Community Co-Design of Regional Actions for Children’s Nutritional Health Combining Indigenous Knowledge and Systems Thinking

Pippa McKelvie-Sebileau, David Rees, David Tipene-Leach, Erica D’Souza, Boyd Swinburn and Sarah Gerritsen
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Pippa McKelvie-Sebileau: School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Auckland 1023, New Zealand
David Rees: Synergia Consulting Ltd., Auckland 1011, New Zealand
David Tipene-Leach: Research and Innovation Centre, Eastern Institute of Technology, Napier 4112, New Zealand
Erica D’Souza: School of Future Environments, AUT University, Auckland 1141, New Zealand
Boyd Swinburn: School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Auckland 1023, New Zealand
Sarah Gerritsen: School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Auckland 1023, New Zealand

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 9, 1-14

Abstract: Children’s nutrition is highly influenced by community-level deprivation and socioeconomic inequalities and the health outcomes associated, such as childhood obesity, continue to widen. Systems Thinking using community-based system dynamics (CBSD) approaches can build community capacity, develop new knowledge and increase commitments to health improvement at the community level. We applied the formal structure and resources of a Group Model Building (GMB) approach, embedded within an Indigenous worldview to engage a high deprivation, high Indigenous population regional community in New Zealand to improve children’s nutrition. Three GMB workshops were held and the youth and adult participants created two systems map of the drivers and feedback loops of poor nutrition in the community. Māori Indigenous knowledge (mātauranga) and approaches (tikanga) were prioritized to ensure cultural safety of participants and to encourage identification of interventions that take into account social and cultural environmental factors. While the adult-constructed map focused more on the influence of societal factors such as cost of housing, financial literacy in communities, and social security, the youth-constructed map placed more emphasis on individual-environment factors such as the influence of marketing by the fast-food industry and mental wellbeing. Ten prioritized community-proposed interventions such as increasing cultural connections in schools, are presented with the feasibility and likely impact for change of each intervention rated by community leaders. The combination of community-based system dynamics methods of group model building and a mātauranga Māori worldview is a novel Indigenous systems approach that engages participants and highlights cultural and family issues in the systems maps, acknowledging the ongoing impact of historical colonization in our communities.

Keywords: child nutrition; food systems; food environment; group model building; Indigenous knowledge; system dynamics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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