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

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.

Fig. 1. Cross-impact matrix of the 17 Cambodian Sustainable Development Goals.

Color according to scale. The row sum implies the net influence of the goal on the network, and the column net sum show the how much the goal is influenced by all other goals in the network. Cambodia Sustainable Development Goals 1 no poverty, 2 zero hunger, 3 child health, 4 quality education, 5 gender equality, 6 clean water and sanitation, 7 affordable and clean energy, 8 decent work and economic growth, 9 industry, innovation and infrastructure, 10 reduced inequalities, 11 sustainable cities and communities, 12 responsible consumption and production, 13 climate change, 14 life below water, 15 life on land, 16 peace, justice and strong institutions, and 18 mine/ERW free. The underlying data can be found in Supplementary Data 2.

Fig. 2. Illustration of the full network of 17 goals and 272 linkages based on the cross-impact matrix.

Cambodia Sustainable Development Goals 1 no poverty, 2 zero hunger, 3 child health, 4 quality education, 5 gender equality, 6 clean water and sanitation, 7 affordable and clean energy, 8 decent work and economic growth, 9 industry, innovation and infrastructure, 10 reduced inequalities, 11 sustainable cities and communities, 12 responsible consumption and production, 13 climate change, 14 life below water, 15 life on land, 16 peace, justice and strong institutions, and 18 mine/ERW free.

Fig. 3. The Cambodia Sustainable Development Goals from the perspective of child health.

a, b: (a) Illustrate the first-order influence of child health on the CSDGs and (b) vice versa. c, d: (c) Illustrate the second-order influence of child health on the CSDGs and (d) vice versa. Color according to scale. Cambodia Sustainable Development Goals 1 no poverty, 2 zero hunger, 3 child health, 4 quality education, 5 gender equality, 6 clean water and sanitation, 7 affordable and clean energy, 8 decent work and economic growth, 9 industry, innovation and infrastructure, 10 reduced inequalities, 11 sustainable cities and communities, 12 responsible consumption and production, 13 climate change, 14 life below water, 15 life on land, 16 peace, justice and strong institutions, and 18 mine/ERW free.