Archive for: English

USAID Sustaining Partnerships to Enhance Rural Enterprise and Agribusiness Development (SPREAD) Project: Integrated Community Health Program Mid-Term Program Evaluation

, ,

The overall goal of the Sustaining Partnerships to Enhance Rural Enterprise and Agribusiness Development (SPREAD) Project (2006-2011) was “to provide rural cooperatives and enterprises involved in high-value commodity chains with appropriate technical assistance and access to health-related services and information that will result in increased and sustained incomes and improved livelihoods.” SPREAD was a unique example of integrated programming within USAID, a “wraparound” project that receives funding across several technical areas in Health and Economic Growth. SPREAD’s design had its roots in the Population, Health and Environment (PHE) approach to development, which promotes multisectoral collaboration or “integration” to create synergy and improve project outcomes across programs, particularly at the community level. This evaluation reveals stakeholder perceptions of the integrated approach, shares successes, challenges and lessons learned, and makes recommendations to inform future funding of integrated programming.

Year: 2010

Source: Public Health Institute | United States Agency for International Development

Access the resource

    Economic Development

    Integration

    Monitoring & Evaluation

    /by

    Tuungane Project Baseline Ecological Study: An Assessment of the Near-shore Biodiversity of Lake Tanganyika in Mahale Mountains National Park and Surrounding Villages

    , ,

    The Tuungane Project is a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, Frankfurt Zoological Society, and Pathfinder International that seeks to address the most significant health and environmental issues within the Greater Mahale Ecosystem in Western Tanzania. The Tuungane Project’s current and planned freshwater resource conservation interventions include, but are not limited to, support for development of fisheries co-management institutions (Beach Management Units, or BMUs), protection of fish breeding sites and the existing Mahale freshwater protected area, micro-credit loans to BMU members, reduction of sedimentation through agricultural land use management interventions, education, and capacity-building. This ecological survey focused on the freshwater component of the Lake Tanganyika Ecosystem. The diverse and fascinating animal life of Lake Tanganyika is a rich biological treasure of global significance.

    Year: 2013

    Source: Tuungane Project

    Access the resource

      Biodiversity

      Economic Development

      Environment

      /by

      Thriving Together Campaign

      , , ,

      A hugely diverse alliance of over 150 organisations working in 170 countries support the Thriving Together statement. Whether their work has a focus on conserving endangered species, providing family planning services, restoring habitats, promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights or a range of other human and environmental health issues, they all agree with the Thriving Together statement. At the heart of the statement is the widespread agreement, for the first time, that removal of barriers to family planning is critically important not only for women and girls, but also for environmental conservation and biodiversity. The Trust’s paper “Removing Barriers to Family Planning, Empowering Sustainable Environmental Conservation: A Background Paper and Call for Action” summarises why removing barriers to family planning is critical for women’s and girls’ health and empowerment, and sustainable environmental conservation.

      Source: Margaret Pyke Trust

      Access the resource

        Biodiversity

        Conservation

        Family Planning

        Women's Empowerment

        /by

        The Role of Community-Based Coastal Conservation and Development Initiatives in Building Social-Ecological Resilience to Climate Change: Experiences From Southern Madagascar

        , , ,

        Climate change impacts fall disproportionately on the world’s poorest, most marginalized communities, particularly those highly dependent on direct use of natural resources, such as subsistence fishing communities. Vulnerability to climate change involves social and ecological factors, and efforts to reduce it and build long-term resilience must target both. In Madagascar national and international planning to address vulnerability remains vague and indeterminate for most of the island’s coastal communities, with little meaningful implementation. Therefore, local measures to build resilience and adaptive capacity are critical to ensure that communities are able to cope with the immediate and long-term effects of climate change. This article examines a PHE program in Madagascar, and illustrates how practical initiatives can contribute to building immediate and long-lasting resilience and adaptive capacity. These approaches could play a key role in adaptation measures within the western Indian Ocean region, where many coastal communities live in severe poverty on the front line of a rapidly changing climate.

        Year: 2013

        Source: Western Indian Ocean Journal of Marine Science

        Access the resource

          Adaptation

          Climate Change

          Integration

          Resilience

          /by

          The Population, Health and Environment (PHE) Pathway to Livelihoods Improvement: Lessons and Best Practices from Nepal

          , , , , , ,

          This report describes the accomplishments and lessons learned by the Environmental Health Project (CDM) as part of the design and implementation of a pilot project to address community health and conservation issues, as requested by USAID/Nepal. The project was devised to build the self-help capacity of CFUGs to implement and sustain integrated approaches to population, health and environment (PHE) that also contribute to sustainable livelihood development. The pilot engaged 114 CFUGs in a variety of PHE advocacy, awareness-raising and service delivery activities during 2006-2008. RIMS-Nepal, WWF-Nepal, and ADRA-Nepal collaborated with CDM on this initiative. The livelihood, health and conservation accomplishments detailed here provide insights and best practices for PHE practitioners.

