Piecing together the Labrador Inuit food security policy puzzle in Nunatsiavut, Labrador (Canada): a scoping review

Abstract

Inuit in Canada experience greater social and economic inequities than the general Canadian population. Food security exemplifies this inequity and is a distinct determinant of Inuit health. This scoping review focuses on food security-related policies implemented in Nunatsiavut, located in Northern Labrador. The primary objective was to identify the range of existing policies that pertain to food security in Nunatsiavut. The secondary objective was to complete a directed content analysis to map each policy against the applicable dimension of food security. This scoping review followed the Johanna Briggs methodology. The search strategy included the databases: Medline (via Ovid), EMBASE (via Ovid), CINAHL, and Scopus, and a hand search of the relevant journals, conference abstracts and grey literature. This search was undertaken from April 2019 – October 2019. A content analysis mapped each policy against the applicable dimension of food security. Results: The results showed that twenty five policies were identified, spanning three levels of government, that explicitly or implicitly addressed at least one dimension of food security. Accessibility was the most frequent food security dimension identified. The Government of Canada developed 60% of policies and the Nunatsiavut Government implemented 48% of policies. Most policies focused on proximal factors for food security. Identifying distal policies for food security and understanding the impact of existing policies in Nunatsiavut remain as areas of further investigation. Ethics and Dissemination:This project was reviewed by the Nunatsiavut Government Research Advisory Committee.

Keywords

• inuit
• food security
• policy