How to engage across sectors: lessons from agriculture and nutrition in the Brazilian School Feeding Program

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To provide insights for nutrition and public health practitioners on how to engagewith other sectors to achieve public health goals. Specifically, this study provides lessons fromthe example of integrating family farming and a nutrition into a legal framework in Brazil onhow to successfully shift other sectors toward nutrition goals.METHODS: Th e study analyzed p olicy processes that l ed to a Brazilian l aw linking familyfarming with the National School Feeding Program. Main actors involved with the developmentof the law were interviewed and their narratives were analyzed using a well-establishedtheoretical framework.RESULTS: The study provides five key lessons for promoting intersectorality. First, nutrition andhealth practitioners can afford to embrace bold ideas when working with other sectors. Second,they should engage with more powerful sectors (or subsectors) and position nutrition goals asproviding solutions that meet the interests of these sector. Third is the need to focus on a commongoal – which may not be explicitly nutrition-related – as the focus of the intersectoral action.Fourth, philosophical, political, and governance spaces are needed to bring together differentsectors. Fifth, evidence on the success of the intersectoral approach increases the acceptanceof the process.CONCLUSIONS: This study on policy processes shows how a convergence of factors enableda link between family farming and school feeding in Brazil. It highlights that there are strategiesto engage other sectors toward nutrition goals which provides benefits for all sectors involved