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Abstract
Objectives Multisectoral collaboration highlighted as key in delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but still little is known on how to move from rhetoric to action. Cambodia has made remarkable progress on child health over the last decades with multisectoral collaborations being a key success factor. However, it is not known how country stakeholders perceive child health in the context of the SDGs or multisectoral collaborations for child health in Cambodia.
Design, settings and participants Through purposive sampling, we conducted semistructured interviews with 29 key child health stakeholders from a range of government and non-governmental organisations in Cambodia. Guided by framework analysis, themes, subthemes and categories were derived.
Results We found that the adoption of the SDGs led to increased possibility for action and higher ambitions for child health in Cambodia, while simultaneously establishing child health as a multisectoral issue among key child stakeholders. There seems to be a discrepancy between the desired step-by-step theory of conducting multisectoral collaboration and the real-world complexities including funding and power dynamics that heavily influence the process of collaboration. Identified success factors for multisectoral collaborations included having clear responsibilities, leadership from all and trust among stakeholders while the major obstacle found was lack of sustainable funding.
Conclusion The findings from this in-depth multistakeholder study can inform policy-makers and practitioners in other countries on the theoretical and practical process as well as influencing aspects that shape multisectoral collaborations in general and for child health specifically. This is vital if multisectoral collaborations are to be successfully leveraged to accelerate the work towards achieving better child health in the era of the SDGs.
- multisectoral collaboration
- health policy
- child health
- SDGs
Data availability statement
No data are available. This is a qualitative study of a relatively small sample population in Cambodia. Making the dataset publicly available could potentially breach the privacy that was promised to participants when they agreed to take part and the ethical approvals granted.
Data availability statement
No data is available. This is a qualitative study of a relatively small sample population in Cambodia. Making the dataset publicly available could potentially breach the privacy that was promised to participants when they agreed to take part and the ethical approvals granted. Therefore, the authors will not make the full transcripts available to a wider audience. This is a qualitative study of a relatively small sample population in Cambodia. Making the dataset publicly available could potentially breach the privacy that was promised to participants when they agreed to take part and the ethical approvals granted.
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Data availability statement
No data are available. This is a qualitative study of a relatively small sample population in Cambodia. Making the dataset publicly available could potentially breach the privacy that was promised to participants when they agreed to take part and the ethical approvals granted.
Data availability statement
No data is available. This is a qualitative study of a relatively small sample population in Cambodia. Making the dataset publicly available could potentially breach the privacy that was promised to participants when they agreed to take part and the ethical approvals granted. Therefore, the authors will not make the full transcripts available to a wider audience. This is a qualitative study of a relatively small sample population in Cambodia. Making the dataset publicly available could potentially breach the privacy that was promised to participants when they agreed to take part and the ethical approvals granted.
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Footnotes
Contributors TA, HMA and DH conceived and designed the study. TC and SS contributed to the study design and conducted the data collection. DH analysed the data together with TC, SS and HMA. DH wrote the first draft of the manuscript to which all authors (DH, TC, SS, HN, SK, HMA and TA) provided critical contributions. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. TA is the guarantor of the study.
Funding The work was supported by the Swedish Research Council (2018-03609).
Disclaimer The author is a staff member of the World Health Organization. The author alone is responsible for the views expressed in this publication and they do not necessarily represent the views, decisions or policies of the World Health Organization.
The funding organisation were not involved in the manuscript’s writing or the decision to submit it for publication.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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