Cross-Sectoral Coordination in the Public Sector: A Challenge to Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health

Good nutrition and health for all are recognized as socially desirable objectives around the globe. It is generally accepted that national and local governments have a duty to provide the goods and services necessary for maintaining good nutrition and health. Moreover, improved health and nutrition are critical inputs for achieving broad economic growth and poverty reduction. Malnutrition and ill health arise from a combination of causes and thus require efforts across multiple sectors to address them effectively. The health and agriculture sectors are central to such efforts, reflecting their mandates to provide curative and preventative health services and to facilitate food production. However, several other sectors must contribute their efforts as well: the education sector, given the importance of knowledge to proper nutrition and healthcare practices; the water, sanitation, and housing sectors to promote hygienic environments; the labor sector to maintain adequate household incomes; and public finance and planning agencies to ensure that government resources are appropriately allocated. In short, healthy and active lives for all require adequate access to food, care, employment, health services, and a healthy environment. None of these determinants of good health and nutrition is sufficient by itself; all of them are necessary. The most efficient policy approach involves, accordingly, a coordinated effort across the various public sector ministries and agencies concerned. However, most governments and government agencies are organized in a way that makes coordination across sectors difficult to achieve. This chapter considers how these organizational barriers might be overcome, particularly in relation to the public agriculture sector. We examine the structure,