Why Gender-Responsive Healthcare Must Be a Priority in Times of Crisis
- Mynea Yi
- Oct 27
- 4 min read
Author Name: Mynea Yi
Background: A Research Fellow
In Cambodia, access to health services in the rural areas is already known to be challenging. Yet, the recent armed conflict and internal displacement have made it even more difficult to get medical care. When the clashes suddenly occurred, people started moving out of their homes to the safe area and barely packed enough essentials for their well-being. In these conditions, the specific health needs of women and girls are frequently overlooked.
Women and girls experience serious health risks in this time of crisis, such as measles, cholera, diarrhoeal disease, and other illnesses due to poor sanitation and limited access to medical care. According to a recent report, the lack of gender-separated toilets and overcrowding in temporary shelters could also increase the risk of gender-based violence (GBV). Another report also found that women and young girls at the camp areas experienced sexual harassment and were subjected to a lack of safe spaces and poor hygiene. Moreover, young mothers were also affected, since some of them had just given birth and did not get the proper postnatal care; meanwhile, those who were pregnant did not get access to prenatal care because of the sudden evacuation. Thus, it shows that women and girls in the evacuation sites did not receive proper health support in the current relief kits, exposing them to infections and other health risks.
The Ministry of Health (MoH) and other programs initiated by the government have been working on providing relief materials such as food, clean water, and other necessities for those who are displaced. At the same time, some international partners have also provided funds and relief materials for those who are displaced, but they have not yet focused on the health needs of women and girls. World Vision International, UNICEF, and other national and international donors have provided financial support for emergency medical responses and the emergency kits. The Humanitarian Response Forum has also raised alarm over the critical health and protection needs of more than 150,000 people displaced, while emphasising the need for targeted interventions to address these specific challenges and ensuring the well-being of women during this difficult time.
The current National Emergency Framework focuses on long-term integration of all emergency responses, including maternal and reproductive health services. However, in practice, the integration of gender-sensitive health interventions is still limited. Policy steps like the UNFPA-led strategy to include the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for reproductive health in disaster risk management indicate official recognition of these needs. Yet, most immediate support for women’s health still comes from development partners, UN agencies, and NGOs that operate independently and mobilise their own resources. While these efforts are included in the emergency framework, they are often not incorporated effectively in practice, which results in overlapped coordination, inconsistent information sharing, and inadequate oversight. Therefore, although immediate relief is available, most of it operates outside the coordinated national strategy, which limits the effectiveness of the relief in addressing the health needs of women and girls during crises.
What can we do better?
Deploy mobile reproductive health teams in all evacuation zones by taking the ones in the Philippines as the model to follow. These teams should include midwives and carry essential supplies for pregnancy check-ups, safe delivery, and postnatal care in evacuation zones until the situation goes back to normal. These teams should be deployed within 72 hours of displacement and rotated across the evacuation zones with essential supplies. Thus, they could help prevent maternal deaths, ensure safe births, and protect women’s dignity during emergencies.
The MoH deployed emergency health kits in Siem Reap, Preah Vihear, and Oddar Meanchey in coordination with the World Health Organisation. However, because there is no formal shared emergency fund for women’s health, donor coordination is ad hoc and resources for gender-sensitive services are often allocated late, leading to gaps in reproductive care and GBV response. To address this, we should start by establishing a dedicated emergency fund and a coordinated framework among the partners mentioned above to help ensure timely and equitable access to essential services for women and girls during times of crisis.
Include “Dignity kits” in all emergency relief kits that are distributed by all actors, with items like sanitary pads, underwear, soap, and pregnancy test kits, so they can be quickly sent to women in need. We can follow the UNFPA’s footsteps for the next emergency responses.
Provide a nationwide system of mandatory training every two to three months for all frontline health workers, including those in rural and emergency-response settings. Even though the current training on gender-responsive emergency efforts on reproductive health and gender-based violence response does exist, it is normally project-based and often limited to certain provinces or facilities. Therefore, such institutionalised training is needed in order to leave a long-term impact in case of future crises.
To sum up, we need to make sure that emergency funds and resources are properly planned and gender-inclusive so that women's health and dignity are protected during crises.
About the author: Mynea Yi, is a dual-degree graduate in International Relations and English at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP). As a research fellow, she advocates for gender equality through her commentaries, raising awareness and driving positive change in her country.
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