**4. Methodology**

To conduct the case study, a South‐African country team was formed representing academics and professionals working in nutrition, food security and the agricultural policy environment. Members of the country team were selected based on their level of involvement in nutrition and agricultural activities and frameworks within South Africa.

As a point of departure, a literature review was conducted on the nutrition situation in South Africa to serve as the background to contextualize the case study. A review of previous nutri‐ tion surveys and data was conducted simultaneously with the collection of primary data in the field. Nutrition information was sourced from the previous nutrition‐related national surveys that have been conducted in South Africa since 1994 namely, the review of the South African Vitamin A Survey (SAVACG) and the National Food Consumption Survey (1999 and 2005). The main nutrition policies at the time were also reviewed and summarised in comparison with the findings of the Landscape Analyses Report performed for the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2010 [19]. The information was discussed and insights were obtained through stakeholder interviews with members from the Directorate of Nutrition of the National Department of Health.

Secondly, to get a thorough understanding of the South African policy environment, 29 key stakeholders were interviewed. Interviews at the national level involved mainly senior staff (Directors and managers) at key government ministries and agencies, departmental heads of academic and training institutions and national programme officers.

In addition, a questionnaire was distributed extensively throughout the country to stakehold‐ ers as well as through professional associations, e.g. the South African Association for Food Science and Technology (SAAFOST) and Nutrition Society of South Africa (NSSA)). The ques‐ tionnaire was developed and adapted based on a scientific article from Haddad [20] and a report from the Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health [21]. The questionnaire was adopted to be applicable to the South African situation.

Once the policy environment within which programmes are rolled out was well understood, key programmes and policies were identified which do/could impact on the nutrition sen‐ sitivity of agriculture and food systems. A desktop review was done to isolate relevant pro‐ grammes. This was done by means of reviewing the current strategic plans of all the national departments in South Africa, identifying any frameworks and programmes containing the words 'nutrition', 'food security' or 'health' or 'agriculture'. The programmes excluded medical based interventions and programmes such as supplementation programmes by the Department of Health and medicinal programmes such as the Farmer‐to‐Pharma programme by the Department of Science and Technology.

Once the list of programmes was compiled, confirmation that the list was complete was obtained from stakeholders in South Africa through the distribution of the list to them for comments and approval, as well as presentation of the report to the National Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF).

To review the nutrition sensitivity of the programmes included in the list, a template was developed to evaluate the nutrition sensitivity of each of the interventions, adopted from the UNSCN guideline provided [22] (**Table 2**).
