+ Theme

In a world of 7 billion, 783 million people do not have access to clean water, 805 million people in the world and two-thirds of Asia are undernourished, and 1.3 billion people live without electricity. The scarcity of food, water and energy is a significant threat globally, but this is particularly so in rapidly developing Asia as its population continues to grow.

However, existing solutions often treat water, energy and food security as independent even when they are highly interdependent. For instance, the use of water in irrigation might promote food production but it reduces river flows and hydropower potential. Going forward, future leaders will have to consider food, water and energy security as a nexus to ensure that cross-sectoral impacts are accounted for if we want to simultaneously ensure security in all three sectors.

+ Overseas Leg

In the overseas leg of AUS 2015, participants were hosted by our partner universities to learn more some of the problems faced in the respective countries with regards to food, water and energy, as well as some of the initiatives or policies in place in tackling these issues. Participants were also engaged with a variety of keynote speeches, workshops and field trips that gave them a key appreciation of this resource constraint in real life.

Overseas Host Universities:

• Mahidol University
• Ateneo de Manila University
• Universitas Airlangga
• National University of Malaysia
• Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City

+ Singapore Leg

In the Singapore Leg of AUS 2015, on top of the panel discussions with experts and key stakeholders, participants also participated in a dialogue with Minister K. Shanmugam, Singapore’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Law, exploring key innovations and working relationship adopted to tackle the food, water and energy nexus in Singapore and the ASEAN region. Using the Futures Thinking Framework, participants proceeded to formulate new ideas and improvements to existing policies, which were presented to a panel of industry leaders in the finale of the summit. Using the food, water and energy nexus as a backdrop, participants of AUS 2015 are exposed to possible linkages that exist between these previously independent issues, and allowing them to appreciate the need for holistic, multidisciplinary approaches and solutions to these complex problems.