Can nutrition be packaged and sold? The contradictions of a development policy debate

Robinson, Ewan

doi:10.1016/j.wdp.2016.06.004

Cited by 2 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Care should be taken concerning the risk of supporting PCFPs as a market-based intervention for malnutrition issues (Robinson, 2016), especially on the violation of marketing ethics and the risk of unfair marketing practices, as has happened before in Cambodia (Champeny et al, 2016;Hou et al, 2019;Pries et al, 2016b). Policy makers should develop nutrition policies and programmes aimed at ensuring a fair and demonstrable dietary impact on the children vulnerable to malnutrition.…”

Section: Homemade Complementary Foods Perceived As Healthier More Practical and Preferredmentioning

confidence: 99%

Caretakers' perceptions and willingness‐to‐pay for complementary food in urban and rural Cambodia

Nurhasan

Prima

Olsen

et al. 2021

Maternal & Child Nutrition

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Inadequate child nutrition during the first '1000 days' is widespread in Cambodia, resulting in a high prevalence of child malnutrition. Access to processed complementary food in packages (PCFP) may support caretakers in improving diet of young children. This study aimed to evaluate the caretakers' preferences and willingnessto-pay (WTP) for PCFP in Cambodia. The study was conducted in urban and rural settings, involving 520 caretakers with children aged 7-24 months in Phnom Penh (urban) and Prey Veng (rural). Four PCFPs were included: a commercial brand, a social-commercial brand, a worldwide distributed fortified complementary food aid product (CSB++) and an experimental fortified rice-and-fish-based PCFP developed in Cambodia (WF-L). Sensory analysis was conducted for all products, stated WTP was assessed for three products (excluding CSB++) and actual WTP experiment was conducted on WF-L only. Our results show that overall, WF-L was preferred by the rural participants over food aid CSB++. Further improvements in the organoleptic qualities of WF-L should focus on consistency and taste. The participants were, on average, willing to pay 1,667 Cambodian riel (KHR, $0.4) and 1,192 KHR ($0.3) in urban and rural settings, respectively, for 35 g of WF-L. We also found that despite being nutritionally inadequate, most participants considered homemade porridge to be healthier, more practical and preferred by the children. Therefore improving the quality of homemade foods merits urgent consideration. When applying PCFP in nutrition programmes as a supplementary option to homemade complementary foods, locally produced products could be a more viable supplementary option than global food aid.

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Section: Homemade Complementary Foods Perceived As Healthier More Practical and Preferredmentioning

confidence: 99%

Caretakers' perceptions and willingness‐to‐pay for complementary food in urban and rural Cambodia

Nurhasan

Prima

Olsen

et al. 2021

Maternal & Child Nutrition

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Within this paradigm, 'marketization' (private sector delivery through wholly marketized food and nutrition systems) and 'medicalization' (increasing nutrient intake) efforts have gained significant popularity (Robinson, 2016;Scrinis, 2008Scrinis, , 2020. These approaches have been critiqued for sidestepping the complexity of nutritional drivers and determinants, thereby depoliticizing the complexity and underlying drivers of malnutrition (Robinson, 2016;Scrinis, 2020). This critique highlights a growing consensus that the underlying causes of the triple burden of malnutrition are not of technical nature per se (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following the nutritionism paradigm (Kimura, 2013;Scrinis, 2008Scrinis, , 2020, we use two popular agriculture-nutrition intervention types, namely nutrition-sensitive value chains (NSVCs) and biofortification and its best documented example orangefleshed sweet potato (OFSP), to unpack the underlying logics and impacts of marketization and medicalization interventions (Robinson, 2016). By reviewing the most recent evidence of NSVCs and OFSP in light of their underlying theories of change (ToCs), we demonstrate not only that there is insufficient evidence of these interventions on improving nutritional outcomes, but also that the underlying impact logics are inadequate for dealing with the complexity of nutritional challenges.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The marketization of malnutrition denotes that to achieve the most effective and efficient improvements in malnutrition, market structures, particularly private sector actors, need to be leveraged, for instance through nutrition-sensitive value chain approaches (Robinson, 2016). The nutrition-sensitive value chain (NSVC) approach accurately demonstrates this logic as it aims to work through the value chain, i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The NSVC approach differs from other types of agriculture-nutrition interventions in that it focuses on specific segments of the value chain or its entirety (Maestre et al, 2017). The medicalization of malnutrition understands malnutrition as being the mere consequence of an insufficient intake and retainment of nutrients (Robinson, 2016). The proposed solution to this issue is then of technical nature, namely the increase in nutrient consumption or absorption through, for example, biofortified crops (Kimura, 2013;Robinson, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Simple solutions for complex problems? What is missing in agriculture for nutrition interventions

et al. 2022

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Within the nutritionism paradigm, in this article we critically review the marketization and medicalization logics which aim to address the pressing issue of malnutrition in low- and middle-income countries. Drawing from political economy and food system transformation discourses, we are using the popular intervention types of nutrition-sensitive value chains (marketization logic) and biofortification exemplified through orange-fleshed sweet potato (medicalization logic) to assess their outcomes and underlying logics. We demonstrate that there is insufficient evidence of the positive impact of these interventions on nutritional outcomes, and that their underlying theories of change and impact logics do not deal with the inherent complexity of nutritional challenges. We show that nutrition-sensitive value chain approaches are unable to leverage or enhance the functioning of value chains to improve nutritional outcomes, especially in light of the disproportionate power of some food companies. We further demonstrate that orange-fleshed sweet potato interventions and biofortification more broadly adopt a narrow approach to malnutrition, disregarding the interactions between food components and broader value chain and food system dynamics. We argue that both intervention types focus solely on increasing the intake of specific nutrients without incorporating their embeddedness in the wider food systems and the relevant political-economic and social relations that influence the production and consumption of food. We conclude that the systemic nature of malnutrition requires to be understood and addressed as part of the food system transformation challenge in order to move towards solving it. To do so, new evaluation frameworks along with new approaches to solutions are necessary that support multiple and diverse development pathways, which are able to acknowledge the social, political-economic, and environmental factors and drivers of malnutrition and poverty.

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Can nutrition be packaged and sold? The contradictions of a development policy debate

Cited by 2 publications

References 10 publications

Caretakers' perceptions and willingness‐to‐pay for complementary food in urban and rural Cambodia

Caretakers' perceptions and willingness‐to‐pay for complementary food in urban and rural Cambodia

Simple solutions for complex problems? What is missing in agriculture for nutrition interventions

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