Thursday, May 6th from 13:00—14:00 (GMT+2)
This webinar will take place online.

Register in advance: https://maties.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_JpZ3mrzTQoOsg6Pp3-i-kw

Join us for a Webinar in our CST series of Webinars 

Food systems transformation in southern Africa:
a water-energy-food (WEF) nexus perspective

Southern Africa faces an uphill battle to achieve food and water security. Roughly 43% of the region is either arid or semiarid, 70% of its people rely on rain-fed agriculture, while the increasing frequency of droughts and other extreme weather events threaten the sustainability of agriculture at large. Recent crises like the COVID-19 pandemic have worsened the situation in many places, bringing age-old questions back to the fore – can southern Africa feed itself, does it have enough water and energy to do so, and can it do so equitably and sustainably in a crisis?
In this webinar, we will discuss these questions in the context of inter-connected WEF systems, and share insights from a recent regional dialogue on food systems transformation in southern Africa, convened as part of the lead-up to the UN Food Systems Summit taking place in September 2021.

Discussants:
Inga Jacobs-Mata (International Water Management Institute)
Sherwin Gabriel (International Food Policy Research Institute)
Steve Collins (Resilient Waters Program)

Moderators:
Maike Hamann, Nadia Sitas, Odirilwe Selomane (CST)

This webinar will take place online.
Register in advance for this webinar:
https://maties.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_JpZ3mrzTQoOsg6Pp3-i-kw

 

Dr Inga Jacobs-Matais the Country Representative for the International Water Management Institute’s Southern Africa regional office, where she leads a dynamic multi-disciplinary team of researchers and support staff working throughout SADC to advance water’s role in systems transformation. She is a political scientist and has a PhD in International Relations from St-Andrews University, Scotland. She specialises in water governance with 15 years of experience in transboundary water governance (particularly cooperative governance in Africa), science communication, and research impact and uptake. Current areas of focus: the politics of climate change; operationalizing the water-energy-food nexus and its governance frameworks; water stewardship; community-based approaches/supported self-supply; hybrid water law; environmental migration.
Before joining IWMI, Inga was the research group leader of the integrated water solutions group at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and the Executive Manager: Business Development, Marketing and Communications at the Water Research Commission in South Africa.

 

Sherwin Gabriel is a Scientist at the International Food Policy Research Institute, working in the Global Futures and Strategic Foresight team. He contributes to research using global models of agricultural commodities and trade, and on economy-wide models. He applies these models to questions of climate change risk, food policy interventions, energy planning, and inclusive economic development.

 

 

Steve Collins has worked as a local economic development facilitator in southern Africa for 30 years specialising in land reform and local economic development linked to natural resources. He has a passion for involving communities in their own development and making them the focus of NGO, private sector and government development initiatives. He has situated private sector and government development investments in a rural context so that they stimulate local economic and social development. One of the key areas of his work in the last 10 years has been in establishing CPPPs around conservation, renewable energy and ecotourism projects. Steve is currently the Livelihoods and Adaptation Specialist for the USAID Resilient Waters Program and chairperson of the African Safari Foundation which advises communities on maximising the sustainable benefits achieved from conservation areas.