SYNOPSIS

Along the northern coast of Tanzania, an innovative approach to development combines efforts to conserve natural resources with reproductive health services and sustainable economic opportunities. In Healthy People, Healthy Environment, three women from the Pangani and Bagamoyo districts – Rukia, Mahija, and Fidea – show how these integrated population, health, and environment (PHE) projects empower them to help their families, their communities, and their environment.

SCREENINGS

Environmental Film Festival, Washington, DC (3/2013)
American University, Washington, DC (3/2013)
Wilson Center, Washington, DC (4/2013)
IPPF/WHR, New York City (5/2013)
Best Practices Forum, Arusha, Tanzania (8/2013)
Boston University, Boston (9/2013)
Sierra Club, Washington, DC (9/2013)
Resilience Academy, Dhaka, Bangladesh (9/2013)
Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development, Bangkok, Thailand (9/2013)
Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand (9/2013)
UN General Assembly Side Event, New York City (9/2013)
Duke University, Durham (9/2013)
International PHE Conference, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (11/2013)
International Conference on Family Planning, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (11/2013)
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (11/2013)
Conservation International, Arlington (1/2014)

CLEAN COOKSTOVES

Each village we visited reinforced the complex nature of the challenges in Pangani and Bagamoyo. Although consumption is miniscule compared to Western standards, the rapidly growing number of people dependent on the extraction of local natural resources – trees for fuel, fish for subsistence – is unsustainable in the long term, both economically and ecologically.

Clean cookstoves – one component of this PHE project – have clear benefits: They reduce household exposure to indoor air toxins, help lower reliance on firewood from the surrounding forests via better efficiency, and provide an income-generating tool for women and families.

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INTERVIEW WITH THE FILMMAKERS

“We need dynamic approaches. We can’t just keep going with the single sector approach and hoping that a conservation project will do really more than it’s intended to do,” said Executive Producer Sean Peoples in an interview with the Wilson Center’s Dialogue program alongside Director of Photography and Editor Michael T. Miller. “These people are living integrated lives. How can we have integrated solutions for them?”

“The challenge is trying to share that ‘A-ha!’ moment with people who aren’t familiar with the work and aren’t familiar with the area,” Miller said. “It’s something that you don’t really understand until you get there on the ground.”

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INTEGRATION ADVANTAGE

In 2011, Leona D’Agnes, Heather D’Agnes, and Joan Castro authored one of the only time-series data and regression analyses of a population, health, and environment project. Focusing on programs in the Philippines, they found different disciplines working together produced synergies not obtainable by any one of the disciplines alone.

“This research allows those of us who believe strongly in integrating population, health, and environment programming to point to quantitative proof that the approach works,” they wrote.

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Healthy People, Healthy Environment is the recipient of a 2013 Silver Telly Award for outstanding film/video. With nearly 11,000 entries from all 50 states and numerous countries, this is truly an honor.

The Telly Awards were founded in 1978 and honor excellence in local, regional, cable, and non-broadcast video and TV. Read more about the Telly Awards here.