By Nina Mitch
The Government of the Republic of South Africa, through the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), hosted policymakers, researchers and academia, the private sector and civil society representing the 16 SADC states during the 9th Water, Energy, and Food Nexus Dialogue.
The Dialogue, linked the youth with the WEF Nexus, thus demonstrating how the WEF nexus is necessary for productivity while paying dividends through youth participation. The Dialogue, therefore, took forward the SADC industrialization agenda while focusing on infrastructure development, youth empowerment, and sustainable development.
During the Dialogue, the SADC framework for nexus governance and investments was introduced as a mechanism for strengthening institutional coordination and improving the alignment of the WEF sectoral policy implementation in the SADC region.
The SADC Strategy and Business Plan on Youth Participation and Empowerment for Sustainable Development 2015-2020 is said to be unique as it cuts across the many challenges and vulnerabilities facing youth, by putting young women and men at the very heart of addressing the root causes of these encounters.
The Dialogue addressed the development of a collaboration framework for guiding the engagement of youth in coordinated structures and governance while simultaneously achieving water, food and energy security.
As a cross-cutting intervention, youth engagement was explored by discussing potential innovative tools on how to create jobs in the SADC region.
Key to this, the Dialogue also discussed the challenges and opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and how the region and youth could be prepared for the emerging digital, physical
and biological technologies.
The Dialogue enabled participants to increase awareness of the regional approach to integrated planning in the Water, Energy and Food Security sectors.
