Rethinking stakeholder engagement: A multidimensional framework inspired by meta-synthesis of food, energy, and water research

The benefits of involving stakeholders in natural resource projects are well established and in food-energy-water nexus work specifically, those benefits are increasingly being documented. We conducted a review of food, energy, water systems manuscripts and assessed whether stakeholders were engaged, when they were engaged, which stakeholders were involved, the level of their involvement, whether stakeholders' needs were considered, and whether stakeholder engagement was evaluated and monitored. Stakeholder engagement is effective when it is considered as an integrated process, but our review suggests that this is not common practice. We developed a framework for engaging stakeholders that includes six dimensions: 1. When should stakeholders be engaged? 2. Who should be engaged (identification and diversity)? 3. What role should stakeholders play? 4. How can researchers meet stakeholder needs? 5. What methods of engagement should be used? 6. How should researchers evaluate and monitor stakeholder engagement? We discuss the implications of adopting this framework for natural resource studies, including those focused on food-energy-water systems. • Stakeholder engagement is uncommon in FEWS research. • We describe if, how and when stakeholder engagement has been used in 483 FEWS papers. • We propose a conceptual framework for use in effectively engaging stakeholders.