A growing body of evidence indicates that climate change is decreasing the productivity of many crops around the world, thus exacerbating existing food security challenges. Ensuring sufficient food for a growing world population in the context of climate change will require innovative technologies and strategies to boost agricultural yields and improve access to nutritious foods for the world’s poorest people.

 

In Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 240 million people lack adequate food for a healthy, active lifestyle. This policy brief examines trends in population growth, fertility, and family planning in sub-Saharan Africa and makes the case that investments in women and family planning are necessary to fulfill future food needs. Food security and nutrition advocates must add their voices to support investments in women and girls and voluntary family planning as essential complements to agriculture and food policy solutions.

This issue of FOCUS describes Blue Ventures' approach to combining reporductive health and family planning services with ongoing marine conservation efforts on the remote southwestern coast of Madagascar, home to the semi-nomadic seafaring Vezo ethnic group. Since Blue Ventures launched a family planning program in 2007, couples and women have been empwered to make their own reproductive health choices.

This publication shows how family planning and natural resource conservation improve economic development, public health and environmental sustainability. The report includes a glossary of population terms and explains how population dynamics relate to a variety of complex development issues, such as poverty reduction, food security, environmental security, climate change and migration and urbanization.

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.

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.

Human population growth is one of the primary drivers of biodiversity loss. Throughout much of the developing world growth of human populations is occurring in part as a result of a lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services, and this is having profoundly negative impacts on biodiversity and natural resource-dependent livelihoods.

The Summer 2011 issue of the BALANCED Newsletter examines the link between PHE approaches and livelihoods.  In recognition of the need and/or the "fit" for PHE projects to address a wider array of real life topics this issue of the BALANCED newsletter includes four articles that focus on the topic of PHE and livelihoods.  The articles describe how livelihoods have been integrated into environmental conservation in Zambia, Ethiopia, and Madagascar.

This issue of FOCUS highlights the successes and lessons learned from the USAID-supported Sustaining Partnerships to Enhance Rural Development (SPREAD) Project in Rwanda. In the most densely populated country in Africa, coffee farmers are improving their livelihoods and the health of their families by combining community health education with agribusiness development by forming and strengthening cooperatives. Since 2006, this Population, Health and Environment project has increased farmer revenues and improved family health outcomes in the target communities.