TY - JOUR
T1 - Policy Action Within Urban African Food Systems to Promote Healthy Food Consumption
T2 - A Realist Synthesis in Ghana and Kenya
AU - Booth, Andrew
AU - Barnes, Amy
AU - Laar, Amos
AU - Akparibo, Robert
AU - Graham, Fiona
AU - Bash, Kristin
AU - Asiki, Gershim
AU - Holdsworth, Michelle
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s); Published by Kerman University of Medical Sciences. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
PY - 2021/12/1
Y1 - 2021/12/1
N2 - BACKGROUND: Obesity and nutrition-related non-communicable diseases (NR-NCDs) are increasing throughout Africa, driven by urbanisation and changing food environments. Policy action has been limited - and influenced by high income countries. Socio-economic/political environments of African food systems must be considered in order to understand what policy might work to prevent NR-NCDs, for whom, and under what circumstances. METHODS: A realist synthesis of five policy areas to support healthier food consumption in urban Africa: regulating trade/foreign investment; regulating health/nutrition claims/labels; setting composition standards for processed foods; restricting unhealthy food marketing; and school food policy. We drew upon Ghana and Kenya to contextualise the evidence base. Programme theories were generated by stakeholders in Ghana/Kenya. A two-stage search interrogated MEDLINE, Web of Science and Scopus. Programme theories were tested and refined to produce a synthesised model. RESULTS: The five policies operate through complex, inter-connected pathways moderated by global-, national- and local contexts. Consumers and the food environment interact to enable/disable food accessibility, affordability and availability. Consumer relationships with each other and retailers are important contextual influences, along with political/ economic interests, stakeholder alliances and globalized trade. Coherent laws/regulatory frameworks and government capacities are fundamental across all policies. The increasing importance of convenience is shaped by demographic and sociocultural drivers. Awareness of healthy diets mediates food consumption through comprehension, education, literacy and beliefs. Contextualised data (especially food composition data) and inter-sectoral collaboration are critical to policy implementation. CONCLUSION: Evidence indicates that coherent action across the five policy areas could positively influence the healthiness of food environments and consumption in urban Africa. However, drivers of (un)healthy food environments and consumption reflect the complex interplay of socio-economic and political drivers acting at diverse geographical levels. Stakeholders at local, national, and global levels have important, yet differing, roles to play in ensuring healthy food environments and consumption in urban Africa.
AB - BACKGROUND: Obesity and nutrition-related non-communicable diseases (NR-NCDs) are increasing throughout Africa, driven by urbanisation and changing food environments. Policy action has been limited - and influenced by high income countries. Socio-economic/political environments of African food systems must be considered in order to understand what policy might work to prevent NR-NCDs, for whom, and under what circumstances. METHODS: A realist synthesis of five policy areas to support healthier food consumption in urban Africa: regulating trade/foreign investment; regulating health/nutrition claims/labels; setting composition standards for processed foods; restricting unhealthy food marketing; and school food policy. We drew upon Ghana and Kenya to contextualise the evidence base. Programme theories were generated by stakeholders in Ghana/Kenya. A two-stage search interrogated MEDLINE, Web of Science and Scopus. Programme theories were tested and refined to produce a synthesised model. RESULTS: The five policies operate through complex, inter-connected pathways moderated by global-, national- and local contexts. Consumers and the food environment interact to enable/disable food accessibility, affordability and availability. Consumer relationships with each other and retailers are important contextual influences, along with political/ economic interests, stakeholder alliances and globalized trade. Coherent laws/regulatory frameworks and government capacities are fundamental across all policies. The increasing importance of convenience is shaped by demographic and sociocultural drivers. Awareness of healthy diets mediates food consumption through comprehension, education, literacy and beliefs. Contextualised data (especially food composition data) and inter-sectoral collaboration are critical to policy implementation. CONCLUSION: Evidence indicates that coherent action across the five policy areas could positively influence the healthiness of food environments and consumption in urban Africa. However, drivers of (un)healthy food environments and consumption reflect the complex interplay of socio-economic and political drivers acting at diverse geographical levels. Stakeholders at local, national, and global levels have important, yet differing, roles to play in ensuring healthy food environments and consumption in urban Africa.
KW - Africa
KW - Food Consumption
KW - Food Environments
KW - Food Policy
KW - Realist Review
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125551680&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.34172/ijhpm.2020.255
DO - 10.34172/ijhpm.2020.255
M3 - Article
C2 - 33619936
AN - SCOPUS:85125551680
SN - 2322-5939
VL - 10
SP - 828
EP - 844
JO - International Journal of Health Policy and Management
JF - International Journal of Health Policy and Management
IS - 12
ER -