Projeto

Building Back Better from Below (B4): Harnessing Innovations in Community Response and Intersectoral Collaboration for Health and Food Justice Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic

Resumo

The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened existing social, health and nutritional inequities and highlightedcommon challenges facing marginalised and racialised communities in cities across the Global Northand South. It has also driven new social innovations and cross-sector collaborations, some of which mayhave the potential to transform the longstanding inequities that undermine global health, food systemsand governance processes.This Trans-Atlantic collaboration will combine insights from social science research and the livedexperiences of activists, social entrepreneurs, front-line workers and local public officials to identifystrategies for future action to disrupt entrenched patterns of inequity and secure health rights and foodjustice after the pandemic. Recognising the intersecting nature of the health, food equity and democraticrepresentation challenges the pandemic has brought, we will take an action research approach toanalysing the trajectories, outcomes and sustainability of grassroots innovations and collaborations thathave emerged since March 2020 among activists and front-line service providers working withmarginalised and racialised communities in three socially diverse and economically dynamic but unequalcities: São Paulo (Brazil), Toronto (Canada) and Brighton (UK).Thematic workstreams will examine innovative local initiatives to ensure access to primary health care,emergency food provision and political representation of the needs and priorities of marginalisedcommunities disproportionately burdened by COVID-19, analysing the social, political, institutional andpolicy factors that have enabled or hindered effective collaboration and co-production of programmesand services between citizens and public authorities, between different levels of government andbetween state, community and business actors. Synthesis work will examine the outcomes andsustainability of the experiences of cross-sector policy coordination and multi-stakeholder collaborationthat have emerged in the three cities during the pandemic, assessing their potential to underpin strategicand scaled-up action to tackle intersecting inequities affecting marginalised and racialised communitiesin Brazil, Canada, the UK and beyond.