Enter Congress - and USAID

Many such outcomes are documented in accounts of projects or the concept of linking reproductive health and natural resource management. But so far the success of this linkage is more anecdotal than proven through rigorous monitoring and evaluation. Nonetheless, several private donors have backed the concept over the past few decades. In addition, the logic of the idea and documentation of project experience convinced Congress to add the key words “including in areas where population growth threatens biodiversity or endangered species” to language allocating $368.5 million for spending on family planning in 2001. This congressional directive has been renewed in subsequent years, and in 2003 supporting language was added by the Senate that “urges USAID to develop performance goals and indicators which promote cross-sectoral collaboration” in linking population and the environment in community-based projects.

As a result of these legislative directives, USAID is accelerating its efforts to identify organizations with the capacity and the interest in carrying out cross-sectoral projects in areas of developing countries critical to the survival of the earth’s biodiversity. Moreover, given the Senate’s mandate to develop performance goals and indicators, USAID is especially interested in promoting more sophisticated approaches to monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of these programs from the earliest phases of project design.

There is no fixed budget for this activity. In communications with its field offices, the agency’s Population and Reproduction Health (PRH) office has sought to improve inter-office communication and collaboration within USAID itself and to look for interactions with field-experienced NGOs interested in working, probably in partnership with others, both in natural resource management and reproductive health service delivery.

In facilitating reproductive health service delivery to communities inhabiting hotspot areas, a PRH statement reads:

"Our new Healthy Families, Healthy Forests associate award provides support to selected conservation organizations whose major geographic focus is biodiversity hotspots. ... If you have existing projects that address these issues, we would greatly appreciate a brief description of them. If you are interested in starting such activities and/or would like assistance in implementing successful models, we may be able to assist. Limited core funds may be available to jump-start, complement, or expand Mission activities or programs. We would also welcome any additional suggestions for addressing population-health-environment linkages, including regional meetings, joint research projects and other fora for collaboration.”