Actors and dynamics of a policy transfer network: Brazil as a developer and the cooperation on food and nutritional security in the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries

Abstract

Based on the discussions of Role Theory and policy transfer, this paper analyzes how the transfer of food and nutritional security policies to the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries relates to Brazil´s performance as a “developer”. We demonstrate how a transnational policy transfer network congregating several cooperation modalities was constructed as a status-seeking strategy grounded on projecting domestic policies. Therefore, the policy transfer case study, was carried out, through interviews and document analysis, in order to observing the cooperative dynamic by mapping the effects that the contacts established between several actors had in the long term. The temporal scope of the analysis begins with the arrival of Lula da Silva to the Presidency in 2003, and extends until the II Extraordinary Meeting of the CPLP Council of Food and Nutritional Security, in June 2017. For conducting an operational analysis, social participation and inter-sectorial work were selected as representatives of the conceptual framework related to the Human Right to Adequate Food, since they are two central ideas for the policies that are the object of experience-sharing in South-South cooperation on food and nutritional security.