Country/Regional Experience

For the past two decades , PHE approaches have been tested in several developing countries, including East Africa, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Nepal, the Philippines. These country and regional PHE experiences offer a wealth of rich, detailed information on how PHE projects began and were carried out. The results and impacts of pilot efforts lead to taking on, policy challenges and strategies for scaling up from community level to broader national levels. Materials from countries and regions included here offer lessons and results from past programs and projects featuring PHE. For details on specific ongoing projects, see the Current PHE Programs tab.

Population Reference Bureau (PRB) created the interactive Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) Project Map in Google Maps to highlight the diverse efforts of organizations to integrate components of population and reproductive health services with environmental projects and programs. The goal of many of these programs is to meet the health and livelihood needs of remote or underserved populations while ensuring the sustainability of the environment upon which they depend. The map aims to give viewers both a sense of the scale of current PHE integration efforts and specific information about individual organizations, projects, and their location.

View Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) Project Map in a larger map

Mainstreaming HIV/AIDS through Namibia’s CBNRM Program 2003-2009: Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organizations (NACSO) - A Case Study

No Date | WWF-US | 58

CBNRM specialists initiated the Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organizations (NACSO) as an umbrella organization of non-governmental organizations (NGO) supporting CBNRM. NACSO works by building the capacity of focal persons, training peer educators within member organizations, developing HIV/AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) policies, and initiating mainstreaming activities – in conjunction with Namibia’s national prevention strategy.

2008 | United States Agency for International Development [USAID] | 31

Past_PHE_Projects_Summaries.pdf

The global PHE community consists of organizations and individuals with a wealth of knowledge and hands-on experience in PHE policy advocacy, operations research and program design and execution. This document provides detailed information on 15 specific past projects involving PHE approaches including links to project web sites. Each project description explains the development challenge, the approach taken, and the activities undertaken.

1999 | Population Action International | pp. 60

Population Action

This document is a follow up to Plan and Conserve, which inventoried 42 community-based population and environment projects. Forging the Links contains 15 additional project profiles as well as an assessment of the evidence and evaluation of CBPE approaches. The conclusions show that most evidence is anecdotal but that there are several reasons to continue linking family planning and conservation.

1998 | Population Action International | pp. 112

Population Action

Plan and Conserve profiles 42 projects that PAI was able to document that combined family planning and reproductive health services with natural resource conservation to improve access to family planning services. Project profiles span the globe including Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, and include NGOs such as World Neighbors, CARE and CEMOPLAF in Guatemala and Ecuador.

[read more >]

Asia: General

BALANCED Newsletter Issue 2: PHE Approaches and Links to Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation

2010 | BALANCED Project | 23

BalancedNewsletterIissue2.pdf

The Fall 2010 issue of the BALANCED Newsletter examines the links between PHE approaches and climate change mitigation and adaptation, because of the increasing global and national attention on the growing threat of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the impacts of climate change on communities, and interventions to address these impacts.

2008 | Conservation International | pp. 16

CICARE_Cambodia.pdf

From a range of interviews, observations, and desk reviews of documents this publication presents lessons learned from Conservation International (CI) and Cooperative for Assistance Relief Everywhere (CARE)’s health care and conservation initiative in the Cardamom Mountains Region of Cambodia. The primary focus is on elements of CI’s Population Health Environment (PHE) interventions involving reproductive health/family planning activities and conservation.

2008 | Conservation International | 36

t04_CI_healthyfamilieshealthyforests.pdf

Population, Health, and Environment(PHE) integrated projects are a part of this new generation. These projects not only aim to achieve goals in these fields, but to better understand the effects of these integrated approaches. Conservation International (CI) combined their extensive experience designing and implementing conservation projects, with the new understanding of the effects of integrated projects to create more valuable PHE projects. The idea in these projects was to reduce population pressures on biodiversity hotspots.

2007 | International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) | pp. 242

PHEAsia.pdf

For the 640 million rural Asians living in poverty, ecosystems and natural resources are the livelihoods they depend on. These are also the people who are most affected when these ecosystems degrade, and least able to rebuild their lives when natural disasters strike. The case studies presented in this publication highlight the challenges faced by these poor and, often, resource-dependent households across Asia. Some case studies focus on the complex linkages between gender, poverty, and environment, and others on how human-ecosystem interactions can lead to the spread of disease.

