A bottom-up approach to the nexus of energy, food and water security in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) comprises 15 countries from 6 different climatic zones. A review of existing national and regional policies related to water-energy and food security nexus was undertaken for the ECOWAS region and a stock-taking and mapping exercise of field-level activities undertaken by practitioners was conducted. This thought piece presents the results of the above exercises. The purpose of this work is to provide structured information that forms the knowledge baseline for future Nexus initiatives in the region and provides a clear direction for policy initiatives by identifying the gaps, weaknesses and inconsistencies and suggesting any potential for synergies and integration to facilitate policy-making processes. We find that ECOWAS region has made good progress at the regional level in terms of developing an integrated agenda, particularly for water, which has adopted a nexus approach. The member states are also moving in the right direction but a silo mentality still prevails, particularly in terms of project decisions, prioritisations and resource allocation. A decentralised decision making has not deepened in many states and authority has not been appropriately delegated. Various stresses have resulted in the region in the absence of-of a nexus approach. Yet, micro-level initiatives are emerging which showcase innovative approaches to deal with the challenges. We suggest rapid replication of such experiences through dissemination and cross-learning, and the provision of enabling conditions can make a major difference. Keywords: ECOWAS, nexus, top-down, bottom-up