The 3rd Meeting of the Regional Working Group on a Mutually Beneficial Water-Energy Mechanism was co-organised by the Water, Energy, and Land-use Nexus project and the Green Central Asia programme on 10 December 2024 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The event facilitated technical-level discussions and knowledge exchange aimed at enhancing mutually beneficial water and energy cooperation in Central Asia.
The meeting brought together more than 50 technical-level officials and development partners from across Central Asia, providing a platform for discussing water-energy models, case studies, and the governance of regional coordination mechanisms. A key focus was on refining these tools and ensuring their effective integration into policymaking processes. Key takeaways included:
Despite the development of water-energy models, Central Asian officials often struggle to use these tools and their results effectively in policymaking.
While water ministry experts value the insights from these models, limited engagement from other ministries and senior officials hinders their broader application in policy discussions.
Capacity development emerged as a critical need, with tailored approaches recommended for various stakeholder groups, including modelers, technical officials, and decision-makers.
The increasing water extraction in Afghanistan presents significant challenges for water-scarce Central Asian nations, underscoring the need for enhanced regional cooperation to address this issue.
The meeting was notable as the first comprehensive forum to bring together all major initiatives focused on the water-energy nexus in the region, including contributions from experts in the Central Asian countries and development partners. Participants expressed strong engagement, unanimously supporting more frequent Working Group meetings to sustain momentum.
Looking ahead to 2025-2026, the Working Group aims to deepen technical discussions and channel coherent policy messages from Central Asian experts and development co-operation initiatives into higher-level inter-state dialogues on the water-energy-food nexus.
