​Junior Professorship of Global Nutrition and Health Policy

Most global challenges in nutrition and health are not only scientific and technical but also deeply political. Governments, international organizations, donors, NGOs, social movements and private corporations all shape the policies that determine whether people have access to safe and healthy food, to health care, and to social protection. The Junior Professorship of Global Nutrition and Health Policy studies these political dimensions of nutrition and health, with a regional focus on Africa and Latin America.

Our research asks how nutrition and health policies come about, why they take the form they do, and what makes them last. A current focus is the politics of school feeding: how governments and international donors finance school meal programs, and how school feeding models travel between countries of the Global South. A second strand examines the regulation of food environments, including front-of-pack nutrition labelling and the marketing of breast-milk substitutes (such as infant formula), where public health objectives are negotiated against commercial interests and international trade rules. We work qualitatively and comparatively, combining case studies and process tracing with expert interviews, document analysis and policy data.

Our teaching is closely tied to our research agenda. We contribute courses to a variety of study programs, especially the M.Sc. Global Food, Nutrition and Health (which is directed by the junior professorship) and the M.Sc. Food System Sciences, but also the M.Sc. Environment, Climate Change and Health and the M.A. Development Studies. Regular offerings include lectures on "Global Health Policy" and the "Global Political Economy of Food" as well as seminars on "International Nutrition Politics", "School Food Systems", and "Maternal and Child Nutrition Policy". We also supervise Bachelor's, Master's and PhD theses on the political dimensions of food, nutrition and health.