Archive for: Report

Family Planning and Environmental Sustainability: Assessing the Science

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This report explores whether there a scientific evidence base demonstrating that the use of family planning contributes to environmental sustainability. The Family Planning and Environmental Sustainability Assessment (FPESA) conducted a two-year collaborative review of more than 900 peer-reviewed research papers from around the world published from 2005 through early 2016. The findings generally affirm that the influence of voluntary family planning on environmental problems is both real and constructive. FPESA identified considerable evidence supporting—and very little refuting—that voluntary family planning promotes environmental benefits and that expanding access to it can help bring about an environmentally sustainable world that meets human needs. The report also concludes that the diversity of researchers interested in the family-planning connection to the environment is high. The report features the project’s findings, perspectives on major related issues by eight authors, and an annotated bibliography containing assessments of 50 of the most compelling papers relevant to the linkage.

Year: 2016

Source: Worldwatch Institute

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    Conservation

    Family Planning

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    Environmental Stress and Demographic Change in Nepal: Underlying Conditions Contributing to a Decade of Insurgency

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    After a decade long civil war, Nepal experienced continuing violence and turmoil. The increasingly violent struggle has undermined development initiatives and caused tourism to drop 40 percent. This article outlines how environmental stress and population dynamics play a significant role in creating the underlying conditions for acute insecurity and instability which ultimately leads to a cycle of more environmental stress in the region. It is a difficult cycle to stop unless the underlying demographic and environmental conditions receive more attention than they have to date.

    Year: 2005

    Source: The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

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      Conflict Resolution

      Population

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      Ecohealth Midterm Evaluation

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      Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, known historically for its biodiversity, was devastated by years of war. To help restore the park to its former state, in 2008, the Gregory Carr Foundation entered into a 20-year agreement with the Mozambique government via the Gorongosa Restoration Project. Key objectives were: protection of the Park’s biodiversity and natural ecosystem processes, and poverty alleviation through ecotourism and other Park benefits. An underlying assumption was that a healthy ecosystem would provide the foundation for economic and social development. An Ecohealth program was incorporated to address health problems contributing to poverty. With support from USAID and Mt Sinai Hospital, an integrated (PHE) package of services was provided including family planning/reproductive health and maternal and child health interventions. In 2012, a midterm evaluation was commissioned by USAID to assess the extent to which Ecohealth was reaching its objectives and to identify “best practices” for replication and sharing with other integrated efforts worldwide.

      Year: 2013

      Source: Evaluation and Research Technologies for Health

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        Family Planning

        Integration

        Maternal and Child Health

        Monitoring & Evaluation

        Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

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        Desk Review of Programs Integrating Family Planning with Food Security and Nutrition

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        The USAID Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Strategy 2014­–2025 prioritizes family planning and reproductive health services (FP/RH) as nutrition-sensitive interventions that address the underlying and systemic causes of malnutrition. However, there is limited peer reviewed literature and a dearth of documentation on how to best integrate FP with food security and nutrition programming. To address this gap, FANTA conducted an extensive desk review to identify and synthesize programmatic experiences, including integration models, platforms, contact points, and providers used for integrated service delivery. This report synthesizes learnings from 102 health and multisectoral programs, including a rich set of program examples and three case studies, to illustrate the ways programs integrate family planning with nutrition and food security interventions. A third of the multisectoral programs included in the review and one cast study were PHE programs. The report and brief also include lessons learned, promising practices for programming, and recommendations for USAID.

        Year: 2015

        Source: FHI 360

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          Family Planning

          Food Security

          Integration

          Nutrition

          Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

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          Coffee and Community: Combining Agribusiness and Health in Rwanda

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          This issue of FOCUS highlights the successes and lessons learned from the USAID-supported Sustaining Partnerships to Enhance Rural Development (SPREAD) Project in Rwanda. In the most densely populated country in Africa, coffee farmers improved their livelihoods and the health of their families by combining community health education with agribusiness development by forming and strengthening cooperatives. Since 2006, this Population, Health and Environment project has increased farmer revenues and improved family health outcomes in the target communities.

