Kenya has continually faced challenges in all sectors: endemic poverty, persistent deforestation, and a high infant mortality rate. After a number of integrated population, health, and environment (PHE) projects initiated in Kenya, The University of Nairobi and the National Coordinating Agency for Population and Development conducted an assessment of the overall “state of integration” between 2006 and 2007. This study drew the links between population, health, and environment integration so that they could be evaluated. Findings confirm that these integrated approaches require greater efforts in planning, coordination, and communication but still can yield substantial results in the community and environment, including reduced dependence on forest resources, increased food security, cleaner drinking water, and greater access to health services. The assessment also discovered that strong leadership was essential to the community-based PHE project, cross-sectoral interventions can be introduced at different times and at different scales, and that even low-cost interventions can improve the health and well-being of a community.

Although integrated projects have shown to be beneficial, Kenya lacks clear legal framework and institutional money to initiate PHE at the policy level. But the PHE assessment found that most development professionals prefer the integrated approach at the community level. But even with all the benefits of the integrated approach, many challenges still face the work on the community level.