The need for transformation is global. However, environmental and socio-economic impacts of irreversible environmental degradation are greater in the global south and the capacity to adapt is often low because of intersecting poverty, education and health concerns that are coupled with limited resources and limited access to knowledge and tools (IPCC, 2014). In t light of this, and in response to an urgent need for equity and social justice in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we believe that significant attention needs to be given to transformative processes for systemic transformation/ social change across the globe, but especially in African countries. It is therefore necessary to understand how transformative processes can be used to move towards transformative change with the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus as an approach that supports this change, and what can be learned across countries, cases, contexts and scales. The WEF nexus approach captures a systemic resource challenge and is already being interrogated and applied in African countries (e.g., through Global Water Partnership and Southern Africa Development Community, and projects such as the EU-financed DAFNE that explores the WEF nexus in complex transboundary water resource systems of Africa).

Since 2019, Osnabrück University in Germany together with Rhodes University, University of Cape Town and University of Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa have been sharing knowledge, approaches and experiences on transformative processes in the context of the WEF nexus and sustainable development in Sub-Saharan Africa and Germany. As the initiative expanded it has also involved further researchers from other institutes in South Africa. The profiles of the researchers involved can be found on the Team page. This project was made possible with funding from the Volkswagen Foundation’s Knowledge for Tomorrow – Cooperative Research Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa Programme.

The team has worked together comparing and analysing case studies which have the potential to stimulate transformative pathways to sustainability. This involved a process of theory building, co-learning and developing understanding using case studies in Subsaharan African countries. The case studies included the Tsitsa river basin in the Eastern Cape, the Umgeni in Kwazulu Natal and the Berg river basin in the Western Cape

Through two workshops, a Summer School, and numerous meetings (mainly online due to the ongoing pandemic), the project partners have shared knowledge, approaches and experiences on learning and transformation processes in the context of the WEF nexus and sustainable development with a wider audience of researchers in sub-Saharan Africa and Germany.

The project has developed a better understanding of transformative processes associated with the implementation of the SDGs in the context of the WEF nexus approach. Specifically the project has:

1. strengthened understanding and capacity for enhancing socially transformative processes at the WEF nexus and for inter-sectional SDG
engagement;

2. presented the newest knowledge consolidated in the two workshops in 2019 and 2020 as well as pre-existing knowledge;

3. Shared this knowledge and case-study based experiences in a Summer School.

4. facilitated the development of new networks and/or linkages with existing networks; and,

5. strengthened international exchange and collaboration.

The relevant resources generated and gathered in the project are being collected and shared on this platform. See the Summer School page and the Resources page. Articles in the form of a special issue are currently being prepared for submission and will be made available on the resources page.

In addition to knowledge and practical experience, one of the most important outcomes of this project have been an expanded research network of experienced researchers and young academics from Sub-Saharan Africa and Germany concerned with processes of transformation in the energy, climate change, water and food security nexus.