More than 40 representatives from 4 cities, namely Monastir in Tunisia, Karak and Sarak in Jordan and Ideidet El Chouf in Lebanon attended a two-day Urban Nexus Training Workshop in Tunisia in February 2018.
Prior to the Urban Nexus training workshop, the MINARET First Regional Platform on Water, Energy and Food Nexus workshop was held. This was organised by the regional MINARET project on 13 February 2018. Both workshops demonstrated the successful cooperation between the regional MINARET project, financed by SIDA, the GIZ Sector Project “Sustainable Water Policy”, Integrated Resource Management in Asian cities: the Urban Nexus Project, cities from the MENA Region, CBOs, Associations and NGOs from Tunisia, Lebanon and Jordan.
The Urban Nexus training provided a platform for experience sharing between cities and countries of the MENA region, donors, implementing and international organisations from the Middle East and South & Southeast Asia. The Middle East region was represented by UNESCWA with 22 Middle East member states. South & Southeast Asia were represented by the GIZ Urban Nexus Project. The project is implemented by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (UNESCAP) with 62-member states in Asia Pacific.
Nexus is considered as a new way of thinking and a change of paradigms. Its system approach concentrates on water, energy and food security, exploiting their synergies and making tradeoffs transparent and hence easier to manage.
The course promoted integrated resource management concentrating on the “Nexus” sectors of energy, water and food security, also embedded in the Global Agendas. It consisted of different modules referring to the Nexus approach as a multi sectoral and multi-level tool. This included:
1. Innovative cross-sectoral and environmentally friendly technologies (The Brick, innovative waste water and solid waste management, energy efficiency of buildings)
2. Political and legal framework conditions (laws, standards, and tariffs/fees)
3. Vertical and horizontal integration (clustering)
4. Participatory action including gender (“leave no one behind”)
Cities have to improve their services through better sustainable physical infrastructure and social infrastructure in order to become inclusive and resilient.
The workshop was conducted in an interactive manner and consisted of short inputs followed by intensive group work by the four cities, presentations and discussions. The groups worked on specific cross-sectoral infrastructure projects to be implemented, concretised and completed throughout the two days according to the inputs given.
It is assumed that the concrete projects would qualify for financing by MINARET or other financing bodies such as World Bank, KfW and/or the national level within the respective countries.
The topics of energy efficiency in buildings (air-tight building envelope, thermo-technical insulation/retrofitting), water reuse (producing energy out of black water, reuse of grey water and nutrients for agriculture, PV for energy production) dominated the discussions.
It was agreed that the Nexus approach is to be seen and interpreted on the basis of the vision of a circular economy separating energy and mass flow cycles (“closing the loop” on the basis of “take, make, return”). The linear economy consisting of “take, make, dispose” can no longer be the guiding principle in this era of growing scarcity of natural resources such as water, energy and land.
Furthermore, a south-south dialogue between the MENA Region and South and Southeast Asia enables the regions to learn from each other. The shared experiences on best practice and on what might go wrong will also be useful. It is therefore recommended that formats be sought to continue the exchange of know-how on innovative and sustainable solutions for improved infrastructure development and urban services of municipalities including UNESCWA and UNESCAP.
The next regional workshop of the Urban Nexus Project is scheduled for November 2018.This could be a starting point for continued south-south dialogue and peer-to-peer learning including the different GIZ initiatives/projects.
Integrated Resource Management in Asian cities: the Urban Nexus Project is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by UNESCAP.