Profile of food and nutrition technical areas in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil: decision making organization

Abstract The aim of the present study was to analyze the management organization of food and nutrition actions in the municipalities of Mato Grosso do Sul. This is a descriptive-exploratory study carried out in Mato Grosso do Sul, in which each municipal food and nutrition manager answered questions about performance, governance and financing profile. Data analysis applied frequency, chi-square test and decision tree tools. All cities were included (n=79). Most of the participants were female (92.4%), white (62%), nurses (45.6%) or nutritionists (36.7%). Financial management proved to be so incipient in the state since specific food and nutrition funding was neglected. The absence of a technical area in the municipality’s organizational chart was consistent with the lack of knowledge of actions, goals and resource allocation. Their presence coincided with having formally appointed technical managers, municipal food and nutrition policy, goals and elaboration of specialized materials. The present study also proposed a decision tree pointing that having a nutritionist in the team led to a positive result. The failures found in this study partly clarify the causes of the unsettling situation in the state. Our findings can support the creation of intervention strategies.