Basic HTML Version
P A G E 1 5
V O L . 3 , N O . 3
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4
A Landmark Meeting Between Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) Partners
by Dr. Erik Patel
On July 30 and 31, the environmental and health
organizations
nd
hosted a
between 35 conserva-
tion, health, and donor organizations as well as sev-
eral government ministries that support the
“Population, Health, and Environment Mod-
el” (PHE). PHE projects are those “…that integrate
voluntary health and/or family planning with con-
servation activities, thereby seeking synergistic suc-
cesses and greater conservation and human welfare
outcomes than if they were implemented in single
sector approaches”
. Although
PHE has a
n Madagascar
(initially as part of the Integrated Conservation and
Development Projects in the 1990’s), only within the
last decade have conservation ngos begun to imple-
ment PHE projects. The goals of this meeting were
to 1) Deepen understanding and share PHE experi-
ences, 2) Strengthen political and donor support, 3)
Build effective partnerships between organizations.
DLC-SC Project Director, Dr. Erik Patel, gave a 15 minute oral presentation about ongoing collaboration with
urses in the SAVA region, and reported that 179 women have paid to receive three year contraceptive arm-
implants while 8 paid for Intra-uterine devices (IUDs) which confer 10 years of contraception. Charles Welch (DLC
Conservation Coordinator) and Lanto Andrianan-
drasana participated in group sessions to better
discuss how to integrate health and family plan-
ning programs with environmental projects. By
all accounts, the meeting was a huge success as
expressed in this
Everyone recognizes
that far too many Malagasy people (19% of the
population: World Bank 2013) still report insuffi-
cient access to family planning services and that
when the population of Madagascar doubles by
2040 or 2050 (World Bank 2013), there will be
tremendous health, environmental, social, and
economic consequences. The meeting resulted
in the creation of a new
a
and a
Left to right: Alain Ben Aboubakary (Ministry of Health), Andriamandranto
Razafimandimby (Voahary Salama), Dr Voahirana Ramiaramananarisoa
(Ministry of Health), Marcellin Rabeantoandro (Ministry of Environment,
Ecology and Forests), Timothy Smart (British Ambassador to Madagascar),
Dr Vik Mohan (Blue Ventures).
A break-out session at the PHE conference .