Stronger policy coordination for better food and nutrition security outcomes

Abstract

The outcomes of food and nutrition security (FNS) interventions often fall short of policy objectives due to weak or missing coordination mechanisms. Solving these policy coordination failures is not easy. If the nature, extent and causes of the coordination problems are not accurately identified, proffered solutions are unlikely to be effective and lasting. Another essential part of this diagnosis is isolating the mechanisms through which policy coordination failures impede development. The process of coordinating food and nutrition policy has within it many of the difficulties that arise in the policy cycle: multiple actors, conflictual institutions, socioeconomic change and fragmentation. Based on insights from the National Development Agency's critical review on Food and Nutrition Security (NDA, 2019), we explore options for improved policy coordination aimed at maximising the quality of life benefits for hungry people. To frame actions for appropriate coordination mechanisms, dimensions of FNS interventions are overlaid with policy cycle stages in the analysis. Contextual determinants that bear on well-coordinated policy activism are also incorporated