          Year: 2011

          Source: The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

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            Agribusiness

            Community Health

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            Climate Change Solutions: Empowering Women and Girls through Reproductive Choice

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            The realisation of the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women and girls and the advancement of gender equality are inherently linked to sustainable population and climate change. It is well documented that women and girls are most affected by climate vulnerability, and that their reproductive health and rights are negatively impacted by climate change. In this paper, we propose that providing reproductive choice can improve the health and resilience of women and their communities, enhancing their ability to prepare for and adapt to climate change. Providing family planning to women wishing to delay or cease child bearing can also contribute to sustainable population growth, decrease consumption and lower emissions. As a practical solution to climate challenges, sexual and reproductive health interventions should be integrated into climate change and development programs, particularly in areas vulnerable to climate change such as the Asia Pacific region.

            Year: 2017

            Source: Marie Stopes International Australia

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              Climate Change

              Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

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              Benefits and Costs of the Population and Demography Targets for the Post-2015 Development Agenda

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              The purpose of this paper is to assess the costs and benefits of targets for population and demography. The authors show that, for high fertility countries, providing universal access to sexual and reproductive health rights and meeting unmet need for contraception are phenomenal targets for the post-2015 agenda. For developed countries with ageing populations, a good strategy is to encourage people to retire later. Furthermore, instead of attempting to increase fertility organically, it is better to expand migration to rejuvenate an ageing population.

              Year: 2014

              Source: Copenhagen Consensus Center

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                Family Planning

                Population

                Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

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                Baseline Survey (2011) for Population, Health and Environment Scale-up Project in the Philippines

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                This document summarizes the results of a baseline survey conducted in 40 randomly-selected villages in Bohol and the Verde Island Passage in central Philippines in 2011. The study was sponsored by the US Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded “Building Actors and Leaders for Advancing Community Excellence in Development” (BALANCED) Project to inform future activities in the Philippines. The survey covers basic reproductive health, disease management, and livelihood and marine protection behaviors among men and women in vulnerable communities on the island of Bohol. The report then compares these Bohol behaviors to those of men and women in “new” sites in the Verde Island Passage. According to the survey analysis, households in coastal villages depend on the productivity of the marine environment for their livelihoods. The report also recommends increasing the amount and quality of public participation in project activities in order to maximize health and conservation outcomes.

                Year: 2012

                Source: The BALANCED Project

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                  Coastal

                  Community Outreach

                  Conservation

                  Integration

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                  Assessment Study on Experiences of the PHE Approach in Ethiopia: the Case of SNNPRS

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                  This assessment report presents the experiences of the implementation of the Population, Health and Environment (PHE) projects in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State (SNNPRS) of Ethiopia. Four zones, four districts/woredas and five kebeles were included in the assessment study. Since the PHE projects in the SNNPRS were focused on the youth group of the population, 447 respondents of the study were all youth (16-24) which were sampled from the five respective study kebeles. A mixed methods research was utilized to generate cross-sectional data/information which intently was made to contain a longitudinal perspective. Multiple instruments of data/information collection were also deployed. Framed on a broader perspective of the PHE approach at global level and in Ethiopia, the report contains various evidences that reveal the extent to which the PHE projects had succeeded, or were impeded, in attaining the purposes for which they were designed.

                  Year: 2016

                  Source: Consortium of Christian Relief and Development Association

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                    Implementation

                    Integration

                    Youth

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                    Assessment of USAID’s Population and Environment Projects and Progamming Options

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                    The assessment reviews the results of in-country USAID PHE projects, especially on increasing access to quality family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH) products and services; determines USAID and the office of Population and Reproductive Health’s (PRH) role in providing technical leadership; identifies barriers and challenges facing the portfolio; and makes suggestions for USAID‘s follow-on strategy for PHE. Among the findings: PHE program results clearly make some contributions to the overall objectives. PHE programs may be particularly useful in facilitating partnership building and leveraging funds from non-USAID sources and may be avenues to learning how best to provide family planning to youth and males. The assessment identifies principal barriers related to inadequate funding, which in turn is linked to the complexity of integrated efforts; the limited evidence base for the integrated PHE program model; and the growing but still limited capacity to implement PHE field programs.

                    Year: 2007

                    Source: Global Health Technical Assistance Project

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                      Family Planning

                      Integration

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