Submission ID 117309
| Issue/Objective | Like many countries, Benin has committed to achieving universal health coverage (UHC). To achieve this, the Health Insurance for Human Capital Strengthening (AM-ARCH) programme was launched with the aim of improving access to healthcare, particularly for the most vulnerable and poorest people. However, gender inequalities pose a significant challenge in implementing such initiatives. This study analyses how gender-specific needs have been considered in designing and implementing AM-ARCH in Benin. More specifically, to assess the extent to which the AM-ARCH scheme integrated gender needs into its design, to understand the implementation experiences of the AM-ARCH scheme through a gender lens. |
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| Methodology/Approach | Three data collection methods were used for this study: a review of documents relating to AM-ARCH, semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in the process of making AM-ARCH operational, and a workshop with these stakeholders to validate the key results of the data collection and to initiate a preliminary analysis of the data. Our analytical framework was adapted from the World Health Organization's Gender-Responsive Assessment Scale for program and policy evaluation, the International Union for Conservation of Nature's gender-responsive criteria for assessing gender intentionality in Nationally Determined Contributions, and from the Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Center Strategic Health Purchasing progress tracking framework |
| Results | The study reveals that despite a supportive political environment for gender integration in Benin, the AM-ARCH program demonstrates gaps in its gender intentionality. As key results, our study reveals that no gender specific needs analysis was made before the design of the AM-ARCH scheme. While women hold significant influence within governance structures, their representation is not equal. In terms of AM-ARCH implementation, efforts to address women's needs are evident in the benefit package's composition, which favors women. However, there is a lack of gender-responsive budgeting and insufficient involvement of gender experts despite all the policy documents advocating gender mainstreaming in programmes. |
| Discussion/Conclusion | Our results could suggest that AM-ARCH have a partial and unstructured gender intentionality which could lead to a risk of regression and weaken the effectiveness of actions to promote gender equity. We can then conclude that AM-ARCH demonstrates a more or less gender-sensitive intentionality, but not systematically. |
| Presenters and affiliations | Nihad Jessica Eyitayo AGOLIGAN TOMETIN Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Humaine et en Démographie (CERRHUD) Hashim HOUNKPATIN Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Humaine et en Démographie (CERRHUD) Kéfilath Bello Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Humaine et en Démographie (CERRHUD) Aimé Yedenou Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Humaine et en Démographie (CERRHUD) Lizah Nyawira Amref Health Africa Moreen Mwenda Amref Health Africa Joseph Githinji Amref Health Africa Christelle Boyi Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Humaine et en Démographie (CERRHUD) Jean-Paul Dossou Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Humaine et en Démographie (CERRHUD) Boniface Mbuthia Amref Health Africa |
