Abstract
The purpose of this chapter is to explore governance limits to climate change adaptation in Cambodia’s health sector, as well as possibilities for change. Poor coordination across government sectors and a failure to prioritise human resource development result in climate change adaptation limits. This chapter explores these two areas of adaptation governance, focussing on government and international aid sector decisions and priorities that undermine effective adaptation in Cambodia’s health sector. The chapter highlights a pessimistic outlook for human resource development. Despite this some recent changes suggest a government with an increasing commitment to sustainable development, including adaptation, and these changes may support better coordination of adaptation.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abouzahr, C., & Boerma, T. (2005). Health information systems: the foundations of public health. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 83(8), 578–583.
Adger, N. W., Dessai, S., Goulden, M., Hulme, M., Lorenzoni, I., Nelson, D. R., et al. (2009). Are there social limits to adaptation to climate change? Climatic Change, 93(3–4), 335–354.
Anker, R. (2011). Estimating a living wage: A methodological review. Geneva: International Labour Organization.
Bevir, M. (2009). The construction of governance. Rivista italiana di scienza politica, 39(3), 417–440.
Bowen, K. J., Miller, F., Dany, V., McMichael, A. J., & Friel, S. (2013). Enabling environments? Insights into the policy context for climate change and health adaptation decision-making in Cambodia. Climate and Development, 5(4), 277–287.
Bowen, K. J., Miller, F. P., Dany, V., & Graham, S. (2015). The relevance of a coproductive capacity framework to climate change adaptation: Investigating the health and water sectors in Cambodia. Ecology and Society, 20(1), 13.
Carlsson-Kanyama, A., Carlsen, H., & Dreborg, K.-H. (2013). Barriers in municipal climate change adaptation: Results from case studies using backcasting. Futures, 49, 9–21.
Climate Change Technical Working Group for Health. (2014). National climate change action plan for public health. Phnom Penh: Cambodian Ministry of Health.
Costello, A., Abbas, M., Allen, A., Ball, S., Bell, S., Bellamy, R., et al. (2009). Managing the health effects of climate change. The Lancet, 373(9676), 1693–1733.
Costello, A., Maslin, M., Montgomery, H., Johnson, A. M., & Ekins, P. (2011). Global health and climate change: Moving from denial and catastrophic fatalism to positive action. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 369(1942), 1866–1882.
Dany, V., Bowen, K. J., & Miller, F. (2015). Assessing the institutional capacity to adapt to climate change: A case study in the Cambodian health and water sectors. Climate Policy, 15(3), 388–409.
Deth, S. U. (2009). The People’s Republic of Kampuchea 1979–1989: A draconian savior?. Athens, OH: University of Ohio.
Graham, J., Amos, B., & Plumptre, T. (2003). Principles for good governance in the 21st century. Ottawa: Institute on Governance.
Hicks, G. H., & Gullet, C. R. (1975). Organizations: Theory and behaviour. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Huang, C., Vaneckova, P., Wang, X., FitzGerald, G., Guo, Y., & Tong, S. (2011). Constraints and barriers to public health adaptation to climate change: A review of the literature. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 40(2), 183–190.
IPCC. (2014). WGII AR5 glossary. Intergovernmental panel on climate change. Online publication. https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg2/drafts/fd/WGIIAR5-Glossary_FGD.pdf. Accessed December 29, 2015.
Klein, R. J. T., Midgley, G. F., Preston, B. L., Alam, M., Berkhout, F. G. H., Dow, K., et al. (2014). Adaptation opportunities, constraints, and limits. In C. B. Field, V. R. Barros, D. J. Dokken, K. J. Mach, M. D. Mastrandrea, T. E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K. L. Ebi, Y. O. Estrada, R. C. Genova, B. Girma, E. S. Kissel, A. N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P. R. Mastrandrea, & L. L. White (Eds.), Climate change 2014: Impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Part A: Global and sectoral aspects. Contribution of working group II to the fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change (pp. 899–943). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lesnikowski, A., Ford, J. D., Berrang-Ford, L., Barrera, M., Berry, P., Henderson, J., et al. (2013). National-level factors affecting planned, public adaptation to health impacts of climate change. Global Environmental Change, 23(5), 1153–1163.
MoH. (2015). National strategic plan on disaster risk management for health 2015–2020. Phnom Penh: Cambodian Ministry of Health.
Morgan, C. L. (2011). Limits to adaptation: A review of limitations relevant to the project “Building Resilience to Climate Change-Coastal Southeast Asia”. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), Gland, Switzerland.
Picketts, I. M., Déry, S. J., & Curry, J. A. (2014). Incorporating climate change adaptation into local plans. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 57(7), 984–1002.
RGC and MoE. (2006). National adaptation programme of action to climate change (NAPA). Phnom Penh: Royal Government of Cambodia and Ministry of Environment.
Rushton, B. (2008). Consuming a participation policy: Cambodian health committees. Sydney: University of Sydney.
Solar, R. W., Carson, T., & Srey, M. (2010). The scoping assessment for national implementation in Cambodia—Summary. Bangkok: Regional Climate Change Adaptation Knowledge Platform for Asia.
Sosa-Rodriguez, F. S. (2014). From federal to city mitigation and adaptation: Climate change policy in Mexico City. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 19(7), 969–996.
Strangio, S. (2014). Hun Sen’s Cambodia. Chiang Mai: Yale University Press and Silkworm Books.
Turner, M. (2002). Decentralization facilitation: A study of decentralization in Cambodia with specific reference to education. Phnom Penh: Education Quality Improvement Project (EQIP), Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport.
UNDP. (2009). Capacity development: A UNDP primer. United Nations Development Programme, New York, USA. February 10, 2016.
WHO. (2008). Protecting health from the effects of climate change: Resolution of the regional committee for the western Pacific. Manila: World Health Organisation.
WHO. (2015). Climate change and health in the western Pacific region: Synthesis of evidence, profiles of selected countries and policy direction. Geneva: World Health Organization.
WHO. (2016). Climate change adaptation to protect human health: Uzbekistan project profile. World Health Organisation, Online publication. http://www.who.int/globalchange/projects/adaptation/en/index7.html. Accessed March 13, 2016.
Willems, S., & Baumert, K. (2003). Institutional capacity and climate actions. Paris: OECD Environment Directorate, International Energy Agency.
Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges: the Fenner School of Environment and Society at The Australian National University and the Rotary Club of Hall for financial and material support to undertake fieldwork; the interviewees; A/Prof Jamie Pittock, Dr Liz Hanna and the reviewers for their constructive feedback on earlier drafts, as well as Daniel Ferris for editing and proof-reading. The author is responsible for any errors.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gilfillan, D. (2018). Governance Limits to Adaptation in Cambodia’s Health Sector. In: Leal Filho, W., Nalau, J. (eds) Limits to Climate Change Adaptation. Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64599-5_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64599-5_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64598-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64599-5
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)