Publication:
From Scarcity to Security: Examining the Water Energy-Food Nexus in the West Bank and Gaza within the Context of Climate Change

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (15.69 MB)
70 downloads
English Text (619.9 KB)
10 downloads
Published
2025-08-06
ISSN
Date
2025-08-07
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report provides a deeper analysis that identifies exogenous vulnerabilities, such as climate change, and their impacts on the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus in the West Bank and Gaza. It provides an analysis of the water, agriculture, and energy sectors and identifies potential adaptation responses, institutional measures, and investments anchored in the WEF nexus to improve sustainability and resiliency in the context of increasing uncertainty. These recommendations remain broadly relevant even in the context of the ongoing conflict and could provide useful guidance to inform the reconstruction and recovery efforts
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2025. From Scarcity to Security: Examining the Water Energy-Food Nexus in the West Bank and Gaza within the Context of Climate Change. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/43557 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Building a Sustainable Future : The Africa Region Environment Strategy
    (Washington, DC, 2002) World Bank
    This environment strategy outlines the current thinking in the World Bank Group Africa Region about priorities and actions for the institution in the environmental arena. The Africa Region Environment Strategy (ARES) outlines the Bank's commitment to help its clients achieve sustainable poverty reduction through better environmental management. It identifies the most urgent issues at the interface of environment and poverty and discusses targeted actions for addressing them. It reviews the lessons from experience to date and proposes new approaches. The strategic context in which the ARES has evolved and will be implemented is defined by the Bank's mission statement and operational policies, the World Bank Environment Strategy (WBES), and by the Bank's broader objectives, priorities, and strategies in the Africa Region. Like the WBES, the ARES approaches environment through a "poverty lens" and targets four main objectives: a) ensuring sustainable livelihoods, b) improving environmental health, c) reducing vulnerability to natural disasters, and d) maintaining local, regional, and global ecosystems and values. Key elements of the ARES include integrating environment into development and poverty reduction strategies; building an enabling environment and the institutional and human capacity for sustainable environmental management; promoting environmentally sustainable and equitable private sector-led economic development; improving governance; and encouraging decentralization.
  • Publication
    Getting a Grip on Climate Change in the Philippines : Extended Technical Report
    (Washington, DC, 2013-06) World Bank
    Philippines currently experience and will continue to face significant impacts from climate change. To ensure climate resilience, build a low-carbon economy, and increase its role in the global climate change dialogue, the Philippine government has launched strong climate policy and institutional and financing reforms, supported by a clear rationale for no-regrets action. However, transformative progress toward a more climate resilient society and low carbon economy remains limited. Carried out at mid-term of the first phase of the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP), the Philippine Development Plan (2011-2016) and the current Administration, this review is an opportunity, and comes early enough, to ensure that first phase reforms are finalized and the groundwork for the second and third phases put in place. Recommendations consolidate the strategic direction of the NCCAP and set the stage for scaling up action over the next two phases. Specific activities are proposed to support eight objectives organized around three pillars: (i) strengthening the planning, execution, and financing framework for climate change; (ii) enhancing accountability through monitoring, evaluation, and review of climate change policies and activities; and (iii) building capacity and managing change.
  • Publication
    Getting a Grip on Climate Change in the Philippines : Executive Report
    (Washington, DC, 2013-06) World Bank
    The Philippines already experiences and will continue to face impacts from climate change. In the decades ahead, the most serious consequences will be felt in coastal and urban areas. Severe hardships are expected in agriculture and fisheries, leading to negative impacts on jobs and the economy. With these risks in mind the Philippine Government has initiated significant climate reforms, establishing a basis for transformation. To assess gaps and accelerate implementation of the climate reform agenda, in 2012 the Department of Budget and management and the climate change commission sought advisory services from the World Bank to carry out a Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Review (CPEIR). Carried out at mid-term of the first phase of the national climate change action plan, the Philippine development plan (2011-2016), and the current administration, this review comes early enough to help guide the finalization and operationalization of the first phase of the climate reform agenda. This executive report summarizes the findings and recommendations of the CPEIR, including an analytical snapshot of the policies, institutions, and expenditures for undertaking climate action in the Philippines, and recommendations to contribute to a successful implementation of the Philippine climate reform agenda.
  • Publication
    Guide to Climate Change Adaptation in Cities
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011) World Bank Group
    Cities face significant impacts from climate change, both now and into the future. These impacts have potentially serious consequences for human health, livelihoods, and assets, especially for the urban poor, informal settlements, and other vulnerable groups. Climate change impacts range from an increase in extreme weather events and flooding to hotter temperatures and public health concerns. Cities in low elevation coastal zones, for instance, face the combined threat of sea-level rise and storm surges. The specific impacts on each city will depend on the actual changes in climate experienced (for example, higher temperatures or increased rainfall), which will vary from place to place. Climate change will increase the frequency at which some natural hazards occur, especially extreme weather events, and introduce new incremental impacts that are less immediate. However, few climate impacts will be truly unfamiliar to cities. Cities have always lived with natural hazards, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and flooding. In some situations, cities will experience an increase in the frequency of existing climate-related hazards, such as flooding. Climate change considerations can be integrated with disaster risk reduction (DRR) in cities. DRR efforts already familiar to many may be used as a platform from which to develop climate change adaptation plans. In practical terms, disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation can be integrated in many instances, although cities should also consider incremental or gradual changes in climate that affect government operations or community life in less immediate and visible ways than conventional disasters. Approaches to collecting information on climate change impacts in a city can range from highly technical and resource-intensive, to simple and inexpensive. Technically complex assessments are likely to require collaboration with external experts, if a city is not large or well-resourced with sufficient in-house capacity.
