Unpacking the politics of global public-private partnerships in global nutrition governance: Understanding the influence of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement (SUN)

Abstract

Recently, there has been a growing focus on how to address the global burden of malnutrition. Global public-private partnerships have, as within most policy fields, been promoted as inclusive and effective means that can reduce fragmentations across policy sectors and across state-based and non-state actors. But critics question their democratic credentials and their close engagement with the food and beverage industries – deemed as major contributors to the malnutrition burden. Public health policy literature tends to describe nutrition policy and governance in the context of scientific evidence and medical knowledge. In contrast, this thesis draws on political science theory to better understand how power and politics shape and condition nutrition governance across global and national spheres. Through a qualitative case-study of The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, the thesis analyzes various processes through which power and authority is exerted and legitimized in the global nutrition field, and how this influences the national nutrition policy landscape in Tanzania. The thesis is based on in-depth interviews, observations at conferences and meetings, including within the SUN Secretariat, and document analysis. The findings show that SUN has contributed to: 1) Advance a particular understanding of the malnutrition problem that favors market-based quick-fix solutions instead of addressing the underlying drivers of malnutrition. 2) Strengthen the influence of already powerful actors in global nutrition – particularly from the private sector, thus increasing the risk of undue industry-influence. 3) Marginalize critical voices and fail to include those most affected by malnutrition. Rather than improving democratic qualities in global nutrition governance, SUN has contributed to reproduce existing participatory inequalities, create more fragmentations, and weaken external accountability. Overall, the thesis shows how global partnerships are conditioned by, and may reinforce, broader power asymmetries within global governance, thus challenging widely held assumptions that global partnerships foster inclusive and sustainable development.