Asia, in most cases, these development sectors are still considered separately, both at the national and regional levels.

Thus, there is still an urgent need to develop a broad understanding of intersectoral collaboration to enable the rational use of resources for the benefit of future generations.

The promotion of the Nexus approach requires a change in the attitude of the population towards this issue, which can be done through environmental education and awareness. The mass media has a key role to play in fostering this understanding and inspiring public opinion to action for creating the changes necessary to promote sustainable development. Through engaging journalism focused on environmental issues and education, the media provides a valuable opening through which to connect the WEFE Nexus approach with people’s daily lives.

In this context, the 17^th WEFE Nexus lecture focuses on the following issues:

• How environmental issues are covered in the international arena;
• What difficulties journalists face when discussing and covering issues of intersectoral cooperation;
• How to describe and engage WEFE Nexus in the media for a correct understanding of the approach.

For this lecture, we are pleased to be joined by our distinguished speaker:

Angelina Davydova, environmental journalist, co-moderator of the podcast The Eurasian Climate Brief, editor of the magazine "Environment and Rights," climate projects coordinator of n-ost (Berlin), and an observer of the UNFCCC process since 2008.