11th Press Release after policy-stakeholder engagement

Nouvelles

11th Press Release after policy-stakeholder engagement

mai 20, 2026

Bridging Policy Silos: FrontAg Nexus Highlights WEFE Governance Frameworks at IRENEC 2026

Istanbul, Türkiye – FrontAg Nexus participated in the International Renewable Energy Congress (IRENEC 2026), contributing to a dedicated session on the Water–Energy–Food–Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus on 8 May 2026.

The session featured Prof. Gertrud Buchenrieder, from our project Coordinator, Universität der Bundeswehr München (UniBwM), alongside Prof. Tanay Sıdkı Uyar, from EUROSOLAR Türkiye, who presented the Frontier Agriculture Taşarası Village Project.

Prof. Buchenrieder’s presentation focused on overcoming institutional fragmentation and establishing enabling governance structures across non-EU PRIMA countries

Key Policy and Governance Insights

Discussions during the session addressed several challenges affecting integrated resource management and the policy responses needed to overcome them:

Overcoming Institutional Silos: Water, energy, agriculture, and ecosystem policies are frequently developed in isolated institutional “silos,” resulting in fragmented legislation and conflicting policy objectives.
Strengthening Coordination: Cooperation remains weak both horizontally, among ministries handling water, energy, agriculture, and environment, and vertically between national, regional, and local authorities.
Defining Mandates and Budgets: Cross-sector responsibilities are often overlapping or unclear, compounded by a lack of formal coordination mandates, joint budgets, and enforcement mechanisms.
Science–Policy & Data Sharing: Insufficient data sharing, limited common information infrastructure, and a weak science–policy interface hinder evidence-based decision-making.
Managing Policy Trade-offs: A concrete trade-off was highlighted: inexpensive solar electricity lowers groundwater pumping costs, but without coordinated water management policies, it risks driving over-extraction and groundwater depletion.
Financial Instruments: Appropriate green and blended-finance mechanisms are urgently needed to fund practical WEFE Nexus implementation.

Country Case Studies & Policy Responses

The session also highlighted different approaches to WEFE governance across the Mediterranean, with examples from Türkiye and Jordan:

Türkiye’s Policy Landscape: Recognized for robust strategies spanning water efficiency, climate adaptation, energy efficiency, agricultural drought, biodiversity, and ecosystem restoration. However, these strategies require deeper integration, improved national-to-local coordination, and harmonized implementation.
Jordan’s Institutional Model: Jordan’s national WEFE council, supported by dedicated technical and steering committees, was presented as a model of a highly institutionalized and structured approach to nexus governance.

From Policy Challenges to Practical Action

The discussions emphasised several priorities for strengthening WEFE governance:

Harmonizing cross-sectoral legislation.
Establishing formal mandates and shared budgets for institutional coordination.
Improving data transparency, reporting, and common information infrastructure.
Strengthening science–policy cooperation.
Connecting local communities and training initiatives directly with decision-making processes.
Developing cross-scale and cross-border governance structures.

Overall, the session highlighted the importance of approaching the WEFE Nexus as a flexible governance framework rather than a uniform technical solution. These insights reflect the challenges explored in FrontAg Nexus’s work on bridging policy gaps in non-EU PRIMA countries and reinforce the project’s efforts to support more integrated, resilient and climate-smart agricultural systems across the Mediterranean.

About FrontAg Nexus

FrontAg Nexus is a PRIMA-supported project working to address climate change, natural resource scarcity and food-security challenges in the Mediterranean through climate-smart and water-saving agricultural solutions. The project combines technological innovation with socio-economic research and policy development, promoting a more integrated approach to water, energy, food and ecosystem management.

Learn more at frontagnexus.eu.

Disclaimer

This publication reflects the views of the author only. The European Commission and PRIMA Foundation cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.