MSc colloquium by Anouk de Vries: Nutrition policy at local government level in Uganda

You are hereby cordially invited to the MSc thesis presentation by Anouk de Vries entitled 'Complicating or complementing? The effect of decentralization on policy integration of nutrition policy at local government level in Uganda'.

Supervisors: Brenda Namugumya, Jeroen Candel
Examinor: Katrien Termeer
Date: 7 October 2019
Time: 12.30-13.30 hours
Location: room 3048, Leeuwenborch, Wageningen

Abstract:

Nutrition is recognized to be important for development but progress is slow and many people worldwide still suffer from the consequences of malnutrition. One of the reasons for this is that policy making and implementation of nutrition policy is challenging. Using a policy integration approach can improve this. However, there is little empirical evidence on the dynamics of policy integration for nutrition policies in different types of governance systems, such as a decentralized system. Taking Uganda as a case study this research aims to contribute to this gap in the literature by answering the following question: ‘What is the effect of decentralization on the horizontal policy integration process of nutrition policy at local government level in Uganda?’.

Results show that the overall level of policy integration is low to medium. Various aspects of decentralization were identified to influence policy integration, such as through the financial structure, the lack of coordination between government levels and poorly functioning procedural policy instruments. It is therefore argued that decentralization is an inhibiting factor in the process of policy integration. Hence it is recommended that these aspects should get more explicit attention in such a process, so that their negative effects are mitigated as much as possible. In this way a meaningful contribution can be made towards improving the nutrition situation.