Who really counts in Iran's National Food Assistance Program? Lessons from multi-stakeholder processes in the wicked policy area of food security

Bibliographic Data

ID5167068
AuthorsMona Pourghaderi (0000-0002-3467-2468, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Iran), Nasrin Omidvar (0000-0001-7305-0461, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Iran), Amirhossein Takian (0000-0001-7806-5558, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran), Arlette Saint Ville (0000-0001-8951-8188, University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago), Hannaneh Mohammadi Kangarani (0000-0002-3998-5658, Hormozgan University, Iran), Hassan Eini-Zinab (0000-0002-6895-034X, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Iran)
Year2022
Volume38
Issue1
Pagese00341820-e00341820
Publication date2022-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCadernos de Saude Publica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0102-311X • E-ISSN: 1678-4464
PublisherFapUNIFESP (SciELO) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1590/0102-311x00341820
PMID35043889
OpenAlexW4205607873
SCIELO_PIDS0102-311X2022000105011
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited21

Multi-stakeholder processes - as a necessary part in the development of public policies - can provide diverse perspectives to inform and to improve food security policy-making. Iran's National Food Assistance Program (NFAP) is one of the major welfare programs in Iran that reduces food insecutiry to low-income households. This study aimed to identify and to categorize actual and potential stakeholders in NFAP using the stakeholder salience model. According to Mitchell's theory, stakeholders' attributes (power, legitimacy, and urgency) were assessed based on the nature of their interactions, roles, and level of engagement. Results revealed a number of significant but marginalized stakeholders, including Iranian Ministry of Health (office of community nutrition improvement), academia, center for food and nutrition research, target group, charities, and international organizations, who have not received any targeted organizational attention and priority to their claims. The unbalanced attention provided to some stakeholder groups characterized as "definitive" and "dominant" and ignoring some important ones will jeopardize long-term viability and undermine support for the program with inevitable declines in legitimacy. Understanding the change in the stakeholders' characteristics is the main variable to determine the allocation of organizational resources in response to different and rising stakeholders' demands and possibly the projects outcomes. This will facilitate and enhance the possibility of knowledge exchange and learning, and greater trust among stakeholders during the food and nutrition policy-making process

Corporate governance · Food insecurity · Food security · Salience (neuroscience) · Stakeholder · Stakeholder analysis · Sustainability · Welfare · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations · Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology

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