Quantifying sustainability and resilience in food systems: a systematic analysis for evaluating the convergence of current methodologies and metrics
The global food system faces multiple challenges including growing demand, climate change, conflicts, economic shocks, pandemics, and disasters. Food systems aim to provide healthy and nutritious food for all, while minimizing environmental impacts, ensuring social equity and economic viability, and enhancing resilience to shocks and stresses. The fragility of the global food system has been […]
Food for Thought: Nourishing Cardiovascular Health Amidst the Exposome
The cumulative exposures of an individual during their lifetime, known as the exposome, encompass environmental exposures and lifestyle factors that significantly impact cardiovascular health. The exposome concept aims to provide a comprehensive framework for understanding how various exposures combine to influence disease risk and health outcomes over a lifetime. Diet is a well-studied aspect of […]
Mapping affordable and transferrable climate-smart technologies for smallholder farmers
In response to the pressing need for innovative solutions to address food security challenges, a tripartite cooperation agreement between FAO’s Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), initiated a comprehensive “Mapping exercise of affordable and transferrable food security related technologies.” […]
A Systems Approach for Disaster Risk Reduction: Exploring the Nexus of Energy, Food, and Human Mobility in the Northern Countries of Central America
Globally, disasters and their impacts have been characterized by increasing frequency and changing patterns. Global warming effects, including climate change, have exacerbated the severity and frequency of hydrometeorological and oceanographic, and other risk factors or drivers, such as population growth, urbanization, limited access to resources, inadequate infrastructure, and prevailing structural development conditions, putting additional lives […]
Water–energy–food–health nexus in Lebanon
This study used a water–energy–food system-of-systems assessment to evaluate the sustainability of the Mediterranean diet in Lebanon. The specific aims were to: 1) identify and quantify the critical interconnections between water, energy and food systems in Lebanon; 2) develop a nexus framework to assess the trade-offs associated with adopting interventions within current water, energy and […]
Building resilience in fragile and conflict-affected agrifood systems through a water-energy-food nexus approach
Fragility has become a prevailing reality in an increasing number of countries in various areas, including Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) [1]. The concept of fragility encompasses a range of dimensions, including armed conflict, migration, economic and political instability, erosion of the social fabric, and scarcity, depletion, and contamination of natural resources […]
Addressing Food Security Challenges in Lebanon: A Water-Energy-Food-Health Nexus Approach
As Lebanon faces compound challenges including a pandemic, economic, financial and political failure, a looming food security crisis is rapidly approaching. Much of this crisis could be attributed to the lack of long-term planning and investment in the sustainability of the agricultural sector. Another challenge lies in the existing disconnect between decision making between the […]
Evaluating farmer priorities and readiness to adopt new water, energy, and agricultural solutions in Lebanon
As Lebanon faces compound challenges including a pandemic, economic, financial and political failure, a looming food security crisis is rapidly approaching. Much of this crisis could be attributed to the lack of long-term planning and investment in the sustainability of the agricultural sector. Another challenge lies in the existing disconnect between decision-making between the agricultural […]
Examining Lebanon’s Resilience Through a Water-Energy-Food Nexus Lens
Lebanon faces a mix of underlying political and economic challenges, shocks, and triggering events that threaten the sustainability and resilience of its interconnected resource systems. The complex nature of these pressures begs for a systems approach to better understand the existing interconnections and to support the co-creation of cross-sectoral solutions to address them. This article […]
Toward Resilient Water-Energy-Food Systems under Shocks: Understanding the Impact of Migration, Pandemics, and Natural Disasters
The historic pandemic faced by the international community today boldly demonstrates the complexity and interconnectedness of the resource challenges we must better understand and address in the future. Further complexity is observed when accounting for the impact of compounded shocks related to natural disasters and forced migration around the world. Effectively addressing these challenges requires […]