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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Social Movements, Institutions and Governance
Volume 8 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1431969
This article is part of the Research Topic Food System Transformation and the Realization of the UN Sustainable Development Goals View all 27 articles

Integration and Coherence in Food Governance -A Comprehensive Analysis of Food Security Public Programs in Chile

Provisionally accepted
Martín Del Valle Martín Del Valle 1*Kirsteen Shields Kirsteen Shields 1Sofia Boza Sofia Boza 2
  • 1 Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
  • 2 Department of Rural Management and Innovation, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Chile, Santiago, Santiago Metropolitan Region (RM), Chile

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study critically examines Chilean food governance. In particular it focuses on two aspects of interministerial governance: policy "integration" and policy "coherence". It does so by evaluating the alignment between two key policy objectives within the Chilean government; the Social Determinants of Health (SDH) and National Food and Nutrition Policy (NFNP) objectives. This is accomplished by using publicly available data at the Integrated Bank of Social Programs (BIPS -Banco Integrado de Programas Sociales) collected in 2021. Utilizing mixed methods including content analysis, program review, and financial analysis, 245 public programs were scrutinized. Only 0.042% of the 2021 national budget for public programs was allocated to n=70 key programs directly addressing food and nutrition security (FNS), highlighting significant resource disparities among ministries. While some interministerial integration was observed, overall coherence with NFNP objectives, particularly in "health integration and intersectorality", was lacking. Since disparities in resource allocation and neglect of stability and agency within food security across ministries are identified, indicating a variegated approach to food security with differing emphases on availability, utilization, and access, this study calls for a collaborative, multi-sectoral strategy to bridge policy gaps and enhance coherence in addressing food security challenges. Its findings contribute to the discourse on food governance, offering insights into policy implementation gaps and suggesting avenues for enhancing interministerial integration and coherence. This research underscores the importance of a comprehensive approach to policy formulation and execution in achieving NFNP goals and addressing the complex challenges of food security in Chile.

    Keywords: Chile, coherence, Food security, governance, integration, Public programs

    Received: 13 May 2024; Accepted: 24 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Del Valle, Shields and Boza. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Martín Del Valle, Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9YL, Scotland, United Kingdom

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