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Researching public authority in changing environments

Analysing Nutrition Governance

'Examining the political, institutional and governance aspects of delivering a national multi-sectoral response to reduce maternal and child malnutrition – six country case studies.'


This study adopts a political economy approach to explain why some countries that are strongly (and formally) committed to reducing malnutrition can effectively deliver on improved nutrition outcomes while others make insufficient or no progress at all. Strong 'nutrition governance' countries are those where governments are committed to having a national nutrition plan, which is also part of the national development strategy, they have set up inter-sectoral coordinating committees, maintain regular surveys and data collections, and allocate budget lines for nutrition strategies and plans, among other criteria (WHO Landscape Analysis 2009). The underlying assumption of this study is that effective policy change is likely to take place where policymakers can assemble coalitions with other players (elected and non elected) across government sectors and different levels of government. Such initiatives need to be properly financed to ensure the long term sustainability and transparency of initiatives.

The study will compare countries with strong governance indicators which are on track for reaching the MDG nutrition target with those that show insufficient progress. The focus of the work will go beyond the set of legal attributes and institutional reforms that would facilitate the adoption and implementation of national nutrition strategies, and explore the political dynamics that explain greater cooperation, coordination and alignment of policymakers. To this effect, we look at the horizontal, vertical and financing dimensions of nutrition policymaking and implementation, along which coalitions are formed and commitments enacted.

The project will contribute to DFID's effort to help government officials and decision makers in partner countries to effectively tackle the problem of maternal and child malnutrition. The study will help identify knowledge gaps and analyse which institutional arrangements and political dynamics are likely to favour government efforts to reduce maternal and child undernutrition. It also aims to influence partner government officials, nutrition experts and other development actors to consider relevant political challenges and opportunities in the adoption, implementation and scaling up of nutrition policies.

Case study countries:

  • Bangladesh
  • Brazil
  • Ethiopia
  • India
  • Peru
  • Zambia

Research team

Lawrence Haddad: Lawrence Haddad is the Director of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Sussex. He is an economist and was formerly Director of the International Food Policy Research Institute's Food Consumption and Nutrition Division.
Andres Mejia Acosta (Team leader and contact person): Research Fellow and political scientist at IDS whose current research looks at how the political management of natural resource revenues affects development goals. Publications include articles and book chapters on electoral systems, political parties, legislative politics, budget politics, the policymaking process, informal institutions, and democratic governance.
Jessica Fanzo: Jessica Fanzo is the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for UN REACH at World Food Programme in Rome. Previously, Jessica was Nutrition Coordinator for the Millennium Villages Project and Nutrition Director at the Center for Global Health and Economic Development at the Earth Institute, Columbia University.
Linnet Taylor: Linnet Taylor is a development researcher at IDS whose work focuses on the political economy of technology diffusion in Africa. She has conducted policy research for DfID, ippr, UNICEF and the UNDP Human Development Report. She previously worked for the Rockefeller Foundation.
Shandana Mohmand: Shandana Mohmand is a political science researcher at IDS whose work is focused on voting behaviour, socio-economic inequality and the politics of public service delivery. She has also conducted policy research for ADB, DFID, CIDA, and the UNDP Human Development Report Office.

Dissemination and research products

The project results are:

  1. A learning event on 19 and 20 January 2012 at the Institute of Development Studies in Brighton, where the products of the research have been disseminated to domestic country policy makers and the donor community, offering a discussion as to the value of this type of political economy analysis, lessons for the Scaling Up Nutrition initiatives (SUN); Report of the learning event can be found below.
  2. A series of country case study research reports to become available online in December 2011, outlining the findings for each focus country and providing a case-by-case analysis; and
  3. A paper in early 2012 that will bring together the research from the individual case studies in a comparative analytical framework and offer in detail the specific lessons that can be from the political economy approach.

Researchers

Selected Outputs

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