The University of Johannesburg Trilateral Research Chair in Transformative Innovation (UJ-TRCTI) has brought together policymakers, practitioners and researchers for a policy dialogue exploring how identified policy synergies can be activated and gaps addressed across water, energy, food, waste, sanitation and health in South Africa.
Drawing on a draft PATHWISE Policy Synthesis Report, the dialogue explored key synergies, gaps and opportunities within South Africa’s Water, Energy, Food, Sanitation and Health (WEFSH) policy landscape. Using engaged policy experimentation tools, participants critically examined the report’s recommendations and considered what strengthening the WEFSH nexus could look like in practice.
The dialogue provided an opportunity to move from policy recommendations towards collective engagement on potential areas for future policy experimentation. It formed part of ongoing work within UJ-TRCTI’s ‘Evidence-Informed Decision-Making’ (EIDM) project, funded by the British Academy and conducted with UCL, as well as the PATHWISE project, involving partners in South Africa and the Netherlands and funded by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF) and the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
The event also built on previous work on the Water-Energy-Food nexus with the Centre for Sustainability Transitions, funded by the British Council, and formed part of a 2026 Dialogue Series supported by the Open Society Foundations.
TIPC’s longstanding link with the Trilateral Research Chair stems from TIPC founder and Academic Director Professor Johan Schot’s role as Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg and Chair of the Advisory Board to the Trilateral Research Chair in Transformative Innovation.