Governance in the water-energy-food nexus: Gaps and future research needs

The challenge of achieving integrated decision-making and policy coherence is particularly acute in the context of the water-energy-food nexus, which considers three sectors and policy areas with different institutional frameworks operating at different scales.

While the nexus concept necessarily brings with it complex governance challenges, and nexus proponents emphasize the need for integrated governance and policy coherence, the treatment of governance in the nexus literature is superficial. Governance interventions based on a nexus approach are limited to either technical-administrative analysis for optimal allocation of resources or educating decision-makers about nexus interactions so they can make better-informed decisions. The richer and deeper facets of governance theory­ – its politics, norms and power relations – are to a large extent lacking. This disconnects the nexus approach from the decision-making and policymaking processes that it ultimately seeks to influence.

This paper explores how the nexus literature addresses governance and identifies critical gaps that need to be filled by future research:

1. the conditions under which cross-sector coordination and collaboration come about,
2. the dynamics beyond cross-sector interactions that influence decision-making and policymaking in the nexus, and
3. the role of political and cognitive factors as determinants of change in the nexus.

The authors also highlight future research needs, and encourage the nexus community to connect with the wealth of theoretical and conceptual perspectives in the governance community. More specifically, they propose exploring how the literature on integrative environmental governance could help fill these gaps.

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