[read more >]

Asia: Nepal

BALANCED Newsletter April 2012: How Population, Health and Environment Approaches Contribute to Progress on the Millennium Development Goals

2012 | The BALANCED Project | 20

BalancedNewsletter_April 30 2012.pdf

This issue of the BALANCED Project newsletter examines how PHE approaches contribute to the acheivement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), with a focus on gender, maternal and child health and environmental sustainability. The introductory article sets the international policy context concerning the importance of integrated health, development and conservation inititatives.

2012 | WWF-US | 19

The Population-Health-Environment (PHE) Alliance Project, implemented by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) from 2008 to 2011, with support from the United States Agency for International Development’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health and Johnson & Johnson, aimed to change that practice, and by doing so, deepen the sector’s understanding of the value of the PHE approach for conservation, and how the sector could better measure that value.

2012 | WWF-US | 9

The Population-Health-Environment (PHE) Alliance Project, implemented by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) from 2008 to 2011, with support from the United States Agency for International Development’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health and Johnson & Johnson, aimed to change that practice, and by doing so, deepen the sector’s understanding of the value of the PHE approach for conservation,and how the sector could better measure that value.

2012 | WWF-US | 1

Engaging youth through WWF's PHE program.pdf

WWF’s Population, Health and Environment (PHE) program in the Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) dates from 2003, with funding from various sources: USAID, Johnson & Johnson, and most recently, from private sources in Finland. In all phases of this program, youth have played an important role. This one page brief describes WWF's efforts to engage youth in PHE activities in order to improve human well-being and conservation outcomes in the long-term in Nepal.

2011 | WWF-US | 4

PHE Factsheet 9.29.11 FINAL for WWC.pdf

Since 2008, WWF has joined with USAID’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health and Johnson & Johnson to implement the Population, Health and Environment (PHE) Alliance in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and Nepal. This PHE partnership measured the project’s endline survey taken in 2011 against the baseline survey taken in 2008, and is delivering the results of the PHE Global Development Alliance (GDA) project.

2011 | Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Population, health, and environment programs are cross-sectoral development initiatives that link conservation, health, and family planning interventions.

2010 | WWF-US and WWF-Nepal | 55

As part of its global Population-Health-Environment (PHE) Alliance from 2008 to 2011, World Wildlife Fund-US undertook a PHE learning agenda, with the support of USAID and Johnson & Johnson. This WWF-Nepal case study was produced by gender consultant Nancy Diamond to explore the impact of PHE activities of the WWF-Nepal Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) Project on women’s empowerment to inform the global PHE community.

2009 | The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars | pp. 12

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

In the Khata areas of rural Nepal people who depend on forests are learning new ways to protect the source of their livelihoods. Farmers in the region have become stewards of the environment and advocates for integrating population-health-environment (PHE) programs into their community activities. Family planning and health issues have become an integral part of the community forestry program in Nepal. This document discuses the benefits of the PHE approach in the Terai Region of Nepal.

2009 | United States Agency for International Development [USAID] | Nepal

Nepal_PHE_Report_October 2009.pdf

Since 1978, Nepal has implemented a community based model to address threats to deforestation, known as the Community Forest User Groups (CFUG). These groups have managed forest resources in a sustainable, democratic and socially inclusive manner, according to independent evaluations.

2006 | United States Agency for International Development [USAID] | pp. 49

w17_schweithelm_nepal-phe_assessment.pdf

This report focuses on the results of a USAID/Nepal funded project, Strengthening Actions for Good Governance and Utilization of Natural Resources (SAGUN) in various forested regions of Nepal. An analysis was made of the lessons learned and best practices for applying user-group management to forest conservation. Even though a decade of fighting was coming to an end and a cease fire was put into place, the assessment took place during a time of political unrest.

2006 | United States Agency for International Development [USAID] | pp. 39

t34_schweithelm_nepal-phe_usergroups.pdf

Integrated Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) approaches to development in regions of high human population and biodiversity rates, has proven to be efficient, yield better results than a single sector approach, and be in tune with rural areas and community based development. USAID work in Nepal through the Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs) and other federations, tries to take an efficient PHE approach that will produce the best results in multiple sectors. This approach strives to improve human and ecosystem health and generate impact on post-conflict building outcomes.

