A Comparison of Bullying in Four Rural Middle and High Schools

Bullying in rural school settings is clearly a problem and some of our students are suffering as a result.. Bullying is defined in this study of 819 rural middle and high school students as when a student is exposed repeatedly to negative actions by one or more other students. Students responded to a questionnaire about how often and where bullying occurred and who students told. Analysis of the data reported frequencies, and the Pearson chi-square was used to test for significance (p \u3c.05) for gender and school level. Results indicated that while there are many similarities, there are some differences in bullying at these two levels that should be considered when reducing bullying. First, students should be encouraged to develop positive strategies to react to name calling and teasing particularly at the middle school level. Second, administrators and teachers must communicate better with students that they care about reducing bullying, especially at the high school level

Advocacy Coalitions and the Transfer of Nutrition Policy to Zambia

Stunted growth in children and multisectoral action to address it are dominant ideas in the international nutrition community today, and this study finds that these ideas are increasingly evident over time in nutrition policy in Zambia, with stunting largely displacing other framings of nutrition. This study is based on key informant interviews (70 interviews with 61 interviewees), policy document review, and social network mapping, with iterative data collection and analysis taking place over 6 years (2011–2016). Analysis was based on two established political science theories: policy transfer theory and the Advocacy Coalition Framework. Policy changes in Zambia are shown to result from the international community’s nutrition agenda, transferred to national policy through the normative promotion of certain ways of understanding the issue of malnutrition, largely propagated through advocacy, technical assistance and funding. With its focus on multisectoral action to reduce stunting, the recent nutrition policy narrative impinges directly on an existing food security narrative as it attempts to alter agriculture policy away from maize reliance. The nutrition policy sub-system in Zambia is therefore split between an international coalition promoting action on child stunting, and a national coalition focused on food security and hunger, with implications for both sides on progressing a coherent policy agenda. This study finds that it is possible to understand policy processes for nutrition more fully than has so far been achieved in much nutrition literature through the application of multiple political science theories. These theories allow the generalization of findings from this case study to assess their relevance in other contexts: the study ultimately is about the transfer of policy being explained by the presence of advocacy coalitions and their different beliefs, resources and power, and these concepts can be investigated wherever the nutrition system reaches down from international to national level

Power in the Zambian Nutrition Policy Process

This article presents an example of a power analysis in the nutrition policy process in Zambia, using the ‘power cube’ framework. Here, nutrition policy priorities were found to have been shaped by a global epistemic community relying on the hidden and invisible power of technical language and knowledge to frame policy options which resonated with their own beliefs about malnutrition. Actors in the Zambian nutrition policy process worked largely in closed spaces of power, with policy options set and selected by small policy elites. Striking in their absence from either invited or claimed spaces of power were the malnourished themselves, or their communities or representatives, who did not have a clear voice in Zambia’s nutrition policy process and therefore were without power. Further analysis of power is needed to better address glaring nutrition inequities and policy gaps such as those described in Zambia.International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (iPES Food

Lessons Learned in the Southern Region after the First Year of Implementation of the New Commodity Programs

The development of the commodity programs in the 2008 Farm Bill involved the origination of two complex revenue support initiatives. The two new programs, Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) and Supplemental Revenue Assurance (SURE), expanded the risk management tool kit of agricultural producers. The SURE program is a permanent disaster assistance program, whereas the ACRE program is a revenue-based commodity program offered as an alternative to the price-based Direct and Counter-Cyclical Program (DCP) created in the 2002 Farm Bill. For the 2009 signup, only 7.7% of eligible U.S. farms enrolled in the ACRE program. In the southern region, three states had no farms electing ACRE and four others had less than 50. Excluding Oklahoma, less than 1% of all farms in 13 southern states made the ACRE election.farm policy, Food Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, Average Crop Revenue Election Program (ACRE), Supplemental Revenue Assistance (SURE), Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Farm Management, Political Economy, Q1,

