A stakeholder group assessment of interactions between child health and the sustainable development goals in Cambodia

Daniel Helldén; Thy Chea; Serey Sok; Linn Järnberg; Helena Nordenstedt; Göran Tomson; Måns Nilsson; Tobias Alfvén

doi:10.1038/s43856-022-00135-2

A stakeholder group assessment of interactions between child health and the sustainable development goals in Cambodia

Commun Med (Lond). 2022 Jun 16:2:68. doi: 10.1038/s43856-022-00135-2. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Daniel Helldén¹, Thy Chea², Serey Sok³, Linn Järnberg⁴, Helena Nordenstedt¹, Göran Tomson^{5

6}, Måns Nilsson^{4

7}, Tobias Alfvén^{1

8}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, Tomtebodavägen 18A, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden.
² Malaria Consortium, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
³ Research Office, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
⁴ Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁵ Presidents Office, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁶ Swedish Institute for Global Health Transformation (SIGHT), Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁷ Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁸ Sachs' Children and Youth Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.

Abstract

Background: With the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, a systematic assessment of how the goals influence child health and vice versa has been lacking. We aimed to contribute to such an assessment by investigating the interactions between child health and the Sustainable Development Goals in Cambodia.

Methods: Based on the SDG Synergies approach, 272 interactions between 16 Cambodian Sustainable Development Goals and child health were evaluated by an interdisciplinary Cambodian stakeholder group. From this a cross-impact matrix was derived and network analysis applied to determine first and second-order effects of the interactions with a focus on child health.

Results: We show that with the exception of Cambodian Sustainable Development Goal 15 (life on land) the interactions are perceived to be synergistic between the child health and the Cambodian Sustainable Development Goals, and progress on Cambodian Sustainable Development Goal 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) could have the largest potential to contribute to the achievement of the Cambodian Sustainable Development Goals, both when it comes to first and second-order interactions.

Conclusions: In this stakeholder assessment, our findings provide novel insights on how complex relationships play out at the country level and highlight important synergies and trade-offs, vital for accelerating the work toward the betterment of child health and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Keywords: Paediatrics; Public health.