Nurturing PHE Champions

The PHE global community has benefitted from several important national and international conferences that have motivated host countries to take important steps toward mainstreaming PHE into national and local biodiversity conservation and environmental management policies and programs. Early conferences held in the Philippines provided the opportunity for local PHE champions to meet each other and to engage with national leaders. These venues attracted global experts and called attention to the fundamental on-the-ground outreach and advocacy efforts in the Philippines. The 2007 Regional Population, Health and Environment conference held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia served as the launching point for the East Africa PHE network and, following the Philippines example, energized PHE work in Ethiopia due to the large number of local leaders able to participate and meet their peers in the international meeting.

The Woodrow Wilson Center conducts and makes available its growing, lively collection of streaming video broadcasts and summaries from its PHE speaker series and events. This unique source of up-to-date materials also serves as a model of possibilities for country and project leaders (also see section on Capacity Building).

2011 | BALANCED Project | 2
Mrs. Jeanne Nyirakamana serves as the Head of the Health Program in rural Rwanda advancing PHE efforts for the USAID-supported "Sustaining Partnerships to Enhance Rural Enterprise and Agribusiness Development" (SPREAD) Project. She and her outreach team help improve the lives of coffee farmers and cooperative members by providing them with health information and services related to family planning, maternal and child health, prevention of HIV/AIDS and water and sanitation. Read more about Jeanne's work in her PHE champion story.
2011 | BALANCED Project | 2
Mr. Sam Rugaba is community conservation health worker in Uganda, where he promotes childhood education and encourages family planning in order to help communities protect natural resources. Sam's community selected him to represent them in the Conservation though Public Health (CTPH) Population, Health and Environment program because of his respect in the community, his trustworthiness, and his good communication skills. Please read more about Sam in this PHE Champion profile.
2011 | BALANCED Project | 2
Mrs. Ruth Siyage is a Population, Health and Enviroment (PHE) champion, promoting family planning and livelihoods for a healthy environment in Uganda.  She works with the Conservation through Public Health (CTPH) near the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP) in Uganda's Kishande village, in the Bujengwe Parish, Kanungu District. For more information, please read her story in this PHE Champion profile.
2011 | BALANCED Project | 2
Rukia Seif is a population, health, environment (PHE) peer educator who promotes simple economic, environmental, and health behaviors that make sense. In many ways, the Mkalamo village where Rukia lives is a typical rural Tanzanian agricultural village. In another important way it is very different. Mkalamo abuts the biodiversity rich Saadani National Park—the only wildlife park in Tanzania that borders the sea. This PHE champions story describes how she implements PHE approaches to help her community improve health and environmental conditions.
2011 | BALANCED Project | 2
Zo Zatovonirina is a PHE champion working in the forests of Madagascar to improve human health and protect biodiversity. Read more about his experiences here. 
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.
2012 | The BALANCED Project | 2
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 | University of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Center | 16
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.
2011 | The BALANCED Project | 2
  Mr. Pascal Gakwaya Kalisa has produced coffee in the densely-populated country of Rwanda for the past nine years. He also helps promote improved health practices among the coffee farmer cooperatives and community members in one of the world's most densly-popuated countries. Read more about his efforts as a PHE champion.
2010 | BALANCED Project | 2
Abdalah Masingano is a PHE Provider near Saandani National Park in eastern Tanzania. This profile describes his community outreach efforts to increase access to family planning and reproductive health while increasing awareness of improved environmental practices.
2010 | BALANCED Project | 23
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.
2010 | BALANCED Project | 2
In the forests of the Democractic Republic of Congo, Albert Lotana Lokasola is helping to improve human health and conservation in the Kokolopuri Bonobo Reserve. This profile describes his efforts to increase health services for community members in this remote, criticallly important biodiveristy area.
2010 | BALANCED Project | 78
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.
2010 | University of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Center | 30
The BALANCED Newsletter is a communication of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-supported global technical leadership project for Population, Health and Environment (PHE). The BALANCED project seeks to encourage the adoption and promotion of PHE approaches among champions and practioners in areas of high biodiversity threatened by population pressures.