Review of Gender Mainstreaming in Cambodia’s Health Sector

A progress review is being finalized of the 2018 Gender Assessment of the Health Equity and Quality Improvement Project (H-EQIP), which is co-funded by the government of Cambodia, the World Bank, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the German Development Bank (KfW), and the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).

The partners and Cambodia’s Ministry of Health (MOH) are assessing the ministry’s progress in implementing priority actions for the H-EQIP’s three main components—strengthening health service delivery, improving financial protection and equity, and ensuring sustainable and responsive health systems—as well as the inclusion of indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, and people with disabilities in the health system.

Among the MOH’s priority actions achieved are the national guidelines for new health center designs to ensure additional space for pre- and post-delivery waiting rooms. The MOH also incorporated several recommendations from the H-EQIP gender assessment into its Gender Mainstreaming Strategic Plan 2020–2024. The national Gender Mainstreaming Action Group (GMAG) will implement the strategic plan in coordination with all MOH departments. Since many of the H-EQIP project team members are also GMAG members, gender mainstreaming should be better coordinated in future project activities.

The MOH recognizes that challenges remain in implementing priority actions and acknowledges that gender mainstreaming is hindered by insufficient capacity, budget, and technical support for gender analysis and activities. which looms large in the effort to advance universal health coverage. The ministry also acknowledges the need to strengthen its Health Management Information System (HMIS) and Patient Management Registration System (PMRS) to generate sufficient data for gender analysis and the social inclusion aspects of the health service sector. The MOH is eager to work with development partners on an action plan with specific benchmarks to implement agreed upon priority actions from the H-EQIP’s gender assessment during the remaining project period through June 2021.