Governing the water-energy-food nexus: A multi-stage governance assessment approach embracing complexity and regional diversity

Integrated management of water, energy, and food (WEF) systems requires governance approaches that account for biophysical interdependencies while remaining grounded in the institutional arrangements through which decisions are made and implemented. Despite the widespread appeal of the WEF nexus, its operationalization remains limited, particularly in data and capacity-constrained contexts. This study presents a sequenced diagnostic framework to assess WEF nexus governance, explicitly linking biophysical interactions to institutional and policy processes. The approach begins with a basin-level analysis of subsystem interactions to characterize a clearly defined nexus challenge. It then situates this challenge within the broader governance landscape, before proceeding to detailed analyses of policy coherence and governance architecture, including proposal and approval procedures, formal implementation arrangements, and guiding principles. Applied to the Tana River Basin in Kenya, the framework identifies 50 explicit synergies and 7 trade-offs across national sectoral policies, alongside uneven coordination mechanisms between sectors. The findings show how land-use, water allocation, agricultural priorities, climate adaptation, and ecosystem protection are shaped by the interaction between biophysical constraints and sectoral mandates. By linking policy alignment with institutional design, the framework identifies actionable entry points for improving cross-sector coordination. Designed for both preliminary assessments and stakeholder-engaged processes, the approach provides a practical pathway for operationalizing WEF nexus governance in real-world settings.