First Tunisia NEL workshop

May 18, 2022 | news

On May 18th, 2022, Institut des Régions Arides (IRA) and Commissariat Régional au Développement Agricole de Gabès (CRDA), organised and executed the 1st NEL workshop with the title “WEFE-Nexus to ensure Water, Food, Energy and Environmental security in the Wadi Jir Watershed” in “New Matmata culture house” in New Matmata, Tunisia. The goal of the workshop is to mobilise and engage the NEL Stakeholders for creating awareness about the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus challenge in their location and to initiate a discussion for co-defining a WEFE-Nexus common vision and transition plan and to prepare them for collaboration in the coming NEXUS-NESS NEL workshop(s) and activities.

The workshop was held in the framework of the NEXUS-NESS project and of the application of the NEL Innovation Ecosystem Approach. 27 participants were recruited based on their expertise and interest in:

  1. Identification of the best water allocation and adapted crop for sustainable food production and ecosystem conservation, 2- Ensuring self-sufficiency in water and energy needed, 3-Ensuring rural development (tourism, HMAP production).
  2. The workshop has engaged farmers, cooperative, farmers association, regional authority, local authority, research organism as NEL stakeholders in a participatory debate to examine the WEFE-NEXUS Challenge(s) and to co-define WEFE-Nexus ideas for co-creation of a transition WEFE-Nexus vision, plan and actions.

The half-day-long workshop was facilitated according to the World Café method in 4 rounds with 5 to 6 participants at each table. This method allows for integrating contributions from individuals with diverse views, backgrounds and perspectives through a process that is structured, inclusive and collaborative.

During the workshop the participants formulated 36 statements of WEFE-NEXUS (13 Ecosystem issues/actions + 7 Water + 8 Energy + 8 Food) based on the triggering question:

  1. (Water) How to determine the best method for the equitable and sustainable distribution of water?
  2. (Energy) How to exploit alternative energies (Solar energy)?
  3. (Food) What is the impact of changing agricultural practices?
  4. (Ecosystems) How to ensure rural development (tourism, promotion of medicinal and aromatic herbs)?

These statements were grouped in 4 groups named Water, Energy, Food, Ecosystem. The host at each table presented the statements and these were discussed among the stakeholders and voted.

The main messages were: 

  • Everyone is aware of the critical situation in the area and the need to intervene in order to remedy this situation.
  • There is a big difference between expectations and their order of priorities, for example, they classified forestry at the top of the priority list, but we did not mention this proposal.
  • A protest against the results of the vote and an accusation of being unrealistic in the arrangement of the proposals.