2005 | The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars | pp. 11

Nepal_Env_Stress&Demo_Change.pdf

After a decade long civil war, Nepal has been experiencing violence and turmoil. The increasingly violent struggle has undermined development initiatives and caused tourism to drop 40 percent. This article outlines how environmental stress and population factors play significant roles in creating the underlying conditions for acute insecurity and instability which ultimately leads to a cycle of more environmental stress on the region. It is a difficult cycle to stop unless the underlying demographic and environmental conditions receive more attention than the have to date.

[read more >]

Asia: Philippines

Population-Health-Environment (PHE) Champions-Local Leaders: Role Models for the World

2010 | Institute of International Education | 14

Mayor Eutiquio Bernales’ efforts to integrate population, development and environment in the town of Ubay have made a significant impact on the quality of life for town residents. According to the Institute of International Education’s (IIE) Leadership Development for Mobilizing Reproductive Health Program, Bernales’ focus on integrated Population, Health and Environment (PHE) development solutions has established Ubay as a model “learning site” for new and emerging leaders in PHE.

2008 | WWF-US | 96

This report describes the results of an evaluation conducted from August to December 2007 in review of WWF (World Wildlife Fund) PHE (Population, Health and Environment) projects sponsored by Johnson & Johnson and USAID (the U.S. Agency for International Development). The PHE sites are located in Africa and Asia, where the human-environment penumbra is in constant flux, where human populations swell most rapidly, suffer most desperately, depend most directly on and affect most profoundly some of the richest forest and marine ecosystems on Earth.

No Date | PATH Foundation Philippines Inc. [PFPI]

t18_PFPI_evaluation-design29.pdf

PATH Foundation Philippines Inc. (PFPI) views population management as an important element of the “best management practices” for coastal resource management (CRM). This hypothesis gave birth to the Integrated Population and Coastal Resource Management (IPOPCORM) initiative, which asserts that targeting the integration of the Eco-Social System is the “optimum approach to obtain synergies that will maximize their impact.”

No Date | PATH Foundation Philippines Inc. [PFPI]

IPOPCORM

Culion Island was a hotspot ranked by the Philippine Government as “extremely high priority” for conservation of marine biodiversity because of the increasing human population threatening its resources. Historically, the area’s waters have been an open access resource, with unrestricted entry, and free-for-all harvesting of fisheries, leading to the consequential decline in overall production. As populations increased naturally and from migration, further pressure was put on the fishery stocks, and the livelihoods of those living there.

No Date | PATH Foundation Philippines Inc. [PFPI] | pp. 8

w03_castro_ipopcorm-mdg.pdf

The vicious cycle of high fertility-poverty-environmental degradation is spiraling out of control in the coastal Philippines. A country once rich in natural resources has experienced over-exploitation and mismanagement of resources causing crisis in food and environmental security and escalating conflicts among resources users that threaten social stability. This paper presents the evidence of the affects of unbridled population growth on environmental decline and poverty.

No Date | PATH Foundation Philippines Inc. [PFPI] | pp. 49

IPOPICORM

This external review of the Integrated Population and Coastal Resource Management (IPOPCORM) project strategy and program accomplishments recommends to the funders, Packard Foundation and USAID, is to provide sufficient funding for a two year extension to strengthen further what is in place, maximize the utility of its accomplishments, and work toward sustainability of project results.

2012 | The BALANCED Project | 20

BalancedNewsletter_April 30 2012.pdf

2012 | BALANCED Project | 38

Baseline_Survey_for_PHE_in_Philippines-1.pdf

This study summarizes the results of a baseline survey conducted in 40 randomly-selected villages in Bohol and the Verde Island Passage in central Philippines in 2011. The study was sponsored by the US Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded “Building Actors and Leaders for Advancing Community Excellence in Development” (BALANCED) Project to inform future activities in the Philippines.

2012 | The CORE Group | 52

Family planning saves lives and promotes health and well being in a myriad of ways. It is cost effective, well understood and underutilized as a development strategy. Based on more than 125 references, the research presented in this paper provides compelling evidence that integration of family planning is a value-added strategy, saving lives, and spurring progress to prevent diseases, protect the environment, advance food security and nutrition, and improve the health of young people.

