Archive for: Family Planning

Integrating Population, Health, and Environment Programs with Contraceptive Distribution in Rural Ethiopia: A Qualitative Case Study

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In rural Ethiopia, environmental degradation and a shortage of arable land impose a major toll on the population. Population, health, and environment (PHE) programs, such as that of the Ethio-Wetlands and Natural Resources Association (EWNRA), have evolved to address these issues. This article examines the community-based distribution (CBD) of family planning commodities in rural Ethiopia through EWNRA’s large, multisectoral PHE program. Participants indicated that the integrated program encouraged acceptance of family planning and reduced geographic barriers to access. Through peer education and collaboration across government ministries, EWNRA leveraged integrated population–environment messages to garner support for its network of CBD providers. These integration strategies are a model for PHE programs worldwide, especially amid the global response to climate change. Because of the complex nature of PHE organizations, researchers often find it difficult to effectively document and evaluate their programs. With this in mind, the article proposes a framework to assess PHE integration.

Year: 2015

Source: Studies in Family Planning

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    Community Health

    Family Planning

    Integration

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    Integrating Human and Animal Health for Conservation and Development: Findings From a Program Evaluation in Southwest Uganda

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    This report documents the process through which a Ugandan conservation organization, Conservation through Public Health (CTPH), successfully integrated interventions traditionally seen as from different “domains” or “sectors” for the dual purposes of (1) reducing threats to mountain gorillas and their habitat and (2) improving the well-being of local communities directly dependent upon the health of the former (for ecotourism and natural resource use). CTPH received guidance from JSI in integrating family planning (FP) services to a quality standard, and increasing awareness of and demand for services among rural communities. This report describes activities undertaken between Oct 2006 and December 2008 and key results. It ends with an assessment of the potential for replication to increase coverage around this important Ugandan and World Heritage conservation area. Also presented are some lessons learned applicable to other initiatives aimed at extending access to FP around remote, biodiversity-priority areas and conserving the world’s biological richness.

    Year: 2010

    Source: John Snow, Inc. | Conservation Through Public Health | Evaluation and Research Technologies for Health

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      Conservation

      Economic Development

      Family Planning

      Integration

      Population

      Wildlife

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      Integrating Family Planning Service Provision Into Community-Based Marine Conservation

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      This study presents Blue Ventures’ experiences incorporating sexual and reproductive health services within a pre-existing community-based marine conservation initiative in Madagascar as part of an integrated population, health and environment (PHE) programme. The findings emphasize the mutually beneficial synergies, supporting both public health and conservation objectives, which can be created by integrating sexual and reproductive health services into more conventional biodiversity conservation activities. This PHE approach demonstrates the inextricable link between reproductive health and resource use by providing practical, immediate and lasting benefits to public health, gender equity, food security and biodiversity conservation.

      Year: 2012

      Source: Oryx—The International Journal of Conservation

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        Conservation

        Family Planning

        Integration

        Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

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        Integrating Family Planning Promotion Into the Work Of Environmental Volunteers: A Population, Health and Environment Initiative in Kenya

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        Although the potential advantages of linked population and environment programs are increasingly acknowledged, evidence is still limited regarding the feasibility and acceptability of PHE initiatives. In some of the best known PHE models, such as those implemented in the Philippines and Madagascar, health promotion was added to environmental initiatives through the intervention of community health workers. Less is known about the ability of environmental workers to assume a direct role in health promotion. To help fill this evidence gap, the Program Research for Strengthening Services (PROGRESS) project, which was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development to improve access to family planning services, teamed with the Green Belt Movement (GBM), a Kenyan nongovernmental organization dedicated to environmental conservation and community development. PROGRESS and GBM conducted a mixed-methods study to examine the following issues: (1) whether GBM’s frontline environmental outreach workers, known as Green Volunteers, could lead family planning promotion activities and (2) how communities would react to Green Volunteers’ promoting potentially sensitive messages about contraception. We used process monitoring and post-intervention data collection to assess the feasibility and acceptability of Green Volunteers’ implementing a PHE intervention and to explore the potential of this approach for expanding access to family planning information and services. In addition, we examined the costs of the intervention to evaluate affordability.

        Year: 2015

        Source: International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health

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          Family Planning

          Implementation

          Integration

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          Integrating Family Planning Into Other Development Sectors

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          Evidence confirms that family planning contributes to broad development goals of poverty reduction, enhanced education, environmental sustainability, and gender equality, but improving access to contraception has largely remained an effort contained within the health sector. While development programs outside the health sector increasingly recognize the connections between improving family planning and reaching their own goals, more evidence is needed on whether and how such efforts can work, and what types of models might be replicated and scaled up.

