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  • In FOCUS: To Get HELP, Add Livelihoods to Population, Health, and Environment

    January 20, 2011 By Wilson Center Staff
    Proponents of integrated development have always faced significant barriers, but with a new focus on international aid from the Obama administration, the tide may be turning. To fully harness this momentum, Gib Clarke argues in a new ECSP brief that the population-health-environment (PHE) community must solidify its research base, reach out to new partners, and push for flexible funding and programming.

    In “Helping Hands: A Livelihood Approach to Population, Health, and Environment Programs,” he writes that PHE programs should also add livelihoods (i.e., ways to make a living) as a critical element. He suggests such programs adopt a new moniker: “HELP” – Health, Environment, Livelihoods, and Population.

    “Helping Hands” comes at a time when the integrated approach is being touted at the highest levels:
    “We cannot simply confront individual preventable illnesses in isolation. The world is interconnected, and that demands an integrated approach to global health,” said President Barack Obama in May 2009, echoing what population-health-environment (PHE) practitioners have long argued: Integrated lives with integrated problems require integrated solutions. Proponents of integration face significant barriers: lack of funding, programmatic silos, and policy disinterest.
    While the Administration’s newest development efforts (see, e.g., Feed the Future Initiative, Global Health Initiative, and release of the QDDR) all recognize the power of integration, the degree to which these initiatives will operate across sectors remains to be seen. Drawing on interviews with leading experts, Clarke outlines the continuing challenges to implementing more integrated PHE programs and offers four recommendations for overcoming them:
    • The PHE community should adopt a new name that highlights the all-important livelihood component, such as “HELP Plus.”
    • PHE programs need to gather data and conduct operational research to justify the claims of the PHE field.
    • The PHE community needs to “agree to disagree” on the issue of scaling up integrated programs.
    • PHE programs should seek funding from a diverse array of donors.
    “Given the strong base of existing and recent PHE programs, the PHE community is well-positioned to work with lead partners in Obama’s Global Health Initiative, climate change adaptation efforts, food security programs, and other upcoming crosscutting work,” concludes Clarke, who is currently director of planning and development at Interfaith Community Health Center in Bellingham, Washington. For example, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah stated that the Feed the Future program would be closely integrating its objectives with the Global Health Initiative – a potential opportunity for PHE programs that offer both health benefits and food security.

    “This increased interest in integration may also be the best opportunity for finding new funding, fostering replication, and scaling up. It is a promising moment for integrated approaches, whether we call them PHE, HELP Plus, or some other acronym,” writes Clarke.

    “Helping Hands: A Livelihood Approach to Population, Health, and Environment Programs” along with previous FOCUS issues are available on ECSP’s publications page.

    Image Credit: From the cover of “Helping Hands: A Livelihood Approach to Population, Health, and Environment Programs,” courtesy of the Wilson Center.
    Topics: development, environment, FOCUS, funding, global health, livelihoods, PHE, population
    • Leona D’Agnes

      Hi Gib:

      I enjoyed your piece in the Sept 2010 Issue of FOCUS entitled "Helping Hands : A Livelihood Approach to Population, Health, and Environment
      Programs."

      Although not referenced, I wonder if Rishi Bastakoti's presentation at the Woodrow Wilson Center in March 2009 might have influenced your thinking about the importance of incorporating livelihood development/diversification strategies into PHE programs?

      Rishi’s powerpoint presentation, incorporates a key slide showing how PHE enabled RIMS-Nepal to link the Livelihood Improvement and Biodiversity Conservation objectives of their field programs.

      I had the good fortune to work with Rishi on the development and implementation of RIMS’ PHE project in Nepal and was able to document other learning about the project’s communication strategy which helped villagers to understand how the use of family planning and clean energy technology (improved cookstoves, biogas digesters) in conjunction with community forestry management contributes directly and indirectly to livelihood improvement at the micro (household) level. That report, entitled “The Population, Health and Environment (PHE) Pathway to Livelihoods Improvement: Lessons and Best Practices from Nepal” can be downloaded here.

      Regarding your conclusion that the PHE community should adopt a new name that highlights the all-important livelihood component, I couldn’t agree more and like your suggested acronym “HELP PLUS.” Another option could be “LiFE PLUS” = Livelihoods, Family planning and Environment with the PLUS standing for health, education and/or energy.

      Would love to suggestions from others in the PHE community!

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