Health Advocacy Report: Food Security and Sustainable Practices

This report delves into the crucial role of health advocacy in addressing food security, particularly within the context of the Australian Aboriginal community. It examines the social determinants of health, such as income, education, and access to healthcare, and their impact on food security and nutrit...Read More

Running head: HEALTH ADVOCACY
Health Advocacy
Assessment Task 1
Mohd Rizwan Masood Qadri
S00217155
Australian Catholic University

HEALTH ADVOCACY
Table of Contents
Introduction 2
Assessment 1 2
Addressing social determinants of health affecting the present situation 2
Analysis of the problem situation (WPR framework) 4
Outlining a theory of change in achievement of the objectives 5
Analysis of the power objectives of the issue 6
Conclusion 8
References 10

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Introduction
The current assignment focuses on the concept of health advocacy and its importance in
meeting with the health requirements of individual and community as a whole. The study
highlights the topic of ensuring food security by promoting sustainable agricultural practices
along with ending hunger crisis and improving nutrition. In this respect, the objectives of health
advocacy serve an important role by addressing various social determinants, which has a
profound impact on the life processes of individuals. Therefore, establishment of global health
advocacy policies are important in achieving equilibrium within the social processes.
In this context, development of food availability can help in reducing hunger, achieving
the security for food and improvement in the nutrition. This sustainable development goal helps
in the achievement of the objectives without exploitation of the needful resources. Therefore, for
establishing food security there is a need to focus upon faster and sustainable practices. This is
because food security is a global concern where fourth of the population are not able to have
sufficient nutrition (Fao.org, 2017). Additionally, lacking sufficient amount of knowledge
regarding the food which is healthy or not with regards to the consumption may affect the
immunity and health of particular individual. This study of health advocacy had been done so
that it can help in the establishment of the actual problem situation and designing effective
strategies which helps in the management of food crisis along with imparting sufficient
knowledge to people regarding healthy eating habits.
Food security can be defined as a condition in which each and every people have social,
physical and the economic right to use of safe and healthy food which is able to meet the needs
of the people.

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According to foodbank.org.au, out of ten people of Australian aboriginals are unable in fulfilling
their basic needs. 1 out of the 3 elderly people Australian aboriginals, in 2011 and more than
23,000 of children are suffered from malnutrition
Assessment 1
Addressing social determinants of health affecting the present situation
The current study analyses (Chalmers, 2013) the various social determinants such as
opportunities for job, salary of the workers, the housing quality, the supply of food, full access to
the health care and their effect on the food and nourishment within the community. The social
determinants could be divided into a number of contributing factors such as education, economic
status and adequate community support available to an individual. As commented by Sandoval-
Almazan and Gil-Garcia (2014), the lifestyle and education status of an individual often affects
their diets and health habits.
In this context, some of the social determinants affecting the food security within a
population are low economy. As asserted by Kim, Kim and Nam (2014), the rates of food
security are highest among the Australian aboriginal and the Torres islander community. This
could be attributed to the lack of sufficient income which is governed by job security and
community participation and support. The social factors are also very important in determining
the course of life within an individual and community. The Australian aboriginal and Torres
islander are a distinct group of people with their unique cultural history and heritage (Daun, et al.
2015). Therefore, imparting them with sufficient education can help in the prevention of
propagation of wrong health beliefs within the community.

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Additionally, the geographical location of an individual often governs the opportunities
and the options available to them. In this context, distance from supermarkets or retails chains
can also affect the accessibility issues within a specific segment or target population as it
involves a huge amount of costing in the transportation. Apart from food security, availability of
sufficient nutrition is another governing factor controlling health prospectus (Liu, Wright & Wu,
2015).
The presence of malnutrition within a community could also be related to factors such as
poverty and lack of sufficient education (Cordell, & Neset, 2014). Therefore, participation and
support from state and federal governments along with health care agencies can play an effective
role over here. For the purpose of regulating the food crisis in region farming and agricultural
practices need to be given importance. In this respect, the factors affecting the sustainability of
farming practices have been divided into various parameters such as – production oriented,
resource use oriented, investment, community and marketing oriented (Snyder & Diesing, 2015).
As commented by de Andrade et al., (2015), the lack of sufficient investment for promoting the
sustainable agricultural plans along with lack of the inculcation of modern technology within the
farm practices can affect the produce and its quantities. The lack of sufficient amount of cash or
credit to the farmers can also affect the produce, thus resulting in food scarcity (World Health
Organization, 2014).
Analysis of the problem situation (WPR framework)
The problem situation could be further analysed with the help of the ‘What’s the Problem
represented’ (WPR) to be framework. Here in this assignment the main problem issues in the
economically backward classes are the hunger and some strategies to reduce the hunger issues by