Equity in Social and Development Studies Research: Insights for Nutrition

While much international nutrition research deals with certain aspects of equity, such as the disempowerment of women producing negative effects on nutrition outcomes, we argue that the nutrition field has only partly addressed equity issues in its research to date. The closely related disciplines of development studies and work on the social determinants of health have long histories of researching equity issues, and these ideas could be readily applied to research on global nutritional inequities. This paper reviews the treatment of equity in the relevant bodies of research and suggests ways in which international nutrition research could extend and deepen its treatment of equity issues using insights from these related fields of study

Seizing the Opportunity to Sustain Economic Growth by Investing in Nutrition in Zambia

It is to the credit of the Zambian leadership and the development community that a great deal of momentum for nutrition has been built in the past few years. The level of undernutrition in Zambia is high and persistent, with almost one in every two children stunted for their age. In June 2013 the Zambian Government pledged to cut this rate by half over the next ten years. The challenge now is to turn that momentum into increased, and more equitable, programme coverage, improved quality of service delivery and a wider set of nutrition-sensitive interventions that support nutrition. While government buy-in and effort are necessary, they are not sufficient; undernutrition eduction requires a concerted cross-sectoral effort, including civil society, researchers,the private sector, the media and international development partners. The current strong economic growth in Zambia can be used as a positive driver to improve nutrition and therefore improve long-term human development and economic productivity

A Comparison of Bullying in Four Rural Middle and High Schools

Bullying in rural school settings is clearly a problem and some of our students are suffering as a result.. Bullying is defined in this study of 819 rural middle and high school students as when a student is exposed repeatedly to negative actions by one or more other students. Students responded to a questionnaire about how often and where bullying occurred and who students told. Analysis of the data reported frequencies, and the Pearson chi-square was used to test for significance (p \u3c.05) for gender and school level. Results indicated that while there are many similarities, there are some differences in bullying at these two levels that should be considered when reducing bullying. First, students should be encouraged to develop positive strategies to react to name calling and teasing particularly at the middle school level. Second, administrators and teachers must communicate better with students that they care about reducing bullying, especially at the high school level

Evidence-Based Policymaking in the Food–Health Nexus

This article examines the role of evidence in influencing food and nutrition-related public health policy, and starts to chart a way through the political economy of knowledge and evidence within this nexus. We propose an analytical framework for untangling the influence of food industry interests and public health concerns in the policy process, presenting a guiding structure for how an issue might move between contested and uncontested policy spaces, finding that the inherent uncertainty in public health research on complex food systems presents opportunities for contestation by different interest groups. We then use our framework to understand the political economy of the recent sugar-sweetened beverage tax in Mexico, in which public health policies have been adopted despite going against an apparent interest of elements in the food industry. This kind of evidence, given the right framing, has the potential to break some current deadlocks in creating healthier food systems.International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (iPES Food

Urbanization and the Nutrition Transition

Diets are changing with rising incomes and urbanization— people are consuming more animal-source foods, sugar, fats and oils, refined grains, and processed foods. This “nutrition transition” is causing increases in overweight and obesity and diet-related diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. Urban residents are making the nutrition transition fastest— but it is occurring in rural areas too. Urban food environments—with supermarkets, food vendors, and restaurants—facilitate access to unhealthy diets, although they can also improve access to nutritious foods for people who can afford them. For the urban poor, the most easily available and affordable diets are often unhealthy

Seizing the Opportunity to Sustain Economic Growth by Investing in Undernutrition in Zambia

It is to the credit of the Zambian leadership and the development community that a great deal of momentum for nutrition has been built in the past few years. The level of undernutrition in Zambia is high and persistent, with almost one in every two children stunted for their age. In June 2013 the Zambian Government pledged to cut this rate by half over the next ten years. The challenge now is to turn that momentum into increased, and more equitable, programme coverage, improved quality of service delivery and a wider set of nutrition-sensitive interventions that support nutrition. While government buy-in and effort are necessary, they are not sufficient; undernutrition reduction requires a concerted cross-sectoral effort, including civil society, researchers, the private sector, the media and international development partners. The current strong economic growth in Zambia can be used as a positive driver to improve nutrition and therefore improve long-term human development and economic productivity