Bridging policy silos: governance challenges and opportunities in the WEFE nexus of non-EU PRIMA partner countries – a systematic literature review

The Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus has evolved from a resource efficiency paradigm within water, energy, and food (WEF) systems toward a broader governance framework that recognizes ecosystems as essential to resource security and sustainability. While this conceptual expansion has strengthened the Nexus’ analytical scope, a research gap remains regarding how governance mechanisms translate WEFE principles into actionable policy, particularly in non-European Union (EU) countries participating in the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA), where institutional fragmentation and policy silos persist.