Archive for: Family Planning


Female education and family planning are both critical for sustainable development, and merit expanded support without any appeal to global climate considerations. Since both activities affect fertility, population growth, and carbon emissions, they may also provide sufficient climate-related benefits to warrant additional financing from resources devoted to carbon emissions abatement. This paper considers the economic case for such support. We find that the population policy options are less costly than almost all of the options Nauclér and Enkvist (2009) provide for low-carbon energy development. They are also cost-competitive with forest conservation and other improved forestry and agricultural practices. We conclude that female education and family planning should be viewed as viable potential candidates for financial support from global climate funds. The case for female education is also strengthened by its documented contribution to resilience in the face of the climate change that has already become inevitable.

Year: 2010

Source: Center for Global Development

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    Much has been written on the history of and factors affecting environment sector successes and challenges in Madagascar. This case study focuses specifically on how the conservation sector has engaged in identifying and addressing unmet need for family planning (FP) in Madagascar over approximately two decades (1988 –2007), in the context of improving local livelihoods and reducing pressures on the country’s dwindling natural resource base including its unique biodiversity. It looks at how previous andongoing efforts linking or integrating population and environment (PE) efforts have been and are being scaled up past the site level. The purpose of this study is to highlight drivers of change, constraints and enabling factors to help explain the history and to identify strategies that may be replicable or newly applied elsewhere in-country or outside. This case study is designed to help answer the question: How can the conservation community further contribute to meeting unmet need for family planning in order to reduce future pressure on natural resources and biodiversity and promote more sustainable livelihoods?

    Year: 2008

    Source: World Wildlife Fund

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      This case study examines the link between marine resource management and the contraceptive use among married couples in the lobster-fishing village of Punta Allen, located in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Several reasons appear to contribute to small desired and actual family sizes, including a medical clinic staff effective in promoting family planning, cooperative and private resource ownership, changing cultural attitudes, geographical limitations to population and economic growth, and a desire to conserve the environment for aesthetic and economic motives.

      Year: 2008

      Source: Population and Environment

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        For the many individuals and communities experiencing natural disasters and environmental degradation, building resilience means becoming more proficient at anticipating, preventing, recovering, and rebuilding following negative shocks and stresses. Development practitioners have been working to build this proficiency in vulnerable communities around the world for several decades. This article first examines the meaning of resilience as a component of responding to disasters and some of the key components of building resilience. It then summarises approaches to resilience developed by the Rockefeller and Packard Foundations, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, USAID and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), which show how family planning services can contribute to resilience. Next, it gives some examples of how family planning has been integrated into some current environment and development programmes. Finally, it describes how these integrated programmes have succeeded in helping communities to diversify livelihoods, bolster community engagement and resilience, build new governance structures, and position women as agents of change.

        Year: 2014

        Source: Reproductive Health Matters

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          Population-Health-Environment (PHE) is an interdisciplinary model of programme design which recognises the complex interconnections between people, their health and their environment. PHE responds holistically to the challenges faced by ecosystems and the communities dependent on them, with thematically distinct but interconnected work strands sharing the same infrastructure, resources and goals. This has been shown to achieve better outcomes than tackling health and environmental issues in isolation. This paper shows how PHE programme design has been used by Blue Ventures for providing family planning services in a remote, biodiverse coastal region in southwest Madagascar. The PHE programme has integrated family planning services into a pre-existing, community-based conservation programme, aided by the established infrastructure and good community relations developed by the conservation workers. Implementation of the programme has led to a strong uptake of family planning services, and couples in the region are now able to make their own family planning choices. Successes and challenges of the programme are discussed.

          Year: 2014

          Source: Reproductive Health Matters

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            As Kenya faces drought and recurring food insecurity, building resilience among the nation’s vulnerable populations is more important than ever before. Resilience means how well and how quickly people, their families, communities, and the country can respond to, adapt to, and recover from shocks and stresses. This video explains how family planning can help to build resilience in Kenya. Developed in partnership with the National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) and with generous support from USAID Kenya and East Africa through the Policy, Advocacy, and Communication Enhanced for Population and Reproductive Health (PACE) Project, PRB has created a short video that outlines the connections between family planning and resilience in Kenya. This video will be shared with policymakers in Kenya, particularly those from nonhealth sectors, as part of communication strategy that seeks to strengthen commitment to multisectoral approaches to family planning.

            Year: 2017

            Source: Population Reference Bureau

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              This manual was developed to train individuals to integrate community-based family planning and health into PHE projects through community-based distribution and peer education. The curriculum shows how community-based distributors (CBDs) and Peer Educators (PEs) can be trained to discuss basic ecology, PHE linkages, and reproductive health/family planning within a PHE context. The modules include international family planning norms and guidance on sexually-transmitted infections/diseases. This training was field-tested in Tanzania, Zambia and Ethiopia. It is best for: 1) training-of-trainers events where facilitators learn how to train PHE CBDs and PHE Adult PEs on community-based education and distribution of family planning methods within the context of an integrated PHE intervention; and 2) workshops where local trained facilitators train PHE CBDs and PHE Adult PEs who work on integrated PHE activities.

              Year: 2011

              Source: The BALANCED Project

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                This guide was adapted from the Youth Sexuality, Reproductive Health and Environmental Education: Training Manual for Youth Peer Educators developed by PATH Foundation Philippines Inc. (PFPI) under its Integrated Population and Coastal Resources Management (IPOPCORM) initiative and other resources. It incorporates international family planning norms and guidance on sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), including the Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use (WHO 2004), Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers (WHO/RHR and JHU/CCP 2007), Contraceptive Technology (Hatcher et al. 2007), and Sexually Transmitted and Other Reproductive Tract Infections: A Guide to Essential Practice (WHO 2005).

                Year: 2011

                Source: The BALANCED Project

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                  This training guide was developed to train population, health and environment (PHE) Community-based Distributors (CBDs) who work on integrated PHE activities. A PHE CBD is someone who is trained to provide information on PHE, family planning (FP) methods, and the stocking and sales of FP commodities. This training guide can be used to train new PHE CBDs over a two-day period. It contains 12 modules covering basic topics that PHE CBDs need to know to discuss basic ecology, PHE linkages, and reproductive health/family planning with community members within a PHE context. The modules are based on international norms and guidance as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). This Guide is based on the publication “Population, Health and Environment (PHE) Community-based Distribution and Peer Education System: Train-the-Trainer Guide for Training PHE Community-based Distributors and PHE Adult Peer Educators,” which is geared for training master trainers who will, in turn, train PHE adult peer educators and PHE CBDs.

                  Year: 2012

                  Source: The BALANCED Project

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                    This training guide was developed to train PHE Adult Peer Educators (PEs) who work on integrated PHE activities. This training guide contains 12 modules covering basic topics that PHE Adult Peer Educators need to know to discuss basic ecology, PHE linkages, and reproductive health/family planning with community members within a PHE context. This Guide is based on the BALANCED Project publication, “Population, Health and Environment (PHE) Community-based Distribution and Peer Education System: Train-the-Trainer Guide for Training PHE Community-based Distributors and PHE Adult Peer Educators.”

                    Year: 2011

                    Source: The BALANCED Project

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