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providing free access to the people, by raising funds from the government and educating the
peoples about the sustainable farming. The framework consists of a number of questions which
helps in understanding the extent to which the social determinants can pronounce its effect on the
problem situation. The WPR framework helps in understanding the problem situation using a set
of six questions. The very first question inquires about the problem situation, which in the
present context is lack of food security and problems encountered in the establishment of
sustainable agricultural practices. The second question investigates the problem, which could be
attributed to a number of factors such as poverty and lack of support from the state or federal
governments. As commented by Benach et al., (2014), the representation of the problem is often
multifaceted and could be accounted to a number of social factors.
The growing concerns of food scarcity along with issues of malnutrition have been seen
to affect health of an individual. In this context, poor nutrition has been affecting the health in
particularly the Reports the evidences have suggested that the Australian aboriginal community
have poorer health and lower life expectancy compared to the other Australian races. The
evidences point at a gap of 11.5 years in the average life expectancy of the aboriginal males and
9.7 years compared to aboriginal Australians. As asserted by (de Andrade et al. 2015), 80 % of
the preventable disease such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases could be prevented
by adequate nutrition and health literacy policies. The fourth question highlights the aspects
which has been left uncovered in the analysis and needs subsequent attention or redresser
policies. As commented by Hofman et al., (2015), the government and national policies has
neglected nutrition as one of the governing factors influencing upon the health of people. The
fifth question analyses the effects produced by the problem which could be estimated in the

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qualitative as well as in the quantitative sense. The loss in the production value of the land and
food crops results in a situation of food scarcity.
Outlining a theory of change in achievement of the objectives
The theory of change could be applied in meeting with the objectives of food security and
agricultural sustenance. The ‘theory of change’ is an outcome based approach which applies
critical thinking in designing, implementation and evaluation of programmes intended at
supporting change within the required contexts. As commented by Mitrou et al., (2014), the
theory is built upon the parameters of reflective practice for bringing about social change and
empowerment. The development of grassroots initiatives to donor agencies in developing
countries have found to be effective in bringing about the required change (Hofman et al., 2013).
The theory of change consists of a number of subsequent parts which could be divided into –
outcomes and preconditions, indicators, interventions leading to relevant outcomes, assumptions,
rationales and narratives.
The current assignment focuses upon the establishment of sustainable agricultural
practices within the current Australian scenario. For which a number of theories and frameworks
could be applied, one of them being the ‘theory of change’. It is a logical framework aimed at the
helps in the achievement of the objectives and aims through pre-designed set of activities. Here,
a sustainable agricultural network (SAN) could be established for achieving the objectives of
food security and ending hunger within the current population. The SAN used to develop and
manages the standards of the sustainable agriculture and manages the quality of the rural
producers. As commented by Nan and Madden (2014), a number of effective programmes such
as Rainforest Alliance could be implemented to improve farming practices and management.

