Abstract
• The energy sector is intertwined with water, food, public health, and
gender matters. Hence a nexus perspective increases understanding of
these interdependencies, enhancing efficiency, balancing trade-offs,
building synergies, and improving governance. Energy helps to achieve
secure and equal access to productive resources and inputs, helps to
sustain food production systems, and helps to boost investment in rural
infrastructure and technology. It also facilitates access to safe
drinking water and sanitation, improvement of water quality, and
expansion of wastewater treatment. Energy can help reduce death and
illness from air, water, and soil pollution and contamination. It can
also support women’s equal rights to economic and natural resources,
enhance use of enabling technology, and help prevent violence against
women and girls in public and private places. • The three objectives of
Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) are closely interwoven into the four
nexus areas-water, food, health, and gender. Providing universal access
to modern energy services, increasing the share of renewable energy
(RE), and improving energy efficiency will greatly influence them. • The
SE4All objectives generate multiple nexus opportunities and challenges.
Water security may be increased if water-related risks are managed well
and contamination risks minimized. Similarly, food security may improve,
and RE sources may help decouple food prices from energy prices, while
managing production of energy crops. Global health may improve further
as efforts focus on reducing air pollution and strengthening health
services delivery. Finally, gender equality can be enhanced as time
poverty decreases through better energy services and as women
participate more actively in the energy value chain. • Although existing
data capture part of the nexus approach , improvements are needed in all
four sectors to accurately monitor intersectoral impacts, supporting
policymakers in developing integrated policies.