IDEA Success Stories | Population Health Environment

PopulationHealthEnvironment

LINKING FAMILY PLANNING WITH SUSTAINABILITY
© Jake Lyell/Alamy

Context

GROWING INTEREST FOR AN
INTEGRATED APPROACH

The Population-Health-Environment (PHE) approach to community development links interventions in voluntary family planning and reproductive health services with efforts to conserve biodiversity, manage natural resources, and develop sustainable livelihoods.

PHE is a means of extending services beyond existing health care and development assistance systems because PHE projects often work in extremely remote communities. Over the last decade, interest in the integrated PHE approach has spread across many sub-Saharan African countries, expanding its use. At the same time, greater emphasis in the development community on sustainability and multisectoral approaches has increased attention to the promise of PHE. Today, the number of organizations implementing PHE projects is increasing, the share of donors supporting PHE is rising, and interest in this approach continues to grow among decisionmakers at local, national, and regional levels.

This graphic, featured in the ENGAGE video, “Population, Health, and Environment Working Together,” illustrates the links emphasized in the PHE approach.

Activities

LEADING THE WAY IN EXPANDING SUPPORT

Over the last five years, PRB’s IDEA Project has been a leader in expanding support for the PHE approach in sub-Saharan Africa. IDEA has convened implementers and champions to share best practices and lessons learned, helped them raise the profile of PHE with established and potential new donors, and built individual and institutional capacity through skills training, technical assistance, and partnerships to produce informative and innovative print and multimedia materials.

IDEA has trained PHE champions, implementers, and members of the media to communicate effectively to decisionmakers about complex population-health-environment links and solutions, and helped them expand the base of support for population and reproductive health policies outside of the health sector. By doing so, IDEA has been instrumental in bridging the gaps between projects, country PHE networks, and policymakers.

In addition, IDEA has produced policy briefs and multimedia materials on the connections among population, family planning, and other development sectors—such as climate change and food security—to build support for population and family planning among a multisectoral audience. IDEA materials have reached decisionmakers around the globe, reinvigorating conversations about family planning and its benefits to the environment.

By providing regular e-updates, hosting meetings and conferences, and supporting advocacy for country PHE networks and regional initiatives, IDEA has helped the African PHE community grow larger and stronger, reaching more decisionmakers through more channels than individual champions working alone.

Related Materials

MAP:PHE Projects BRIEF:Food Security
Members of the Ugandan media visit Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) a PHE project in southwestern Uganda on an IDEA-supported media study tour to learn about how their work benefits the health of families and protection of wildlife.

Results

BUILDING AWARENESS & FOSTERING CHAMPIONS

PHE CONFERENCE

IDEA conference raises profile of the PHE approach and forges new partnerships. IDEA convened more than 150 PHE implementers, advocates, and donors at the 2013 International Population, Health, and Environment Conference to discuss future directions for the integrated PHE approach. The conference also engaged nontraditional audiences—including maternal health and family planning advocates—to examine the relevance of the PHE approach to their work in other development sectors. Opening remarks from Ethiopia’s minister of environment and forestry emphasized the importance of family planning and integrated approaches for achieving Ethiopia’s environment and development goals. The conference, supported by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the USAID East Africa Regional Office, forged new partnerships and raised the profile of the PHE approach within the larger development community.

Related Materials

ARTICLE:2013 PHE Conference Brief
Ethiopia’s Minister of Environment and Forestry Belete Teferu delivered the opening message at the 2013 International PHE Conference. He noted the success of integrated PHE efforts in his country, including greater empowerment for girls and women, improved reproductive health, and how they both have helped Ethiopia’s environment. (Also pictured: Julia Henn, USAID and Lester Coutinho, formerly with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation)

MULTIMEDIA

Multimedia presentation energizes new support for PHE integration. “Population, Health, and Environment Working Together,” a multimedia ENGAGE presentation developed by IDEA, explains how the PHE approach works to improve health, livelihoods, food security, and natural resources worldwide. The presentation has been viewed by donors, decisionmakers, and policymakers at national and subnational levels, and is used by organizations like the United Nations Foundation and Sierra Club as part of trainings for population-environment grantees and advocates. This presentation has introduced new audiences to PHE and generated financial support from new donors for PHE projects.

Related Materials

INTERACTIVE:Family Planning & Resilience VIDEO:ENGAGE PHE Snapshot
This ENGAGE presentation provides an overview of the PHE approach and how it can help solve challenges in remote and vulnerable communities.

LAKE VICTORIA BASIN

IDEA provides significant technical support to Lake Victoria PHE projects. The project was a resource in forming an innovative partnership to integrate family planning and maternal health service delivery with sustainable natural resource management in the Lake Victoria Basin. USAID and multiple foundations jointly fund the Health of People and the Environment in the Lake Victoria Basin (HoPE-LVB) project, developed by Pathfinder International and partners. IDEA worked closely with HoPE-LVB project staff to meet with district and national officials, community groups, and the media; strengthen the capacity of communications personnel; and produce materials such as fact sheets and presentations used in many of those communications. Finally, IDEA also provided data-collection assistance, enabling HoPE-LVB staff to share valuable midterm results to policymakers and donors and build solid community support for the project.

In 2012, authorities in Uganda’s Wakiso District worked with HoPE-LVB to address environment and population challenges, specifically drafting laws to curb forest degradation. The following year, a presentation by the project director to the Kenyan ministries of Health, Environment, Water Resources, Planning, and East Africa Community Affairs resulted in the formation of a Regional Policy Steering Committee on PHE by the Lake Victoria Basin Commission, the organization representing Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi that manages Lake Victoria.

Related Materials

REPORT:Health, Rights, Environment REPORT:Model Households REPORT:Beach Management
The goal of the HoPE-LVB ENGAGE presentation is to improve understanding of the Health of People and the Environment in the Lake Victoria Basin project and the population, health, and environment approach.

PHE ETHIOPIA CONSORTIUM

IDEA supports PHE Ethiopia Consortium as a national PHE champion. With support from IDEA, the PHE Ethiopia Consortium has played a critical role in raising the profile of the PHE approach among policymakers within Ethiopia and internationally. IDEA supports the Consortium to directly engage with high-level policymakers through one-on-one meetings, PHE project site visits, and periodic policy dialogues. These engagements have led to the expansion of the PHE approach in Ethiopia and requests by policymakers for PHE Ethiopia’s multisectoral policy work. Today, the PHE Ethiopia Consortium is seen as a national and regional leader and an example of the success country networks can accomplish in raising the profile of the PHE approach among key audiences.

The Gurage People’s Self Help Development Organization (GPSDO) is a member of the PHE Ethiopia Consortium. Beneficiaries of PHE projects, like those of GPSDO pictured above, often include women who learn skills for alternative livelihood activities and strive for greater economic and household decisionmaking power.

Takeaways

LOOKING BACK & MOVING FORWARD
  • Concise, nontechnical information empowers leaders and decisionmakers beyond the health community with a better understanding of the connections among population, health, the environment, and development. It also builds a broad multisectoral base of support for family planning.
  • Periodic policy dialogue that brings together policymakers, champions, researchers, and implementers mobilizes support for increased investments in integrated PHE strategies and can result in scaling up the approach.
  • Connecting PHE implementers with regional and national PHE networks and global advocates creates a worldwide PHE policy community with a stronger collective and coordinated voice that can influence national development plans and the international development agenda.
IDEA SUCCESS STORIES PDFPOPULATION HEALTH ENVIRONMENT
© 2014 by Jonathan Torgovnik/Reportage by Getty Images, courtesy of the Hewlett Foundation