          The FHI 360 PROGRESS project (2008-2013) added to the evidence base on multi-sector integration, providing guidance on how development organizations can successfully expand their program model to include family planning services. Among these was the Green Belt Movement (Kenya) and Conservation Through Public Health (Uganda). Working closely with partners, PROGRESS developed, implemented, and evaluated interventions, and then synthesized lessons learned and packaged materials for use in replicating and scaling up these interventions.

          Year: 2013

          Source: FHI 360 | Progress Project

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            Family Planning

            Integration

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            Integrating Family Planning and Food Security: Lessons From the Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) Community

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            On March 31, 2016, the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance III Project (FANTA) hosted a webinar to discuss why it is important to link family planning and food security, how family planning contributes to building resilience and promoting climate-compatible development, and how lessons and experiences from multisectoral population, health, and environment programs can be applied to food security programs.

            Year: 2016

            Source: FHI 360 | FANTA Project

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              Family Planning

              Food Security

              Integration

              Resilience

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              Integrating Community-Based Family Planning Services With Local Marine Conservation Initiatives in Southwest Madagascar: Changes in Contraceptive Use and Fertility

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              This study assessed changes in contraceptive use and fertility between 2009 and 2013 in the Velondriake locally managed marine area of southwest Madagascar where marine conservation organization Blue Ventures began implementing an integrated health-environment program in 2007. The proportion of sexually active women aged 15 to 49 years using hormonal contraception and/or condoms during last intercourse increased more than twofold from 25 percent in 2009 to 59 percent in 2013. The number of births in the last 12 months per 1,000 women of reproductive age declined by 28 percent over the same period from 196 in 2009 to 141 in 2013. This program increased access to family planning for previously under-served communities, leading to uptake of modern contraceptives with an associated decline in fertility. These results suggest that this program has enabled couples to avoid unintended pregnancies, thereby bolstering local marine conservation initiatives.

              Year: 2017

              Source: Studies in Family Planning

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                Conservation

                Family Planning

                Integration

                Underserved Populations

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                Integrated Population, Health and Environment (PHE): More Than the Sum of Its Parts

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                This brief describes the reasoning behind population, health, and environment (PHE) projects, which aim to simultaneously improve access to health services and manage natural resources in ways that improve livelihoods and conserve critical ecosystems. These projects have demonstrated that implementing a comprehensive and integrated strategy which builds upon existing synergies between health, family planning, and the environment is more efficient than implementing separate programs to address each of these needs. The brief also discusses the history of US engagement in supporting PHE initiatives during the past 10 years and offers several policy recommendations to expand support to non-health sectors, strengthen the evidence base and reach new audiences, and scale-up PHE programs.

                Year: 2014

                Source: PAI

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                  Advocacy

                  Environment

                  Family Planning

                  Integration

                  Population

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                  Integrated Management of Coastal Resources and Human Health Yields Added Value: A Comparative Study in Palawan (Philippines)

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                  This peer-reviewed journal article on the value added of PHE approaches describes a quasi-experimental design used by the IPOPCORM project in the Philippines to test the hypothesis that there will be a significant improvement in both coastal resource management (CRM) and human reproductive health (RH) outcomes by delivering these services in an integrated manner as opposed to delivering either in isolation. The CRM, RH and integrated CRM+RH interventions were tested in three island municipalities of Palawan. Pre-project (2001) and post-project (2007) measurements of dependent variables were gathered via biophysical and community household surveys. The results support the project’s central hypothesis that integrated coastal resource management and family planning delivered simultaneously and with community involvement generate greater impact than stand alone interventions.

                  Year: 2010

                  Source: Environmental Conservation

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                    Coastal

                    Community Outreach

                    Family Planning

                    Integration

                    Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

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                    Improving Access to Family Planning Can Promote Food Security in a Changing Climate

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                    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. This brief summarizes new research that demonstrates that slower population growth, achievable by addressing women’s existing needs for family planning, can also play a significant role in promoting future food security in a climate-altered world. The study focused on climate change impacts, food security challenges, and population growth in Ethiopia, and results suggest that meeting women’s existing needs for family planning should be considered in broader strategies for adapting to the impacts of climate change on agriculture.

                    Year: 2012

                    Source: MEASURE Evaluation

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                      Climate Change

                      Family Planning

                      Food Security

                      Population

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