2012 | The BALANCED Project | 2

Filemon Romero final.pdf

Dr. Filemon (Mon) Romero has been an active member of the PHE community since 2004, promoting integrated Population, Health and Environment (PHE) approaches in the Philippines. Read more about his recent experiences managing the European-Union funded project called "Integrating PHE Actions in the Autonomous Muslim Region of Mindano" for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in this profile.

2011 | Coastal Resources Center | 28

Assessment_Benefits_PF_Environmental_Activities_in_Philippines_508.pdf

The purpose of the research presented here is to further evaluate the assumption that the integrated delivery of reproductive health and environmental management practices in one project results in added-value. Value-added is defined as meaning that the integration of the reproductive health and environmental management components will enhance the levels of success of each to the extent that their levels of achievement will be greater than if the projects were delivered separately.

2011 | WWF-US | 5

Conservation organizations have integrated family planning into site-based conservation activities in selected countries for almost two decades yet lacked strong evidence of the approach’s value to conservation. Today this approach has come to be known as the integrated “population, health and environment” approach, or “PHE.” Drawing on lessons from early integrated conservation and development projects (known as ICDPs), PHE projects aimed to be more targeted yet still integrated.

2010 | University of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Center

New Security Beat

Elin Torell from the University of Rhode Island's Coastal Resources Center (URI CRC) writes about her impressions and experiences on a South-to-South Exchange tour to pomote PHE in February 2010. The exchange was sponosred by the USAID-funded BALANCED Project, which URI CRC leads. Project partner PATH Foundation Philippines, Inc. (PFPI) organized and carried out the study tour for ten developing country government and non-governmental professionals to explore up close different PHE approaches linking family planning and coastal resources management.

2010 | PATH Outlook Newsletter | 8

This issue of Outlook examines the relationships between family planning and the environment, including key lessons learned from integrated or linked family planning and conservation interventions. The author targets family planning practitioners who are seeking new ways of reframing a fundamental issue - how family planning and the environment relate within the context of well-being and promoting social equity.

2010 | Environmental Conservation | 12

English

This article represents one of few peer-reviewed journal articles on the value added of PHE approaches. The article describes a quasi-experimental design used by the IPOPCORM project in the Philippines to test the hypothesis that there will be a significant improvement in both coastal resource management (CRM) and human reproductive health (RH) outcomes by delivering these services in an integrated manner as opposed to delivering either in isolation. The CRM, RH and integrated CRM+RH interventions were tested in three island municipalities of Palawan.

2010 | BALANCED Project | 78

SSE-PHE Report_Final2.pdf

In February 2010, the USAID-funded BALANCED Project sponsored a South-to-South learning opportunity for government and non-governmental officials to see up close how local stakeholders in the Philippines implement integrated Population, Health and Environment (PHE) approaches there. Hosted by hosted by PATH Foundation Philippines, Inc. (a BALANCED Project partner), ten developing country representatives from six African and Asian countries spent two weeks visiting three PHE learning sites and a marine protected area in Bohol province, in the central Philippines.

2009 | PATH Foundation Philippines Inc. [PFPI] | pp. 19

IPOPCORM

When PATH Foundation Philippines, Inc.(PFPI) noticed alarmingly high human population growth rate and a decreased supply of fisheries resources, they found it time to intervene, creating the Integrated Population and Coastal Resource Management (IPOPCORM) project. IPOPCORM’s goal became, to improve food security in coastal communities while maintaining diversity and productivity of ecosystems. Four underlying causes of coastal resource degradation become apparent to PFPI immediately upon commencing the project.

2008 | Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Everyday more than 4,500 new residents are born in the Philippines. The rapidly rising population has overwhelmed the fisheries that have traditionally supported the population, bringing poverty and malnutrition to many coastal communities. The Integrated Population and Coastal Resource Management (IPOPCORM) initiative works to save these fisheries while improving the livelihoods of individuals that rely on them.

2008 | Conservation International | 36

t04_CI_healthyfamilieshealthyforests.pdf

2008 | United States Agency for International Development [USAID]

USAID

In the Philippines 62% of the country’s population lives in coastal zones and has a growth that is one of the highest in the world. This population growth puts pressure on the coastal resources as the demand becomes larger. With open access to fisheries in many of these areas over-extraction and destruction of coastal habitats has decreased productivity and fish catch rates.