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Thus, conducting farmer training and certification programmes could help in improving
the agricultural production which can significantly contribute towards ending food scarcity. The
goal is to contribute towards the prevention of biodiversity along with enhancing the profit and
the productivity ratios. The profits earned helps in the establishment of a feedback loop where
more and more agricultural based companies could be pulled in to invest more realizing the
importance of sustainable sourcing (Chalmers, 2013).
Analysis of the power objectives of the issue
In order to develop a sustainable agriculture and food systems a number of goals and
objectives needs to be formulated(WHAT ARE THE MAIN GOALS AND OBJECTIVES??
YOU DIDNT MENTION THEM ANYWHERE SO PLZ MENTION THEM.). The rapid growth
of population puts a constant pressure on the food resources (HOW ?? RESEARCH
ARTICLES), thus surplus production rate needs to be achieved. As asserted by McGinty et al.,
(2016), positive and transformative changes within the global agricultural and food systems can
be used to improve food availability options by making human being healthier. The management
of population growth, food losses and unnecessary wastage of food can help in protecting natural
resources against unreasonable exploitation(WHERE DID YOU GET THIS INFORMATION ??
RESEARCH ARTICLES ? CITATIONS )
In this context, the objectives of transformative change(WHAT KIND OF CHANGE ??)
could be applied for meeting the objectives of sustainable environment. The transformative
changes emphasise that the behaviour of the different stakeholders (WHO ARE THE
STAKEHOLDERS IN YOUR CONTEXT?? MENTIONS THEM AND EXPLAIN HOW
THEY ARE HELPFUL OR THEIR ROLES)are changed aiming towards the achievement of

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sustainable agricultural practices. However, one of the major issues which are faced over here is
meeting the high productivity at the same time establishing the environmentally sound practices
(World Health Organization, 2016). (SO WHAT IS THE SOLUTION FOR THIS ??)In this
context, the uses of pesticides have been increased considerably owing to the large scale demand
of healthy and pest free harvest. However, excessive uses of pesticides and insecticides have
resulted in chemical runoff in the water bodies. These have been seen to contribute to incidents
of biological magnification which also possess health risks for the living communities.
Therefore, the power objectives(WHAT ARE THESE OBJECTIVES ??) should be to
develop conventional agricultural strategies by the implementation of organic crops. Thus,
organic farming is one of the most accepted standards for sustainable agriculture(how can you
say this ?? any evidence or articles favouring these statements??). One of the primary goals is
also to end hunger and provide the children with sufficient nourishment or nutrition. Therefore,
the goal or the strategy was to develop genetically modified crops (GMOs). The GMOs help in
meeting the macro and micro mineral deficits of within the population. However as argued by
Benach et al., (2016), the GMOs have been seen to increase the dominance of superbugs and
super weeds. Additionally, they have been seen to demand more use of pesticides and
insecticides which results in phenomenon of eutrophication and biological magnification.
Therefore, in the present context establishment of sustainable agricultural network along with
sufficient help and support from the government can help in meeting the objectives.
In this paragraph, u are talking about so many things at a time such as organic crops ,
modified crops and superbugs . There is less relations. how can these things end hunger ?? there
is no answer to these questions. and what are the strategies for sustainable agricultural plan. it is
better if you give a plan or strategy to develop sustainable agricultural plans like governmental

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funds for crops, pesticides, manpower. as far as I know to end hunger in poor countries is to end
poverty or increase food production by the country itself or provide sufficient food to the target
population where hunger is more, provided economic help as well . there are so many things
missing in these assignments. you dont have much citations in the statements.
Conclusion
The current assignment focuses on the concept of establishing health advocacy along
with determining the social determinants which has a pronounced effect on major health and
social outcomes. Though the social determinants comprise of a number of factors including
employment, education and economic factors which affects community and individual health
attributes. However, in the present context food and agricultural sustainability have been taken
into consideration. In this respect a number of factors act as hindrances in the establishment of
optimum health and social equilibrium as far as objectives of food scarcity are concerned.
Therefore, the problems and issues faced by the Australian aboriginal and Torres islander group
have been presented over here. This part of the population had been seen to have higher disease
and mortality rates. This could be attributed to lack of community support along with lack of
sufficient knowledge regarding positive health habits and practices.
In this context a WPR framework could be followed for understanding the problem
situation where at most six questions have been asked to analyse the contributing factors and
estimate the measures which could be implemented for coping with the problem situation.
Further the theory of change could be established with the help of the sustainable agriculture
network (SAN) for meeting with the issue of food scarcity along with taking care of biological

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