A Combined Theory of Change-Group Model Building Approach to Evaluating “Farm to Fork” Models for School Feeding in the Caribbean

Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

Nigel Unwin¹  Arlette Saint Ville²  Leroy E. Phillip²  Gordon M. Hickey²  Leonor Guariguata⁴  Alafia Samuels⁴  Etiënne Rouwette⁵ 

[1] European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter, Truro, United Kingdom;Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada;Faculty of Food and Agriculture, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago;George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Bridgetown, Barbados;Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands;MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom;

关键词: participatory approaches;    food security;    research for development;    school feeding programmes;    Saint Kitts and Nevis;    nutrition sensitive value chains;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fsufs.2022.801731

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

There is a scarcity of research on building nutrition-sensitive value chains (NSVCs) to improve diets and nutrition outcomes of populations in the Caribbean. This study contributes to filling this research gap by outlining a participatory approach to evaluating a NSVC model for “farm to fork” (F2F) school feeding in the Eastern Caribbean Island of St. Kitts. Using a combined group model building (GMB) and theory of change (ToC) approach, policy actors and other stakeholders (n = 37) across the school feeding value chain were guided through a facilitated process to evaluate the ToC underlying a series of F2F interventions designed to enhance childhood nutrition. Stakeholders at the workshop engaged collaboratively to create a causal map of interconnected “system factors” that help explain behaviors contributing to unhealthy eating among children that extended well-beyond the original F2F project ToC that had been used to inform interventions. Through this facilitated GMB process, stakeholders proposed additional food system interventions, and identified multiple “impact pathways” and “mediating influences” underlying local availability and consumption of nutritious foods in local school environments. Workshop participants were also able to identify leverage points where community-level efforts, alongside research interventions, may ensure that initiatives for building local NSVCs are ultimately institutionalized. Results of this study suggest that developing NSVCs for school feeding and food systems in the Caribbean requires both locally driven innovation and the leveraging of system-wide resources, with lessons for project intervention strategies.

【 授权许可】

Unknown