USAID and Jane Goodall Explore Ways to
Improve the Health of Families
in the Congo Basin
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| SOURCE:
USAID |
Appearing in Photo:
Dr. Anne Peterson, Assistant
Administrator for Global Health
Dr. Jane Goodall, Founder of Jane
Goodall Institute
On Earth Day 2003, Dr. Anne Peterson,
Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID announced
that the Agency will explore a partnership with world-renowned
conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall to improve the health
of families living in the forests of Africa’s Congo Basin.
USAID’s Bureau for Global Health
will work with the Jane Goodall Institute to explore ways
of partnering on health and family planning (FP) activities
as part of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP), an
initiative launched last September by Secretary of State
Colin Powell at the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
The goal of the CBFP is to reduce poverty, promote development,
and improve local governance through conservation programs
in the countries of Africa’s Congo Basin.
Activities under this initiative will
include establishment of a joint working group to explore
the nexus between conservation, population, and health;
identification of specific projects, including those empowering
women and children; and training for personnel in each
organization to keep both parties current on specialized
information.
Dr. Peterson praised Dr. Goodall’s
lifelong commitment to conservation, noting especially
the importance of her holistic approach to addressing the
root social and economic causes of environmental degradation – poverty,
disease, corruption, and conflict. “Dr. Goodall presents
USAID with an exciting opportunity to forge an innovative
alliance in one of Africa’s most impoverished regions,” she
noted, “and her people-centered approach to sustainable
development reflects the strategic vision of USAID’s work
in population, health, and the environment.”
For more than 40 years, Dr. Goodall
has worked tirelessly to protect Africa’s wildlife – especially
its wild apes – while striving to improve the lives and
livelihoods of Africa’s people. The link between healthy
families and healthy forests is at the heart of Dr. Goodall’s
TACARE, Lake Tanganyika Catchment Reforestation and Education
Project (pronounced “Take Care”). Begun in Tanzania,
the TACARE program combines environmental education and
sustainable agriculture training with access to FP, education, and microcredit loans. Dr. Goodall
has called the TACARE project “the most important work
that we can do to ensure a future for the...chimpanzees
and the people of Africa.”
During an Earth Day commemoration
featuring Dr. Goodall, Secretary of State Colin Powell
noted: “Experience has shown us time and again that environmental
issues have far-reaching implications in other spheres
of diplomacy. Because environmental issues are also health
issues. They relate to good governance. They hold important
consequences for stability within a region or stability
within a particular country. And environmental issues are
absolutely integral to development throughout the world.”
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