CEDAW/C/GC/37 systems, including sexual and reproductive health services, should be available, accessible, acceptable and of good quality, even in the context of disasters. 25 To that end, measures should be taken to ensure that gender-responsive climate change and disaster resilience policies, budgets and monitoring activities are fully integrated into health services and systems. 26 66. Climate change and disasters, including pandemics, influence the prevalence, distribution and severity of new and re-emerging diseases. The susceptibility of women and girls to disease is heightened as a result of inequalities in access to food, nutrition and health care and the social expectations that women will act as primary caregivers for children, older persons and the sick. 67. States parties should ensure that detailed policies and budget allocations are made to promote, protect and fulfil women’s right to health, including sexual and reproductive health and comprehensive, age-appropriate sexuality education, mental and psychological health, hygiene and sanitation. Provisions for antenatal and postnatal care, such as emergency obstetric care and support for breastfeeding, should form part of strategies, plans and programmes relating to climate change and disasters. 68. In particular, States parties should: (a) Ensure participation, including in decision-making positions, by diverse groups of women and girls in the planning, implementation and monitoring of health policies and programmes and in the design and management of integrated health services for women in the context of disaster risk management and climate change; (b) Invest in climate- and disaster-resilient health systems and services and allocate the maximum of their available resources to the underlying determinants of health, such as clean water, adequate nutrition and sanitation facilities and menstrual hygiene management. Those investments should be geared towards transforming health systems so that they are responsive to the changing health-care needs arising from climate change and disasters and sufficiently resilient to cope with those new demands; (c) Ensure the removal of all barriers to access for women and girls to health services, education and information, including in the areas of mental and psychological health, oncological treatment and sexual and reproductive health, and, in particular, allocate resources for cancer screening, mental health and counselling programmes and programmes for the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and treatment for AIDS, before, during and after disasters; (d) Accord priority to the provision of family-planning and sexual and reproductive health information and services, within disaster preparedness and response programmes, including access to emergency contraception, postexposure prophylaxis for HIV, treatment for AIDS and safe abortion, and reduce maternal mortality rates through safe motherhood services, the provision of qualified midwives and prenatal assistance; (e) Monitor the provision of health services to women by public, nongovernmental and private organizations, to ensure equal access to and quality of __________________ 25 26 20/24 WHO, “Gender inequities in environmental health”, EUR/5067874/151 (2008). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability–Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects, Working Group II Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2014), p. 733. 18-03824