East Africa Population, Health, and Environment Network Forms at Regional Conference, Advances Integrated Development
The East Africa Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) Network was launched on November 16, 2007, at the Integrated Development for East Africa conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Working with development planners, nongovernmental organization (NGO) representatives, researchers, and other key stakeholders from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, USAID supported a two-day workshop on coalition building, which served as a foundation for the Network.
The workshop was attended by 38 people from six countries. They also participated in the subsequent Network launch, which took place on the last day of the conference. Representatives from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo joined together to develop a strategic plan that will guide the PHE Network's actions for the coming year. Kenya’s National Coordinating Agency for Population and Development (NCAPD) was selected to house the Network secretariat, directing activities for the first year.
The East Africa PHE Network will:
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Serve as a communication mechanism for sharing lessons learned and best practices in integrated program design and implementation
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Enhance communication among different stakeholders (researchers, development planners, and program managers) working to achieve PHE objectives in East Africa
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Increase stakeholder knowledge and interest in PHE linkages at the national and regional levels
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Disseminate PHE research and data
Why Population, Health, and Environment Integration?
An integrated approach to development recognizes that dealing with such complex priorities as poverty alleviation, environmental protection, or sustainable livelihoods requires simultaneously linking responses. Population, health, and environment integration builds upon lessons learned over the last three decades. Addressing population concerns has always been a priority for this approach, because fertility remains high in and around most areas with high biodiversity. Today, however, PHE integration is a much broader concept than the acronym suggests. In addition to family planning and conservation, other program areas using the PHE approach have included disaster mitigation, gender mainstreaming, HIV/AIDS programming, food security promotion, security and governance, social entrepreneurship, environmental health promotion, and economic development.
According to recent assessments, PHE programs have produced better results than single-sector programs and can be carried out efficiently and at relatively low cost using a variety of community mobilization models. They can achieve significant improvements in population and environment objectives even in isolated settings. In addition, they utilize innovative approaches that can be replicated in diverse settings and address some of the obstacles to attitude change, knowledge gain, and behavior change. Specific PHE integration successes include:
- Strengthened family planning efforts, particularly in remote underserved communities
- Increased benefits to environment and conservation programs due to increased community support and buy-in
- Rapid results in coastal settings
- Demonstrated cost-effectiveness
- Solid platform for future programs
- A broadened audience base
- New channels for information on the benefits of smaller healthier families and protected environments
USAID’s Office Population and Reproductive Health has supported integrated population, health, and environment activities in 10 countries since 2002. For more information, contact Heather D’Agnes, PHE Technical Advisor, at hdagnes@usaid.gov or visit USAID's Population and Environment page.
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