The original version of this article, by Laura Robson and Caroline Savitzky, appeared on Blue Ventures’ Beyond Conservation blog.

The excitement was palpable as we gathered with almost 200 of the world’s finest population-health-environment (PHE) practitioners, researchers, and advocates in Addis Ababa for the International PHE Conference earlier last month! With all of us working on integrated projects encompassing family planning, community health, sustainable livelihoods, and environmental initiatives, there were many ideas and progress updates to be shared.

Buoyed with enthusiasm from our field visit to one of the PHE Ethiopia Consortium’s projects the day before, we joined colleagues from countries including the United States, Philippines, Uganda, Kenya, and Madagascar for an action-packed two days of exchanges, starting with a range of panel presentations followed by various themed breakout discussions, which were then summarized during the closing plenary.

Having shared Blue Ventures’ results from six years of integrating family planning services with marine conservation and coastal livelihood initiatives in southwest Madagascar, and our ideas about methods for evaluating the value-added benefits of PHE, we moved into the working group sessions, which provided an excellent opportunity to exchange learning with other organizations and individuals.

Continue reading on Beyond Conservation.

Photo Credit: Used with permission courtesy of Laura Robson/Blue Ventures.