From systems thinking to real-world impact: Insights from training in Fiji
Global CFaH
As part of the Global CFaH contribution to the NIHR Global Health Research Cohort Academic Development Award (CADA), a series of interconnected training activities has been delivered across project settings to strengthen research capacity and support more effective responses to complex food and health challenges. Within this wider programme, a four-day intensive training was convened in Lautoka, Fiji, bringing together researchers from the University of the South Pacific’s Centre for Sustainable Futures and the Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprises & Development (FRIEND).
The training was facilitated by Dr Miriam Alvarado, researcher at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, and Visiting Fellow at the George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill.
Through a series of collaborative sessions, participants explored how systems thinking can be applied to complex policy and programme challenges. This included examining how social, economic and environmental factors interact to shape dietary behaviours, food environments and health outcomes. Rather than simplifying these dynamics, the training encouraged participants to engage directly with complexity, recognising that food and health systems are adaptive and interconnected. This shift in perspective is critical for designing interventions that are responsive to real-world conditions rather than controlled or isolated scenarios.
From theory to application: strengthening research and evaluation
A key focus of the sessions was applying systems thinking to policy evaluation and research design. Participants worked through approaches to better understand how interventions function within broader systems, and how different factors influence their effectiveness over time. These approaches directly support Global CFaH’s emphasis on co-created, community-based interventions, ensuring that research remains grounded in context and responsive to local priorities.
On this visit to Fiji, Dr Alvarado also visited FRIEND Fiji's food processing facility and the training culminated in a public seminar at the USP Lautoka Campus, where Dr Alvarado shared insights from her evaluation of the sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax in Barbados. Using this example, she demonstrated how systems thinking can provide a more nuanced understanding of policy impact, moving beyond surface-level outcomes to examine how policies interact with behaviour, access, industry responses and wider social dynamics.
The seminar highlighted how shifting the analytical lens can uncover new opportunities to strengthen policy effectiveness, offering lessons that resonate across Global CFaH contexts, including the Pacific. For participants, this provided a powerful bridge between global research and local application, illustrating how insights from one setting can inform thinking and action in another. As Global CFaH progresses, these investments in capacity building are critical to ensuring that research goes beyond evidence generation, supporting practical, context-specific solutions that advance more resilient, sustainable and equitable food systems.
