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Project Abstract

In the summer of 2019, Colombia created its first Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (Minciencias), which elevated the importance of this topic to the highest priority level. The economically-disadvantaged department of La Guajira in Colombia, which borders Venezuela on the Caribbean coast, has gained international attention as agencies aim to help indigenous communities, as well as develop the area for its abundant coal, sunshine, and wind. This has prompted the new governor of La Guajira to establish a department of energy to implement large-scale renewable energy projects. However, many officials from La Guajira are skeptical about this new approach as they have experienced many development projects ultimately fail in this region in the past, because these project been undertaken without considering the effects of water, energy, and food interlinkages and their associated social and ecological impacts, which are imperative to consider when striving for sustainability.

Through Penn State’s Office of Global Programs, Penn State established a partnership with University of Bogota Jorge Tadeo Lozano (UTADEO) to expand its Water-Energy-Nexus initiative into the promising department of La Guajira. The proposed International Alliance for Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus Implementation Science will serve as an integrated platform for transdisciplinary research for development, policy, and education that will provide decision support to diverse stakeholders and inform policy for promoting strategies to secure access to basic human rights, namely: water and sanitation systems; food security; and access to energy. In this study, a survey instrument was developed to distribute to all stakeholders involved with WEF-Nexus development programs in La Guajira. The purpose was to identify missing interlinkages, analyze the trade-offs and synergies not accounted for in past development programs, identify cooperation between WEF and related sectors, and finally analyze the vulnerability to external factors that may affect the WEF-Nexus paradigm. In addition, a WEF-Nexus Field Guide was developed to facilitate the navigation of WEF-Nexus assessment and education support tools. The field guide helps identify the role of the stakeholder and characterizes the synergies, tradeoffs, and toolkits needed to fulfill a holistic approach to sustainable development programs.

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