  • Publication
    Adapting to Climate Change in Europe and Central Asia
    (World Bank, 2009-06-01) World Bank
    The climate is changing; and the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region is vulnerable to the consequences. Many of the region's countries are facing warmer temperatures, a changing hydrology and more extremes, droughts, floods, heat waves, windstorms, and forest fires. Already the frequency and cost of natural disasters have risen dramatically in the region. And the concentration of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere guarantees that similar or greater changes are yet to come, even if the world completely stopped emitting carbon dioxide. Now, and at least for the near future, ECA vulnerability is being driven more by its existing sensitivity than by the severity of the climate impacts. In fact, ECA already suffers from a serious adaptation deficit even to its current climate. This derives from a combination of socioeconomic factors and the Soviet legacy of environmental mismanagement. This report presents an overview of what adaptation to climate change might mean for ECA. It starts with a discussion of emerging best practice adaptation planning around the world and a review of the latest climate projections. The report then discusses possible actions to improve resilience organized around impacts on natural resources (water, biodiversity, and the coastal environment), health, the 'unbuilt' environment (agriculture and forestry), and the built environment (infrastructure and housing). The last chapter concludes with a discussion of two areas in great need of strengthening given the changing climate: disaster preparedness and hydrometeorological services.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Fostering Climate Education and Youth Entrepreneurship in Central Asia
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-08-06) World Bank
    Climate education and youth entrepreneurship are pathways for young people to become agents of change in their communities in response to the environmental challenges of today, particularly climate change. This report provides recommendations on developing climate education and youth entrepreneurship in Central Asia, as the region transitions to building resilient and green economies. This report presents key findings from the study Rural Schools and the Development of Entrepreneurship Skills Related to Natural Resources and Climate in Central Asia—a three-year initiative aimed at integrating climate change awareness and entrepreneurship education with landscape restoration investments across the region.
  • Publication
    Rethinking Fiscal Policies
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-05-27) Fuchs Tarlovsky, Alan; Amjad, Beenish; Loayza Grisi, Mario Julian
    This paper examines the redistributive impact of fiscal policy—specifically taxes and transfers—on poverty and inequality in eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa: the Arab Republic of Egypt, Djibouti, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and the West Bank and Gaza. Utilizing the Commitment to Equity framework, the analysis evaluates how fiscal interventions alter income distribution across these diverse national contexts. The results indicate that direct cash transfers and social assistance programs are generally effective in reducing poverty and shielding vulnerable populations, while in-kind benefits—particularly in education and healthcare—significantly contribute to mitigating income inequality. In contrast, generalized subsidies, especially in the energy sector, are fiscally burdensome and largely regressive, offering limited equity gains. Indirect taxes, although important for revenue generation, often exacerbate income disparities. The study underscores the need for comprehensive fiscal reforms, including the expansion of well-targeted transfers, adoption of progressive taxation, and reallocation of inefficient subsidies toward investments in human capital. Successful initiatives, such as Egypt’s Takaful and Karama and Jordan’s Takaful and bread subsidy compensation programs, illustrate scalable models of effective redistribution. Moreover, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s progressive tax policies highlight viable pathways to equitable revenue mobilization. Strengthening investment in education and health is essential for promoting long-term equity, enhancing upward mobility, and supporting inclusive and sustainable development across the region.
  • Publication
    Nepal Human Capital Review
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-08-11) World Bank
    The Nepal Human Capital Review (NHCR) situates the life of Sujata in a wider story about lost talent and productivity in Nepal. This report discusses the anecdotal “ifs” for Sujata by analyzing the circumstances in which Nepali children grow up and determining the potential and productivity they can achieve as adults. It poses the questions: What would happen to productivity if Nepal were to invest in and offer quality education and health services to every child? How much productivity potential goes unrealized in Nepal, and what needs to change to ensure this potential is not lost? The NHCR addresses these questions by analyzing the evolution of human capital accumulation and utilization in Nepal between 2010 and 2023. Human capital is the economic value of workers’ life experience and skills, making it a central driver of productivity and economic growth, and a key contributor to poverty reduction and shared prosperity.
  • Publication
    Parity for Women in the Maghreb
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-08-01) World Bank
    This report examines the progress of women in the Maghreb region (Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia) and the gaps remaining in human capital, economic participation, and political agency. Despite girls in the Maghreb outperforming boys in education and health, this progress has not yet translated into equal economic participation. Female labor force participation remains strikingly low at 17 percent in Algeria, 20 percent in Morocco, 27 percent in Tunisia and 35 percent in Libya. Women in the Maghreb face occupational segregation and are overrepresented in low-paying service sector jobs and informal employment. Restrictive and persistent patriarchal norms and legal barriers limit women’s access to credit and assets. In the political sphere, while there have been advancements through quota systems, women remain underrepresented in leadership roles, and gender-based violence – along with the belief that it is justified – continues to be common. Tunisia serves as an encouraging example with higher female business ownership and women’s representation in government.
  • Publication
    Understanding Health Workers Motivational Preferences and Accountability Modalities in South Sudan
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-08-01) World Bank
    This study seeks to fill this gap by exploring the motivational preferences and accountability mechanisms that influence health worker performance and retention in rural South Sudan. It aims to identify practical, context-appropriate approaches to strengthen health service delivery in underserved areas. The findings aim to inform HRH reforms led by the Ministry of Health and development partners. Specifically, the research aims to (i) assess health worker preferences for rural postings; (ii) explore context-appropriate and effective ways to promote accountability mechanisms within South Sudan’s resource-constrained environment; (iii) identify which incentives would encourage health workers to remain and perform in rural areas. The report provides evidence-based recommendations to guide the design of effective incentive structures and accountability models that support a more sustainable, motivated, and equitably distributed health workforce in pursuit of UHC.