enhancing food security and physical activity for maori, pacific and ...

Enhancing Food Security and Physical Activity for Māori, Pacific and Low-income Peoplesensure inequalities were not increased. Potential side-effects could include positiveoutcomes in other areas such as health, education and employment. Marae-basedprogrammes could increase the number of people connected with their marae.Acceptability to stakeholdersOne informant commented that the programmes would be acceptable if people saw thebenefits of participation. Another stressed the importance of acceptability to Māoristakeholders.ConclusionCapacity development is an essential component of culturally-specific physical activityprogrammes. A variety of approaches and recommendations for developing capacityexist. Many of these have focused on developing capacity in health care workers indeveloping countries or among indigneous populations. Despite this, there are numberof consistent themes that were highlighted through the New Zealand environmental scanand key informant interviews.From an action-focused perspective, six ‘capacity-building factors’ have been highlightedthat need to be considered for developing capacity:1. A collaborative approach based on a community development model. This wouldneed to take into consideration a Māori for Māori or Pacific for Pacific deliveryapproach and the Treaty principles.2. The presence of suitable expertise to facilitate mentoring strategies.3. Education and training for those delivering programmes, ideally linked withqualifications and a career pathway, which is extended into the communityparticularly to the voluntary workforce.4 Development of champions and leadership actions, with Māori and Pacificrepresentation on advisory boards, and governing bodies where funding prioritiesare determined or funding decisions are made. This would include all areaswhere capacity development funding is available.5. Increase of resources to ensure basic infrastructure is available.6. Need for sources of funding to be available and accessible for Māori and Pacificpeople to ensure sustainability of any initiatives.There have been few evaluations of the effectiveness of developing capacityapproaches. Most have used surveys or qualitative approaches, but have not providedquantitative data regarding the success of capacity building strategies.Some of the six factors listed above, such as education and training for those deliveringprogrammes, will be programme specific actions. Others, such as championing Māoriand Pacific representation on advisory boards and governing bodies, will be morestrategic than ongoing activities. It is not clear where leadership for such policydevelopment work would be located. There is, however, clear cross-over with both theHealth and Disability NGO Working Group(http://www.ngo.health.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexcm/ngo-aboutus?Open&m_id=3) and thecapacity building with work undertaken by the Office for the Community and VoluntarySector (http://www.goodpracticefunding.govt.nz). There is also likely to be cross-over165