In Ethiopia, land, water, energy and food (LWEF) nexus resources are under pressure due to population growth, urbanization and unplanned consumption. The effect of this pressure has been a widely discussed topic in nexus resource literature. The evidence shows the predominantly negative impact of this; however, the impact of these factors is less explored from a local scale. As a result, securing nexus resources is becoming a serious challenge for the country. This necessitates the identification of the driving factors for the sustainable utilization of scarce LWEF nexus resources. Our study provides a systemic look at the driving factor indicators that induce nexus resource degradation. We use the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) to develop the indicators’ weights, and use a Path Analysis Model (PAM) to quantitatively estimate the effect of the driving factor indicators on the LWEF nexus resources. The results indicate that social (48%), economic (19%), and policy and institutional changes (14%) are the major nexus resource driving factor indicators. The path analysis results indicate that among the social driving factor indicators, population growth and consumption patterns have a significant direct effect on the LWEF nexus, with path coefficients of 0.15 and 0.089, respectively. Similarly, the potential of LWEF nexus resources is also influenced by the institutional and policy change drivers, such as outdated legislation and poor institutional structure, with path coefficients of 0.46 and 0.39, respectively. This implies that population growth and consumption patterns are the leading social drivers, while outdated legislation and poor institutional structures are the institutional and policies change drivers which have a potential impact on LWEF nexus resource degradation. Similarly, other driving factors such as environmental, economic and technological factors also affect nexus resources to varying degrees. The findings of our study show the benefits of managing the identified driving factors for the protection of LWEF nexus resources, which have close links with human health and the environment. In order to alleviate the adverse effects of driving factors, all stakeholders need to show permanent individual and collective commitment. Furthermore, we underline the necessity of applying LWEF nexus approaches to the management of these drivers, and to optimize the environmental and social outcomes.

The sustainable management of Land-Water-Energy-Food (LWEF) nexus requires an environmental characterization that allows the comparison of complex interlinkages between nexus resources and livelihoods. This complexity makes this characterization difficult coupled with limited study in quantifying sustainability of LWEF nexus and its linkage with livelihood. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the link between sustainable LWEF nexus and livelihoods. In order to address the objective the proposed methodology starts with a detailed identification of LWEF and livelihood indicators which depicts well-defined, shared, and holistic methods to evaluate sustainability. With this we used analytical hierarchy process and pair wise comparison matrix in combination with weighting model. The result of composite LWEF nexus index was 0.083 representing, low sustainability. Besides, this composite index implies the use and management of LWEF nexus resources in the study area is very low, as the composite index approach to 1, the use and management of nexus resources are in a good condition which characterized by sustainability. This could be linked with nexus resources consumption, use, and management. From the analysis of the weight of land, water, energy and food nexus resources, the highest weight was observed for food. The focus of on food production only shows no clear synergy on provisioning, supporting or regulating nexus resources to address livelihoods. The result further showed that LWEF nexus resources have strong correlation with livelihoods. This was evidenced by social (r > 0.8, p < 0.01), natural (r > 0.3, p < 0.05) and physical (r > 0.6, p < 0.01) livelihood indicators showed strong positive correlation with LWEF nexus resources. Based on the finding of the study, it was observed that managing nexus resources not only provide a significant contribution to achieve sustainable LWEF nexus, but also be effective for enhancing livelihood through food security. This could be attained by strong evidence based policy to ensure sustainable use of nexus resources. The results provided by this study would serve as the foundation for future study, policy formulation and implementation.

According to poststructuralists, workers with higher level of education and possession of potential experience are supposed to have higher wages. Yet, there are plausible questions that arise as to what levels of education or work history are needed for the enhancement of wage discrimination. Additionally, the outcomes arising from rehashing years of schooling are worth considering. We used a several methods, employing the administrative Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) data from Pakistan without ignoring environmental effects. Our estimated results support the conventional assumptions of linearity of log-wage. First, we found substantial returns for postgraduate diploma holders in both public and private sectors, even after controlling the individual’s heterogeneity. Second, we did notice a significant divergence in return to low-level education (LLE) and job history. Third, rehashing years of education may create suspiciousness regarding the lack of competence. Our results suggest that continuous investment in human capital toward postgraduate diploma may result in higher premiums.