Economic Sanctions Affecting Household Food and Nutrition Security and Policies to Cope With Them: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND

This review was conducted to identify the impact of economic sanctions on household food and nutrition security and policies to cope with them in countries exposed to sanctions.

METHODS

The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines 2020 were used to identify, select, appraise, and synthesize studies. Electronic databases in addition to Persian ones have been systematically searched for all related documents published until March 2022. Exclusion criteria were: lack of data related to food insecurity in countries subject to sanction and very low quality of the article. The quality of included studies was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Critical Appraisal checklists. The results were presented as qualitative and quantitative syntheses.

RESULTS

Of 1428 identified studies, 36 publications remained in the review, which belong to Iran (n=8), Cuba (n=8), Russia (n=7), Iraq (n=7), and Haiti (n=6), respectively. Declining gross domestic product (GDP), devaluation of the national currency, and the quality of food, increase in inflation, unemployment, and consumer prices, infant and under 5 years mortality, energy, and protein deficiency, and the poverty rate were reported as sanction consequences. The most important strategies to improve food security were the humanitarian assistance provided by the international community (Haiti), equity and priority for vulnerable groups mainly by expanding the healthcare system (Cuba), adopting a food ration system in the oil-for-food program, and fixing the price of food baskets (Iraq), import substitution and self-sufficiency (Russia), support domestic production, direct and indirect support and compensation packages for vulnerable households (the approach of resistance economy in Iran).

CONCLUSION

Due to the heterogeneity of studies, meta-analysis was not possible. Since inadequate physical and economic food access caused by sanctions affects especially disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, planning to improve food security and providing support packages for these groups seems necessary.

Strengthening Governance and Institutional Capacity at the Nutrition-Food Supply Policy Nexus Comment on "What Opportunities Exist for Making the Food Supply Nutrition Friendly? A Policy Space Analysis in Mexico"

Cervantes et al have provided an insightful addition to the policy literature by identifying the contextual, political, and policy factors that create constraints and opportunities for putting nutrition at the center of the food supply chain policy process. This commentary discusses important elements and features when aiming for reconciling nutrition goals and food supply policy, provides some examples of the salience of nutrition of non-health policies in countries with different income levels, and argues for improving governance for better nutrition outcomes and inspiring institutional interest and idea of food supply policy actors around population nutrition. Cervantes et al highlight the political context that favors nutrition outcomes, nutrition advocacy in the public agenda, and multisectoral mechanisms which can keep the nutrition objective moving forward in the food supply sector. However, a wider view on governance and institutional capacity is needed, recognizing government action by multiple sectors, with diverse sets of actors. The expanded understanding of nutrition, which includes considering nutrition as an emerging facet of food systems, by policy actors is needed. Enhancing discourse involving nutrition and food supply actors is important in order to appeal to the wider public and opinion leaders across the political spectrum. Accomplishing this also requires political will and an advocacy movement, especially by civil society and grassroots movements.

What Opportunities Exist for Making the Food Supply Nutrition Friendly? A Policy Space Analysis in Mexico

BACKGROUND

As part of a global policy response for addressing malnutrition, food system actions have been proposed. Within food system interventions, policies directed to supply chains have the potential to increase the availability and affordability of a healthy diet. This qualitative study aimed to identify opportunities to integrate nutrition as a priority into the food supply policy space in Mexico.

METHODS

Data were collected through analysis of 19 policy documents and 20 semi-structured stakeholder interviews. As an analytical framework, we used policy space analysis and embedded the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) and the steps of the food chain of the conceptual framework of food systems for diets and nutrition.

RESULTS

Policy issues relevant to nutrition were viewed differently in the economic and agricultural sectors versus the health sector. Overall, the main policy objective related to nutrition within the economic and agricultural sectors was to contribute to food security in terms of food quantity. Nutrition was an objective in itself only in the health sector, with a focus on food quality. Our policy space analysis reveals an opportunity to promote a new integrated vision with the recent creation of an intersectoral group working on the public agenda for a food system transformation. This newer integrative narrative on food systems presents an opportunity to shift the existing food security narrative from quantity towards considerations of diet quality.

CONCLUSION

The political context and public agenda are favorable to pursue a food system transformation to deliver sustainable healthy diets. Mexico can provide a case study for other low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) for putting nutrition at the center of food policy, despite the ongoing constraints on achieving this.

Making seafood accessible to low-income and nutritionally vulnerable populations on the U.S. West Coast

Along the U.S. West Coast, sustainable management has rebuilt fish stocks, providing an opportunity to supply nutrient-rich food to adjacent coastal communities where food insecurity and diet-based diseases are common. However, the market has not successfully supplied locally sourced seafood to nutritionally vulnerable people. Rather, a few organizations make this connection on a limited scale. We used a "positive deviant" approach to learn how these organizations' efforts developed, how they overcame challenges, and what conditions enabled their interventions. We found that organizations in these positive deviant cases provided fish from a wide variety of species and sources, and distributed them through different channels to a diversity of end consumers. A key factor facilitating success was the ability to negotiate a price point that was both profitable and reasonable for organizations supplying nutritionally vulnerable or low-income consumers. Further-more, securing access to grants overcame initial costs of establishing new supply channels. All cases highlighted the importance of individual champions who encouraged development and cultural connections between the initiative and the nearby community. Organizations overcame key challenges by establishing regulations governing these new channels and either using partnerships or vertically integrating to reduce costs associated with processing and transport. Oftentimes training and education were also critical to instruct workers on how to process unfamiliar fish and to increase consumer awareness of local fish and how to prepare them. These lessons illuminate pathways to improve the contribution of local seafood to the healthy food system.