ArticleThe International journal of health planning and management2018
Boundary-spanning actors in complex adaptive governance systems: The case of multisectoral nutrition.
Article in The International journal of health planning and management, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The Impact of Nutrition-Specific and Nutrition-Sensitive Interventions on Hemoglobin Concentrations and Anemia: A Meta-review of Systematic Reviews.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2020Pooled it
- Diplomatic roles of regional coordinators for WHO Member States.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2026Article
- Operationalizing Multisectoral Nutrition Governance: Examining Commitment, Capacity, and Mechanisms for Action in Scaling Up Nutrition Actions in Kenya.Current developments in nutrition · 2026Article
- Goals in Nutrition Science 2025-2030.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Collaborative dynamics in multisectoral nutrition governance of Uganda's second nutrition action plan: a qualitative case study.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- Mapping the Drivers of Multisectoral Nutrition Governance and Its Link to Nutrition Outcomes in Kenya: A Qualitative Inquiry.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Lessons learned from operationalizing the integration of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions in rural Ethiopia.PloS one · 2025Article
- Cross-sectoral Food Systems Policy Action for Nutrition: Lessons From National, Regional, and Global Experience.International journal of health policy and management · 2025Article
- Translating global evidence into local implementation through technical assistance: a realist evaluation of the Bloomberg philanthropies initiative for global Road safety.Globalization and health · 2024Article
- Operationalising multi-sectoral food- and nutrition-related policies to curb the rise in obesity in Ghana.Public health nutrition · 2023Article
- Changes in Nigeria's enabling environment for nutrition from 2008 to 2019 and challenges for reducing malnutrition.Food security · 2023Article
- Between Rhetoric and Reality: Learnings From Youth Participation in the Adolescent and Youth Health Policy in South Africa.International journal of health policy and management · 2022Article
- Integrating Nutrition Actions in Service Delivery: The Practices of Frontline Workers in Uganda.International journal of health policy and management · 2022Article
- Article
- Understanding the challenges related to breastfeeding education and barriers to curricular change: a systems perspective for transforming health professions education.Canadian medical education journal · 2022Article
- Nutrition modeling tools: a qualitative study of influence on policy decision making and determining factors.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2022Article
- Meanings and mechanisms of One Health partnerships: insights from a critical review of literature on cross-government collaborations.Health policy and planning · 2022Review
- 'Writing budgets for meetings and teas?': a multitheoretical analysis of intragovernmental coordination for multisectoral action for health in Uganda.BMJ global health · 2022Article
- Multisectoral nutrition planning in Nepal: Evidence from an organizational network analysis.Maternal & child nutrition · 2022Article
- Challenges to Establish Effective Public-Private Partnerships to Address Malnutrition in All Its Forms.International journal of health policy and management · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A growing literature highlights complexity of policy implementation and governance in global health and argues that the processes and outcomes of policies could be improved by explicitly taking this complexity into account. Yet there is a paucity of studies exploring how this can be achieved in everyday practice. This study documents the strategies, tactics, and challenges of boundary-spanning actors working in 4 Sub-Saharan Africa countries who supported the implementation of multisectoral nutrition as part of the African Nutrition Security Partnership in Burkina Faso, Mali, Ethiopia, and Uganda. Three action researchers were posted to these countries during the final 2 years of the project to help the government and its partners implement multisectoral nutrition and document the lessons. Prospective data were collected through participant observation, end-line semistructured interviews, and document analysis. All 4 countries made significant progress despite a wide range of challenges at the individual, organizational, and system levels. The boundary-spanning actors and their collaborators deployed a wide range of strategies but faced significant challenges in playing these unconventional roles. The study concludes that, under the right conditions, intentional boundary spanning can be a feasible and acceptable practice within a multisectoral, complex adaptive system in low- and middle-income countries.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.