Towards Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) nexus governance: a Nexus Governance Assessment Tool for analyzing the fit of governance systems architecture

Despite the tremendous progress in human development in the past few decades, many parts of the global population still face a lack of food security, energy security, access to clean drinking water and sanitation, while at the same time ecosystem services are degrading at a rapid pace. Up to now, sectoral policies have failed to address these issues. The Water, Energy, Food, Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus has emerged as a promising response. Especially in the context of transboundary river basins, where actors from different sectors and countries compete over the same resources such as ecosystem services, putting extra pressure on biodiversity, resource use and allocation becomes highly political. Therefore a shift from sectoral to more integrated governance is required. The nexus approach offers a way to create the conditions for such a change by fostering coherence and synergies and by managing trade-offs between sectors.

Political and cognitive factors, such cultural institutional issues and power relations are currently overlooked in WEFE nexus governance literature, and the concept of nexus governance itself is underdeveloped. Currently, a dedicated nexus governance assessment framework does not yet exist. This research builds on the Governance Assessment Tool of scholars (Reference removed) and integrates it with elements from water governance, integrative governance, polycentric governance and collaborative governance literature to tailor it to the needs of the WEFE nexus. The outcome is a nexus focused Governance Assessment Tool.

The Nexus Governance Assessment Tool (NGAT) is a first step towards a comprehensive WEFE nexus governance approach to support the design of pathways for the implementation of nexus governance that is developed within the project (Reference to project name removed). The Nexus Governance Assessment Tool can be used to assess the current nexus governance architecture quality in transboundary river basins to identify entry points for change in existing governance regimes towards nexus governance. In particular, through specific indicators, the NGAT identifies policy and governance challenges and opportunities to manage trade-offs and exploit synergies across the WEFE nexus sectors, thus contributing to more efficient nexus governance. This presentation will illustrate the Nexus Governance Assessment Tool by using the Lielupe transboundary river basin (Latvia- Lithuania) as case study