The Politics of Malnutrition: Institutions and Policy Networks in SE Asia

• In Event: Trust and Regime Influences on Health and Healthcare

Abstract

Why do governments introduce policies that redistribute resources to the poor and vulnerable? This article utilizes two paired case comparisons to investigate why certain governments introduce pro-poor policies for maternal and child nutrition after signing on to an international agreement, the United Nations “Scaling up Nutrition” (SUN) initiative, while other governments do not. The cases of Indonesia and the Philippines, and Laos and Cambodia highlight the importance of two variables: political institutions and policy networks. First, the characteristics of the state – state capacity and political regime – influence the type of coalition that mobilizes in response to the agreement. Second, the coalition elicits policy change when it strategically uses the agreement to build vertical policy networks (to elevate the issue to higher levels of government) and horizontal policy networks (to facilitate intra-bureaucracy cooperation). While the existing literature on the welfare state identifies domestic coalitions as central to policy change, few studies examine why certain types of coalitions mobilize or how they leverage an international agreement to push through reform. In addressing both these areas, this article sheds light on why and how governments introduce policies that redistribute resources to the poor and vulnerable and the political conditions that underpin policy reform.

Author

• Carmen Jacqueline Ho, University of Guelph