Normative decentralization of the food and nutrition security agenda: descriptive study of legislation published in Brazilian capitals

ABSTRACT Objective This study aimed to identify and characterize the legislation published in Brazilian capitals regarding food and nutritional security. Methods This is a descriptive, exploratory, and documentary research, with a survey on public and free access websites to legislation published until July 2021 in the 26 Brazilian state capitals. Document characterization information was extracted, systematized, and systematically analyzed. Results Of the 1,390 legislations found, 307 were included in the analysis, 31% from the South region of Brazil and 23% from the Southeast region. The legislation mainly referred to the Structuring of the Brazilian System of Food and Nutritional Security (76.5%) and the Promotion of Universal Access to Adequate Food (17.3%). The categories less present were Evaluation and Monitoring of the Brazilian System of Food and Nutritional Security and Food and Nutritional Security (1.9%), Food and Nutrition Actions Aimed at Quilombolas and Traditional Communities (1.3%) and Universal Access to Water (0.7%), with 17 capitals (65.4%) having no localized legislation for these three themes. Conclusion The results point to the need for qualification of transparency mechanisms in public management and good governance, and demonstrate an incipient process of implementing the government food and nutrition security agenda in Brazilian capitals, with low incidence on different government sectors and other public policies