Please find the answers to Nyasha's questions in italics below:
What are the key institutional and governance challenges to the delivery of cross-sectoral and comprehensive social protection policies that protect and promote nutrition of the most vulnerable? Your contributions can cover all instititutional and governance issues you know to affect the delivery of cross-sectoral nutrition enhancing social protection policies.
Both serious institutional and governance can be put under the same umbrella of political constraints at the decision making level which are still very much top-down. Attempts at cross-sectoral have historically failed since there is the ideological underpinning of elites running state affairs. This will cotinue to fail unless a counterpower is achieved through active empowerment and mobilization of claim holders.
e.g. who are the stakeholders: claim holders and duty bearers rather...
power balance: absolutely the key
intersectoral conflicts, intersectoral coordination, decentralization: all these play a role, but secondary to power issues
and community participation absolutely the key
institutional capacity, financial capacity, roles and responsibilities for oversight holding the state and private sector accountable
legislative accountability, inclusiveness, rights based approach absolutely the key.
1. In discussing this question, please provide examples and case studies of successful or failed cross sectoral social protection policies that promote nutrition: would I be exaggerating if ratio success:failure in this is >50:1? reasons why your examples succeeded or failed political as per above.
For example in the concept note Brazil's Zero Hunger programme is given as a successful example of a national and multisectoral social protection system promoting nutrition: the political thrust in Brazil is undeniable!. Another example given is the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC)’s Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction in Bangladesh: I declare my ignorance about this one.
2. Please recommend possible solutions to the institutional and governance challenges that you identify from your experiences, examples/case studies or literature. A massive human rights/right to food learning cum empowerment effort is needed both for claim holders and duty bearers followed by social mobilization of the former to demand their rights.
I'll be glad to elaborate if challenged.
Claudio
Dr. Claudio Schuftan