Population and Environment

	New PHE Alliance - Signing of the Memorandum of Understanding This three-year public-private partnership between USAID and Johnson & Johnson, implemented by the World Wildlife Fund, will deliver integrated population, health, and environmental activities to remote, rural, underserved communities in areas of high biodiversity in Kenya, Nepal, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Population, health, and environment (PHE) programs can play an important role in areas where demographic trends such as growth and migration place pressure on the environment; where degraded natural resources impact the health and livelihoods of local communities; and where a lack of effective health services, including reproductive health, threatens long-term prospects for sustainable development. The key objective of these programs is to simultaneously improve access to health services while helping communities manage their natural resources in ways that improve their health and livelihood even as they protect the environment.

Since 1993, USAID’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health has worked to better understand the synergistic relationship between population, health, and environment. In 2002, the PHE program expanded to include field programming in response to legislative language originally included in the FY02 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill – and repeated in all subsequent bills – stating that under the Child Survival and Health Programs Fund some portion (unspecified) of the funds for family planning/reproductive health {should be allocated} in areas where population growth threatens biodiversity or endangered species. These field-based projects, often implemented by conservation organizations, have developed innovative models of integrating population, environment, and health where appropriate in and around areas of high biodiversity in 10 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

• Population, Health, and Environment (PHE)
  Read more information on USAID’s PHE projects, including a list of partners and resources; tools; and best practices for practitioners of integrated population, health, and environment projects.
  
  
• USAID Fact Sheet: Balancing People and the Environment to Promote Resilient Communities [PDF, 214KB]
  


• Integrating Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) Projects: A Programming Manual - October 2007 [PDF, 996KB]
  Achieving environmentally sustainable development in situations of surging population growth, declining biodiversity, and chronic poverty requires strategic planning, multidisciplinary interventions, and cross-sector linked approaches that mirror the livelihood strategies of poor households and communities. This manual was designed with such a need in mind, using evidence from programs in Madagascar, the Philippines, and other countries where integrated approaches to development have been explored and brought to scale over the past decade.
  
  
• Guinea Biodiversity and Tropical Forests 118/119 Assessment [PDF, 1MB]
  This assessment looks specifically at how USAID is addressing threats to biodiversity and forestry resources in Guineau. USAID has a long history working on natural resource management, environment, and agriculture in Guinea, and many aspects of its current programming address the threats, especially those related to co-management of classified forests in Guinea.
  


• Woodrow Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP)
  This USAID-funded program brings international policymakers, practitioners, and scholars to Washington, D.C., to address the public and fellow experts on issues such as population, health and environment.
  • ECSP 12th Annual Report
  • Subscribe to the ECSP Monthly E-Newsletter

USAID Success Stories

• Bringing Health Care to the Cardamoms - June 2007
  Conservation International and CARE, a nongovernmental development agency, opened a clinic in Thma Bang, Cambodia in 2004 with a grant from USAID. More than two years later, the clinic – still Thma Bang district’s only – provides primary health care to nearly 2,500 people in Cambodia’s remote Central Cardamom Mountains.
  



• 	With funding from USAID, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) implemented a PHE project in Madagascar's Spiny Forest. The project addresses the links between population pressures, lack of access to needed health services, and the environment. Read more Source: WWF

  Population, Health, and Environment Program in Madagascar - April 2007
  Read how WWF, with funding from USAID, partnered with Action Santé Organisation Secours (ASOS) to implement a PHE project that aims to address the problems in Spiny Forest by building community awareness of family planning options, providing counseling and access, and simultaneously initiating sound natural resources management practices and sustainable livelihood strategies.
  


• Integrating Population, Health, and Environment in Cambodia - April 2007
  The Cardamom Mountains of Southwest Cambodia are experiencing rising levels of forest destruction and wildlife hunting, which is threatening to undermine the natural and indigenous values of the region. Read more about what is causing this and how USAID and Conservation International are helping to fix it.
  


• The Chandani Women's Group in the Kiunga Marine National Reserve (KMNR), Kenya - April 2007
  This program's goal is to improve the health and quality of life of the local Bajuni community. The community’s well-being directly contributes to the conservation of the KMNR’s marine resources.
  


• Successful Communities from Ridge to Reef - April 2007
  Read about the USAID-funded PHE project that provides reproductive health services in key areas where population growth has serious impacts on natural resources and biodiversity.
  


• The Sea is Our Life - April 2007
  Read how the IPOPCORM Project Integrated Family Planning and Reproductive Health into Coastal Resource Management in the Philippines.
  
  
• Linking Family Planning and the Environment in Madagascar - April 2004
  An account of one successful USAID program in Madagascar that has family planning and environmental components.

Related Links

• Linking Population, Health, and Environment in the Philippines (Podcast)
  In this podcast, ECSP Director Geoff Dabelko discusses integrated development approaches in the Philippines with Roger-Mark De Souza, who is the director of foundation and corporate relations at the Sierra Club. De Souza shares his experiences of how local communities have successfully integrated environmental conservation and population issues to alleviate poverty and improve their quality of life.
  
  
• Linking Health, Population and the Environment in Madagascar [PDF, 297KB]
  Read a two-page fact sheet about USAID’s Environmental Health Project in Madagascar which linked and integrated projects in health, population, and natural resource management.
  
  
• USAID and Jane Goodall Explore Ways to Improve the Health of Families and Forests in the Congo Basin - February 2005
  A summary of the partnership between USAID and Jane Goodall that seeks to improve the health of local populations in the Congo Basin through conservation programs.

• Sierra Club: Celebrating Women of the World Working for a Better Environmental Future
  A profile of Dr. Odile Michele Randriamananjara, an environmental activist and women's health advocate, who examines the connections between population growth and natural resource management.
  • Sierra Club's Population Reports
    


• Conservation International’s Population and Environment Program
  A summary on the importance of recognizing the connection between population growth and environmental devastation.
  • Safeguarding Habitats, Supporting Healthy Mothers and Children
    


• The Population Reference Bureau's (PRB) Population, Health and the Environment Program
  Read about how PRB is understanding and addressing the issues of Population, Health, and Environment.
  


• Population Action International: Finding Balance – Forests and Family in Madagascar
  Watch a video and read a fact sheet about an 8-minute documentary that shows how programs link family planning and forest biodiversity conservation in Madagascar.
  • Finding Balance: Results from a Population-Environment Success Story in Madagascar
    
    
• Measuring Impact: A Review of Packard Foundation and USAID's First Generation Population-Environment Projects
  Read the recent evaluation conducted of USAID and Packard funded Population-Environment projects in the Philippines and Madagascar as presented at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

Archived Events

• New Population, Health, and Environment Alliance - Signing of the Memorandum of Understanding - 10/08/08
  On October 8, 2008, USAID, Johnson & Johnson, and World Wildlife Fund formed the first major global development alliance to focus on an integrated approach to tackling population, health, and environment issues.
  
  • Read more on AllAfrica.com and TradingMarkets.com
    


• East Africa Population, Health, and Environment Network Forms at Regional Conference, Advances Integrated Development - 11/16/07
  Read about the new East Africa Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) Network that was launched on November 16, 2007, at the Integrated Development for East Africa conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. USAID supported a two-day workshop on coalition building, which served as a foundation for the network.
  


• Earth Day 2007 - 04/21/07
  With the theme, Celebrating People and the Planet, USAID highlighted its Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) programs that work toward a sustainable balance between people, animals, and the planet in regions critically important to the conservation of biologically diverse ecosystems.