The past year brought not only an end to political instability in Madagascar but a new surge of interest in integrated population, health, and environment (PHE) development, says Caroline Savitzky of Blue Ventures in this week’s podcast.

The past year brought not only an end to political instability in Madagascar but a new surge of interest in integrated population, health, and environment (PHE) development, says Caroline Savitzky of Blue Ventures in this week’s podcast.

“Madagascar has a very wide range of habitats, both terrestrial and marine, and these are all experiencing significant degradation,” says Savitzky, a community health program coordinator with the London-based NGO. Eighty percent of the flora and fauna are found nowhere else in the world and there’s “very high dependence on natural resources among local communities.”

“We’re also seeing a very significant unmet need for family planning. About three-quarters of a million women in Madagascar want to be able to plan their families but are not currently using modern methods of contraception,” Savitzky says. The country’s population is estimated to double by 2040.

Blue Ventures started working in Madagascar focused on marine conservation along the southwest coast. But in response to an overwhelming demand for health services – in some communities people had to walk the length of a marathon to reach basic care, Savitzky says – they added reproductive health services to their natural resource management and livelihood programs.

After seven years implementing this PHE approach, Savitzky says Blue Ventures has seen a five-fold increase in the number of women using contraceptives. In addition, communities have a stronger voice in managing their natural resources.

Now Blue Ventures is replicating the model further north around Belo-sur-Mer, where they are reaching 10,000 people across 10 villages. They are also exploring the feasibility of bringing health services to communities in the remote Maintirano Barren Isles.

In Andavadoaka, where Blue Ventures has been operating longest, Savitzky says they’ve begun a “realist evaluation” to learn why their approach has been successful.

We’re now looking to prove both scalability and sustainability of these models and then of course transition to complete handover of these programs, so that they’re not just community-based programs but obviously completely community-led and community-driven programs.

But most importantly, says Savitzky, Blue Ventures would like to help other organizations use the PHE approach. “We don’t see Blue Ventures as becoming this huge organization implementing PHE projects all over the place, but rather we see ourselves as being in a position to support other organizations, both large and small, that want to implement these models.”

And there seems to be an audience for such support. This summer, representatives from 35 different development and conservation organizations – including the Duke Lemur Center and Marie Stopes, which started a new PHE program this year – met in Antananarivo to form a Madagascar PHE Network. Members agreed to work together to expand the integrated approach to development by exchanging technical knowledge and jointly engaging policymakers and donors.

The new, democratically elected government – the first since 2009 – has also pledged its commitment to PHE, says Savitzky, and most importantly, there’s great support among the communities they work with.

“This is an approach to sustainable development that meets [community] needs and the way they’re felt,” she says. “People don’t live their lives in silos; PHE addresses health, it addresses conservation, and livelihoods all together.”