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SETTING THE STAGE
that many diverse drivers (e.g. environmental,
technology and innovation, sociocultural)
interact with both food systems and policy/
governance, which in turn influence food security
and, ultimately, nutrition and health outcomes.
However, it remains unclear how all food
system components interact
at different societal
levels. To this aim, we elaborate on the HLPE-
FSN (2020) framework by placing its overall
components (drivers, systems and individuals)
in a socioecological context (Bronfenbrenner,
1979). This framing permits a clear view of how
the various elements that influence FSN operate
at different, but interrelated, levels in a society,
ranging from the more distal, macro level, to the
individual level. Embedding the socioecological
context within our conceptual framework
reveals how macro level drivers contribute to
shaping
food systems at the meso level, and
how meso level systems include elements
determined at the micro level. For example,
macro level infrastructure (such as paved
roads) and environment (global climate change,
for instance) affect national (meso level) food
systems: the extent of paved roads influences
how food is transported from place to place, and
global climate change has myriad ramifications
for national environmental shifts (such as
extended droughts or extreme temperatures)
that affect both agricultural production and
the relevant infrastructures (including, for
instance, greater need for cold storage). In
terms of elements determined at the micro
level which impact the meso level, the most
obvious example are the many actors involved
in food systems, from farmers and fishers, to
intermediaries
in charge of transport, to vendors
– big (supermarkets) and small (local farmers’
markets).
When combining solely the HLPE-FSN and
socioecological frameworks, it becomes
apparent that health systems and local
environments, which are inextricably linked
with both food systems and their subsequent
impacts on human health and nutrition, are
not sufficiently taken into consideration. For
this reason, we added health and environment
systems to the conceptual framework, which
are not explicit in the HLPE-FSN Sustainable
Food System Framework at the meso level.
Furthermore, macro level drivers and meso
level systems do impact individual food security
and nutrition
outcomes independently; rather,
they do so in concert and are interdependent. As
expressed by UNICEF (1990), we emphasize the
fundamental importance of resources (human,
economic, organizational) and agency as basic
elements of nutritional outcomes. In this regard,
the meso level determinants influences the
myriad of decisions that are made at the micro
level, which lead to individual FSN outcomes.
Thus, continuing to build on Bronfenbrenner’s
socioecological context, between the meso
and individual levels of our framework, we
have added the micro level determinants,
which reflects how meso level systems impact
individual FSN outcomes via decision-making
processes. Finally, the concept of livelihoods
as conveyed in the Sustainable Livelihoods
Framework (SLF) (DFID 1999) inspired the
addition of groups,
alongside individuals and
households, at the micro level of the framework.
In the SLF framework, the unit of analysis
is an “identifiable social group”, remaining
nonetheless aware of the lack of homogeneity
within communities and households (DFID, 1999
p. 7).
Leveraging elements in each of the four
aforementioned inspiring frameworks, this
report takes a
systems perspective
, recognizing
the linkages between the various elements that
form what can be termed the
food security and
nutrition socio-ecosystem (Bronfenbrenner,
1979).
Figure 1 illustrates this conceptualization by
showing how the boundaries between macro,
meso and micro level
determinants are blurred
and how all of them permeate down to the
individual level, jointly contributing to determine
food security and nutrition outcomes, such as
individuals’ dietary adequacy, nutritional status
and overall well-being.
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DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS TOOLS FOR FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION
Elements of macro level drivers, such as, those
related to climate, the environment and the
educational systems within a country, permeate
into more proximal levels,
represented by local
agriculture and food, health and environment
systems, influencing them in different ways and
at different levels of intensity. One example of
the blurred boundaries between the macro and
meso levels is the geopolitical environment,
such as the role of war, armed conflict or
civil disturbance, as a proximate driver of
food insecurity. These proximal systems are
fundamentally shaped by both public and private
international and domestic economic and
political actors (i.e. civil society,
and public and
private sectors). For example, public and private
international trade and foreign investments
related to food and agricultural production
(particularly in logistics and infrastructure) have
a direct impact on individual FSN though the
availability and accessibility of products, despite
being beyond the direct, immediate control of the
individuals.
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