Benin’s Assurance Maladie pour le Renforcement du Capital Humain (AM-ARCH) health insurance scheme as currently designed and
implemented lacks explicit gender intentionality. This poses significant risks on its ability to reduce the existing health systems inequalities. Although the country has existing legal frameworks for gender equity, the reform fails to systematically address gendered barriers to health care. Failure to be intentional on the application of gender considerations, AM-ARCH misses the opportunities to improve equitable access and health outcomes, particularly for women and marginalized populations. To position the AM-ARCH health insurance scheme as one that truly reduces health inequalities from a gender lens, we recommend the following; mandate comprehensive gender analysis to provide evidence that informs the design of the health benefit packages and strengths the implementation strategies, ensuring they address not only the population health needs but also the socio-economic realities across
genders; adopt and enforce gender responsive budgeting principles as a proactive measure to guarantee gender equity; strengthen gender inclusive governance across the different levels of decision-making and oversight; optimize gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation that goes beyond foundational sex-disaggregated data to incorporate gender equity indicators and accelerate continuous progress towards achieving gender equity for all.