Policy framing and crisis narratives around food safety in Vietnam

Abstract

While progress has been made recently in understanding food systems per se, much less is known about policies around those food systems. In this paper, we aim at understanding the food system policy context with the specific objective to look at policy dynamics—defined as the way policy agendas are identified, justified, and framed by decision-makers, and how they interact. Vietnam is used as a case study. Primary data were generated through face-to-face interviews complemented by an online survey. A policy framing approach was used to structure the research. The analysis reveals how the policy agenda is considered by many actors to be only partially evidence-based and highlights the extent to which the state government remains the most powerful actor in the setting of that agenda. The research also reveals the diffusion of the food safety crisis narrative beyond its original technical domain into a larger number of policy framings related to other issues of food systems, thus making it de facto the “center of gravity” of the current agenda on food systems in Vietnam. Yet, a comparison with data from other countries challenges this narrative, and reveals instead how the (legitimate) public concern about food safety is being instrumentalized by certain groups of actors to advance their own agenda. The implication of this “distorted” framing is the risk for the decision-makers to “overfocus” their attention on this short-term issue and lose sight of some other longer-term structural trends such as the emergence of obesity in Vietnamese urban population.

How do food safety concerns affect consumer behaviors and diets in low- and middle-income countries? A systematic review

“…The 'supermarketisation' of urban areas and cities is often viewed as a way to guarantee a regulated food system. However, traditional markets, such as wet markets, often represent an important and preferred food outlet in LMICs (Béné et al, 2020;Chuvileva et al, 2020;Figuié and Moustier, 2009). Therefore, the needs and preferences of low-income consumers is important to avoid the negative effects on purchase, consumption and livelihoods.…”

“…It was surprising that only four studies discussed the need to combine food safety into policies and practices that focus on nutrition, chronic disease and overweight and obesity (Bastami et al, 2019;Blum et al, 2019;Trubswasser et al, 2020;Wertheim-Heck et al, 2019). Overlooking this focus in food safety research on consumer behavior should be particularly salient for increasing overweight/obesity polices and programming in LMICs (Béné et al, 2020;Shekar and Popkin, 2020).…”

Tensions and coalitions: A new trade agreement affects the policy space for nutrition in Vietnam

“…Narratives of neoliberal market economics as being non-negotiable, and nutrition being an issue of individual responsibility, are regularly seen in work assessing these processes (Friel et al, 2020), as seen in the trade coalition in our work. Other assessments of narratives around trade and food in Vietnam have found that none of the narratives are around health or nutrition, rather everything is about aspects of economics, from protecting farmers and small business, to economic growth, to price stabilisation (Béné et al, 2020). In the other direction, engaging the trade coalition in discussions around nutrition issues may be difficult, as previous work has shown that trade experts in Vietnam see themselves as having engaged already in food system debates, whether or not they class themselves as knowledgeable about those debates; and trade actors feel that the current food system agenda (including trade) already matches reality in terms of food needs (Béné et al, 2020).…”

“…Other assessments of narratives around trade and food in Vietnam have found that none of the narratives are around health or nutrition, rather everything is about aspects of economics, from protecting farmers and small business, to economic growth, to price stabilisation (Béné et al, 2020). In the other direction, engaging the trade coalition in discussions around nutrition issues may be difficult, as previous work has shown that trade experts in Vietnam see themselves as having engaged already in food system debates, whether or not they class themselves as knowledgeable about those debates; and trade actors feel that the current food system agenda (including trade) already matches reality in terms of food needs (Béné et al, 2020). The evidence in this paper, and evidence on changing diets in Vietnam (Harris et al, 2020), may be an entry point to discussions aimed at clarifying or changing these narratives.…”

“…This means that only one of these coalitions (and therefore one of these narratives and policy positions) routinely takes a seat at the table in trade policy negotiations, and therefore has a voice in these. In general in Vietnam, both business and central government actors have a strong food systems role, with MOIT seen as moderately influential but less than the PolitBureau; large firms are seen as more influential than MOIT; and civil society is seen to be marginalised (Béné et al, 2020). Even within government however, there are different levels of engagement in trade policy processes: According to government websites, all ministries have had their implementation plan for the CPTPP since 2019 except for the Ministry of Health, 11 suggesting that the MOH was not highly involved in the CPTPP process.…”