Stakeholder engagement, governance analysis, and co-creation for more effective WEFE nexus management

“Dr Janez Sušnik, from the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education and Coordinator of NEXOGENESIS, provides insights on
stakeholder engagement, governance analysis, and co-creation to enhance WEFE Nexus management In the July 2024 edition, the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE Nexus), was introduced as a coherent interconnected resource system, strongly interacting with ecosystems (to form the WEFE Nexus), and supporting societal development. The WEFE Nexus is extraordinarily complex, with each sector interacting with the other sectors and being affected by ‘externalities’ such as the impacts of climate change and socio-economic developments, which modulate resource demand, consumption, and exploitation, and in so doing, lead to degrading ecosystems. Impacts, actions, and changes in one part of this interconnected system have ‘ripple’ effects throughout the rest of the system. Therefore, when considering the WEFE sectors, in our modern hyperconnected society,
we cannot think about each in isolation without considering the impacts on the other sectors.

A single-sector, silo approach to natural resource management is insufficient, though dominating. However, attaining cross-sectoral coherence (i.e., achieving policy goals while not causing detrimental impacts to other sectors) in policy formulation and
communicating those messages effectively is exceptionally challenging. This is true even when considering the implications of just one policy, let alone multiple policies that themselves may be interacting and have conflicting objectives across resource sectors.”

(Citation: Janez Sušnik (2024), “Stakeholder engagement, governance analysis, and co-creation for more effective WEFE Nexus management”, Open Access Government October 2024, pp.386-387. First Published: 3rd September 2024 Last Modified: 30th January 2025 – Available at https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/article/stakeholder-engagement-governance-analysis-and-co-creation-for-more-effective-wefe-nexus-management/181851/.(Accessed: 18 May 2026))