          Year: 2009

          Source: United States Agency for International Development | CDM International

          Access the resource

            Advocacy

            Community Health

            Conservation

            Implementation

            Integration

            Project Design

            /by

            Progress on Household Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene 2000–2017. Special Focus on Inequalities

            , , ,

            The World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund (WHO/UNICEF) Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP) produces internationally comparable estimates of progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and is responsible for global monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets related to WASH. This report presents updated national, regional and global estimates for WASH in households for the period 2000-2017. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development commits UN member states to take bold and transformative steps to ‘shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path’, ‘realize the human rights of all’, ‘end poverty in all its forms’, and ensure ‘no one will be left behind’. The UN General Assembly will conduct its first quadrennial review of progress in September 2019. This report assesses progress in reducing inequalities in household WASH services and identifies the populations most at risk of being ‘left behind’.

            Year: 2019

            Source: WHO | UNICEF

            Access the resource

              Sustainable Development Goals

              Underserved Populations

              Water Sanitation and Hygiene

              /by

              The Interaction of Human Population, Food Production, and Biodiversity Protection

              , , , ,

              Research suggests that the scale of human population and the current pace of its growth contribute substantially to the loss of biological diversity. Although technological change and unequal consumption inextricably mingle with demographic impacts on the environment, the needs of all human beings—especially for food—imply that projected population growth will undermine protection of the natural world. Numerous solutions have been proposed to boost food production while protecting biodiversity, but alone these proposals are unlikely to staunch biodiversity loss. An important approach to sustaining biodiversity and human well-being is through actions that can slow and eventually reverse population growth: investing in universal access to reproductive health services and contraceptive technologies, advancing women’s education, and achieving gender equality.

              Year: 2017

              Source: Science

              Access the resource

                Biodiversity

                Food Security

                Gender

                Population

                Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

                /by

                The Impact of Population, Health and Environment Projects: A Synthesis of the Evidence

                , , , , ,

                The evidence of impact of integrated Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) projects is often isolated in project reports and not disseminated widely. To respond to that need, this report pulls together project findings across many integrated projects to assess and better document what is known about the results and benefits of integrated projects and where gaps in the evidence base still exist. This synthesis report examines and summarizes recent available evidence from integrated PHE projects to document what they are measuring and/or not measuring, assess the current state of PHE project monitoring and evaluation, and identify gaps in evaluation and research for current and future PHE projects to improve upon. Forty-three documents from 35 projects were reviewed in conducting this synthesis. Findings suggest that projects report data and impact in some areas, particularly family planning, consistently. The findings also note that many PHE projects have found it challenging to collect data and thus document their impact in other sectors, particularly related to their environmental and livelihood programming.

                Year: 2015

                Source: The Evidence Project

                Access the resource

                  Community Health

                  Environment

                  Family Planning

                  Integration

                  Monitoring & Evaluation

                  Population

                  /by

                  The History of PHE in Madagascar: Looking Back Over the Last 25 Years and Forward to the Next Chapter

                  , ,

                  Madagascar has a rich history of integrated conservation and development initiatives. This report provides an overview of the evolution of the integrated PHE approach in Madagascar from the late 1980s through until the present day, along with a summary of opportunities and challenges relating to the scale up of this approach moving forward. It draws heavily on several excellent reports published during the mid-late 2000s, supplemented by grey literature and personal communications. This report is organised chronologically, with overlapping phases reflecting key developments in policy and practice. Major projects and players are highlighted at each stage, in addition to important approaches and lessons learned.

                  Year: 2014

                  Source: Blue Ventures | The Madagascar PHE Network

                  Access the resource

                    Conservation

                    Economic Development

                    Integration

                    /by

                    The Environment as a Strategic Healthcare Partner

                    , ,

                    The purpose of this review is to describe the growing consensus regarding the contribution of natural processes – ‘nature’ – to human health. Globally, natural environments are becoming smaller and critically degraded because of various human-related factors. Consequently, some of the ‘free’ health benefits nature confers are being lost. This is especially problematic for people in rural areas with limited access to clinical services whose lives depend closely upon nature. The “Millennium Ecosystem Assessment” explored ecosystem changes and their subsequent effects on human well-being, including health. Global Burden of Disease studies have also revealed the importance of environmental factors to health. Not coincidentally, geographic areas in the two research efforts overlap, but convincing research describing how conserving healthy environments may positively affect human health remains lacking. Establishing ecosystem-human health causal linkages via traditional epidemiological approaches is challenging. Innovative research initiatives are increasing our understanding and appreciation of nature’s role as a provider of health, rendering conservation potentially a healthcare strategy. Transdisciplinary university teaching is also playing a role in broadening the awareness of these important linkages and developing research skills to meet the challenge.

                    Year: 2013

                    Source: Current Opinion in Obstetrics & Gynecology

                    Access the resource

                      Community Health

                      Conservation

                      Environment

                      /by