Of Market Power, Models and Policy Analysis

Too often, policy makers in the development/NGO sector, leave out the private sector and their influence out of the equation. If we are talking about sustainability then we have to account for the entire market system holistically.

Food (Policy) For Thought

With the controversy around the Food Prize, and Food Security Conference after Food Security Conference being sponsored by large seed and food corporations, it is interesting to consider how the market power of some large enterprises can influence the academic debate and shape public policy discourse.

Dr Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, just opened the 8th Global Conference on Health Promotion with a speech in which she sharply denounced the influence of the private sector on setting public policy:

“In the 1980s, when we talked about multisectoral collaboration for health, we meant working together with friendly sister sectors. Like education, housing, nutrition, and water supply and sanitation. When the health and education sectors collaborate, when health works with water supply and sanitation, conflicts of interest are rarely an issue.Today, getting people to lead healthy lifestyles and adopt healthy behaviours faces opposition from forces that are…

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