Revisiting the UNICEF malnutrition framework to foster agriculture and health sector collaboration to reduce malnutrition: A comparison of stakeholder priorities for action in Afghanistan

Levitt, Emily; Pelletier, David; Pell, Alice N.

doi:10.1016/j.foodpol.2008.07.004

Cited by 22 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 7 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Varying levels of support from international organizations and a lack of familiarity with donor dynamics also constrained the department's power. A companion study documented how the public nutrition paradigm was adopted by those working directly in public nutrition and food security, but other stakeholders within the health and agriculture sectors who were not involved in Public Nutrition or related working groups still did not have an integrated perspective on these issues (Levitt et al 2009). In this context, the commitment and continuity of policy entrepreneurs (mostly expatriate) who had both operational and strategic capacity to interact across sectors, pass on the public nutrition vision, and carry institutional memory proved critical.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harmonizing agriculture and health sector actions to improve household nutrition: policy experiences from Afghanistan (2002–2007)

et al. 2011

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Coordination across sectors to address undernutrition with its varied underlying causes remains a challenge in developing countries. In Afghanistan, harmonization of health and agriculture policies and actions to reduce endemic undernutrition occurred during 2002-2007. This qualitative case study explores the forms of harmonization, enabling features and constraints in the policy process. We interviewed 57 stakeholders (39 central level, 18 provincial) involved in public nutrition or food security issues. Forms of harmonization included written policies, reseach, training and advocacy. Important features of the policy process included: policy entrepreneurs with operational and strategic capacity, consensus-building using a shared causal framework, working groups and strategic alliances. This case presents an interesting alternative to a national nutrition coordinating body, an approach that has met with mixed results, often due to the lack of authority, budget, and operational capacity of such a body to oversee ministries and enforce national nutrition objectives. Mid-level professionals mobilized into task forces achieved much with the support of national and international partners. This study highlights the importance of building capacity for sustaining change through local institutions.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harmonizing agriculture and health sector actions to improve household nutrition: policy experiences from Afghanistan (2002–2007)

et al. 2011

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, few examples exist of the factors and processes that should align to enable intersectoral action to generate scaled up nutrition-specifi c interventions and a nutrition-sensitive household and community environment in which provisions for water, sanitation, social protection, health care, and food security are ensured. Research so far has been of intersectoral planning and action at a policy level, 16,138 whereas several questions remain about how best to achieve such outcomes at subnational and local levels. Even integration of nutrition actions within the health sector (which is arguably the most ready to absorb nutrition actions) often raises many challenges.…”

Section: Intersectoral Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The politics of reducing malnutrition: building commitment and accelerating progress

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the past 5 years, political discourse about the challenge of undernutrition has increased substantially at national and international levels and has led to stated commitments from many national governments, international organisations, and donors. The Scaling Up Nutrition movement has both driven, and been driven by, this developing momentum. Harmonisation has increased among stakeholders, with regard to their understanding of the main causes of malnutrition and to the various options for addressing it. The main challenges are to enhance and expand the quality and coverage of nutrition-specifi c interventions, and to maximise the nutrition sensitivity of more distal interventions, such as agriculture, social protection, and water and sanitation. But a crucial third level of action exists, which relates to the environments and processes that underpin and shape political and policy processes. We focus on this neglected level. We address several fundamental questions: how can enabling environments and processes be cultivated, sustained, and ultimately translated into results on the ground? How has high-level political momentum been generated? What needs to happen to turn this momentum into results? How can we ensure that high-quality, well-resourced interventions for nutrition are available to those who need them, and that agriculture, social protection, and water and sanitation systems and programmes are proactively reoriented to support nutrition goals? We use a six-cell framework to discuss the ways in which three domains (knowledge and evidence, politics and governance, and capacity and resources) are pivotal to create and sustain political momentum, and to translate momentum into results in high-burden countries.

show abstract

“…Ten years ago, Johnecheck and Holland (2007) envisaged a multisectoral approach to improving malnutrition in Afghanistan, while various other research outcomes have identified gaps between the agricultural and nutrition sectors, and highlighted the significance of food-based approaches to improving nutrition (Levitt, Pelletier and Pell 2009a;Levitt et al 2009b;Levitt et al 2010;Levitt et al 2011). Nevertheless, current policies do not emphasise the role of agriculture and food-based strategies for improving nutrition.…”

Section: The Afghan Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

Maestre¹,

Poole

2018

IDS Bulletin

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Revisiting the UNICEF malnutrition framework to foster agriculture and health sector collaboration to reduce malnutrition: A comparison of stakeholder priorities for action in Afghanistan

Cited by 22 publications

References 7 publications

Harmonizing agriculture and health sector actions to improve household nutrition: policy experiences from Afghanistan (2002–2007)

Harmonizing agriculture and health sector actions to improve household nutrition: policy experiences from Afghanistan (2002–2007)

The politics of reducing malnutrition: building commitment and accelerating progress

Untitled

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About