Abstract
The Water-Energy Nexus (WEN) is broadly defined as an integrated paradigm for efficiently managing water and energy resources. While several studies have investigated the WEN from a resource efficiency perspective, little research have explored the governance and policy integration aspects of it, particularly in the developing world. This research proposes a ‘Framework for Integrated Governance of the WEN’, in the context of Jordan, a resources-deprived country with limited rainfall, water, and energy resources. The proposed framework and the associated analysis drew insights from the related primary and secondary literature and the perspectives of the stakeholders’ engaging in the water and energy sectors in the country (via semi-structured interviews with the relevant sectors’ players and policymakers) on the possible institutional arrangements and governance schemes for better WEN management at the institutional level. The structure of the framework and the proposed mechanisms were developed using insights from the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, in the context of the ‘common-pool resources’ and collective action theory. The analysis clarified perspectives related to actors’ roles and involvement in the WEN decision-making process, the rules in use that are impacting the governance process, and those that would influence behavior change. Findings show that a transition toward integrated governance of the resources’ nexus is doable. This is not only by forcing the line ministries to work together, but also empowering and giving them the tools to implement that integrated governance. Proposals include adopting collaborative arrangements tailored to each sector’s needs and existing structures and supporting these arrangements via effective enforcement and adequate human and financial instruments, preferably from the private sector, to ensure incremental and steady change toward inter-institutional coordination. These, combined with a joint effort for policy development governed by a decision-making body with vested authority to steer the process of collaboration and approve proposals to joint policies, would enable enhanced governance of the WEN. Other factors such as identifying shared understanding between the different actors through planned communication, setting flexible policy boundaries, promoting incentives via a sense of necessity, and introducing specific capacity-building plans at the institutional level are key. These arguments encourage further investigations to assess the potential advantages and limitations of the application of the proposed framework and the economic added value that the proposed collaboration schemes could bring to the two sectors’ management. Exploring the role of politics and political power dynamics and relations on advancing or hampering nexus adoption and management through the application of the proposed framework is further suggested, among other promising areas for exploration.