Combining nexus and resilience thinking in a novel framework to enable more equitable and just outcomes

Produced as part of the Understanding green growth and climate-compatible development CCCEP research programme theme

Resilience and nexus thinking are often applied separately to investigate social-ecological systems (SES), wherein both approaches are critiqued for a lack of explicit focus on issues of justice and equity. This paper synthesises the main strengths and shortcomings of these approaches, before drawing on resilience and nexus strengths to present a novel, integrated framework to guide future SES research. We link the multi-scale water-energy-food security (WEF) nexus, with a multi-level policies-institutions-knowledge (PIK) nexus to explore resilience outcomes at different points in time. The WEF-PIK framework is presented as a double helix united through resilience outcomes, assessed through empirical analyses of local economic equity, social justice, and environmental equity. The framework focuses on multiple scales and the links and trade-offs between them, both within and between strands of the double helix. Applying the framework across different SES will enhance the identification and understanding of factors that shape equitable and just outcomes.