Even Brice, Crawford Scarlett, Shittu Oluyemisi F, Lundy Mark, Wertheim-Heck Sigrid, Samuel Folake O, Talsma Elise F, Pastori Giulia, Thi Le Huong, Hernandez Ricardo, Brouwer Inge D, Béné Christophe
International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Hanoi, Vietnam.
CGIAR System Organization, Montpellier, France.
Curr Dev Nutr. 2024 Jun 29;8(8):104395. doi: 10.1016/j.cdnut.2024.104395. eCollection 2024 Aug.
Current food systems fail to provide equity, sustainability, and positive health outcomes, thus underscoring the critical need for their transformation. Intervening in food environments holds substantial promise for contributing to this much-needed transformation. Despite scholars and practitioners often recognizing the necessity for bottom-up approaches, there is a dearth of empirical investigations evaluating the potential of these approaches to contribute to food system transformations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Our study aimed to address this research gap, providing a unique perspective in this regard. Drawing on evidence from two co-creation case studies conducted with small-scale informal fruit and vegetable vendors and poor consumers in Vietnam and Nigeria from January 2020 to December 2021, we explored the relevance of bottom-up community-engaged co-creation processes in intervening within LMICs' food retail environments. Employing a mixed-methods approach that includes quantitative surveys, qualitative interviews, participatory workshops, and focus group discussions, we demonstrated that bottom-up co-creation processes involving marginalized socioeconomic groups can generate retail-level innovations that are tailored to informal retail contexts, whereas remaining aligned with established top-down theories and literature pertaining to food environments and healthy diets. We provided empirical evidence highlighting how both vendors and consumers respond positively to the co-created innovations. Expanding upon our results, we offered methodological insights applicable to interventions targeted at food environments in LMICs, and considerations for future research or development initiatives in this domain. Our findings revealed the capacity of vulnerable stakeholders to actively engage in public health initiatives and contribute to developing innovative solutions that are context-specific and conducive to the adoption of healthier dietary practices. These results confirm the potential of bottom-up, co-creation, real-world interventions within informal settings to contribute toward fostering inclusive transformation of food systems.
当前的食品系统未能实现公平、可持续性以及积极的健康成果，因此凸显了对其进行变革的迫切需求。干预食品环境对于促成这一亟需的变革具有巨大潜力。尽管学者和从业者常常认识到自下而上方法的必要性，但却缺乏实证研究来评估这些方法对中低收入国家食品系统转型的贡献潜力。我们的研究旨在填补这一研究空白，在这方面提供独特视角。基于2020年1月至2021年12月在越南和尼日利亚与小规模非正规果蔬摊贩及贫困消费者开展的两项共同创造案例研究的证据，我们探讨了自下而上的社区参与式共同创造过程在干预中低收入国家食品零售环境方面的相关性。采用包括定量调查、定性访谈、参与式工作坊和焦点小组讨论在内的混合方法，我们证明，涉及边缘化社会经济群体的自下而上共同创造过程能够产生适合非正规零售环境的零售层面创新，同时与有关食品环境和健康饮食的既定自上而下理论及文献保持一致。我们提供了实证证据，突出了摊贩和消费者对共同创造的创新均做出积极反应的情况。基于我们的研究结果，我们提供了适用于针对中低收入国家食品环境干预措施的方法学见解，以及对该领域未来研究或发展举措的考量。我们的研究结果揭示了弱势利益相关者积极参与公共卫生举措并为开发因地制宜且有利于采用更健康饮食习惯的创新解决方案做出贡献的能力。这些结果证实了在非正规环境中自下而上、共同创造的现实干预措施对促进食品系统包容性转型的潜力。
