Description
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The "Improving Social Protection and Health II" (ISPH II) project is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by GIZ. The project has a duration of 3 years and will run from October 2024 to September 2027. It has a budget of EUR 9.7 million and it builds on the experience and work done by previous technical assistance projects. The objective of ISPH II is to improve the conditions for better access to social protection and quality-assured health services in Cambodia in terms of climate adaptation, inclusion and gender equality. By improving the conditions for better access to social protection and quality-assured health services in Cambodia, the project hence contributes to the Cambodian Sustainable Development Goals (CSDG), in particular CSDGs 1.3.1 (social protection), 3.9 (social protection in the event of illness) and 3.c.1 (training of health workers). The project works actively with the General Secretariat of the National Social Protection Council (GS-NSPC) as its main counterpart. It also works with other actors of the social protection and health system, e.g. Ministry of Planning (IDPoor), National Social Assistance Fund, National Social Security Fund, Social Security Regulator, Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Women Affairs, National Committee for Disaster Management, Ministry of Health, National Payment and Certification Agency, Health Science Institute of the Cambodian Armed Forces, Khmer-Soviet-Friendship-Hospital, Cambodian-Chinese-Friendship-Hospital. The project focuses on policy and capacity development. The project works on two intervention areas, social protection and health. Output 1 aims to strengthen the technical prerequisites for the further development of the social protection system, taking into account gender responsiveness and resilience to crises, in particular related to climate change. The aim of Output 2 is to strengthen institutional capacities for the implementation of social protection programmes, for example with regard to the introduction of mechanisms to review and/or optimise the climate and crisis response capacity. Output 3 aims to create selected technical prerequisites for improving access to social health protection, taking into account the needs of women and people with disabilities. This includes generation of evidence for policy decision as well as institutional strengthening. Output 4 aims to improve institutional capacities for quality-assured competence-based training of health professionals. This includes the development of competency-based curricula, the development of necessary individual competencies and the adaptation of training processes according to the standards and framework curricula provided for the competence-based training of medical professionals. In addition, the Ministry of Health will be advised on the development of a national quality assurance system for these new training courses and their accreditation. The project follows a multi-level approach. At the policy and network level, the project promotes the ability of the actors represented in the NSPC to engage in dialogue, cooperation and learning, e.g. in the context of the discussion of policy recommendations developed by GS-NSPC with the support of the project. At the organisational level, the project supports (i) (GS) NSPC on overarching strategic issues, (ii) social protection institutions to improve the provision of services, modalities of service delivery and/or targeting mechanisms as well as to strengthen their overall organisational capacity, (iii) the Ministry of Health and training institutions in the health sector to implement and accredit a competence-based training of health professionals. At the individual level, the competencies and capacities of the institutional implementation partners and the staff to implement the reform processes are strengthened.