Resilience, integrated development and family planning: building long-term solutions

Abstract

For the many individuals and communities experiencing natural disasters and environmental degradation, building resilience means becoming more proficient at anticipating, preventing, recovering, and rebuilding following negative shocks and stresses. Development practitioners have been working to build this proficiency in vulnerable communities around the world for several decades. This article first examines the meaning of resilience as a component of responding to disasters and some of the key components of building resilience. It then summarises approaches to resilience developed by the Rockefeller and Packard Foundations, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, USAID and DFID, which show how family planning services can contribute to resilience. Next, it gives some examples of how family planning has been integrated into some current environment and development programmes. Finally, it describes how these integrated programmes have succeeded in helping communities to diversify livelihoods, bolster community engagement and resilience, build new governance structures, and position women as agents of change.

Demographic Resilience: Linking Population Dynamics, the Environment, and Security

“…This is particularly salient in the context of fragile environments, where women are disproportionately affected. 24 In addition, gender experts stress the need to examine social drivers of conflict-such as traditional gender roles and power dynamics-which they suggest are often lacking from environmental security approaches. These analyses are increasingly important in conflict mitigation approaches, but as noted below, present some inherent complications when applied to policies and programs.…”

“…35 Various researchers have determined that rights-based, voluntary family planning can improve individual and community-level assets, capacity, flexibility, and mobility, thereby improving resilience and adaptive capacity to shocks, especially among women. 36 Additionally, conflict, in a few cases, may help improve gender relations. In Rwanda, for example, demographic shifts resulting from more women surviving conflict than men, meant that there were more positions available for women in government and commercial posts.…”

A Little Bit of Sugar Helps the Pill Go Down: Resilience, Peace, and Family Planning Comment on "The Pill Is Mightier Than the Sword"

“…For many it refers to increasing the capacity of an individual, community or institution to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of environmental, economic and political crises and stresses. 12 In an effort to understand population dynamics and security implications, some studies have found a link between youthful populations and conflict, even after allowance for such obvious confounders as income, ethnic heterogeneity and type of political regime (eg, Moller, 13 Fuller and Pitts, 14 Collier et al 15 ). Others have found no effect of youth bulges whereas political and economic factors emerged as strong predictors.…”

“…37 Similarly, we know that investing in family planning programs that link environmental and economic outcomes also help build resilience by helping communities to diversity livelihoods, bolster community engagement and resilience, build new governance structures at the local level, and position women as agents of change and community leaders. 38 As the development community positions itself for the role out and implementation of the sustainable development goals and as donors come together on global challenges such as that exemplified by FP2020 and the Global Resilience Partnership, there are opportunities to align family planning with broader messages around overall development. Once the sustainable development goals have been unified into an overarching sustainable development framework for post-2015 there will be a great need to articulate how governance and stability, health (including family planning) and climate change resilience intersect.…”

Family Planning and the Samburu: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Thoughts of Men on a Population Health and Environment Programme in Rural Kenya

“…Combining health and environmental messages has the potential to reach a wider audience than single sector interventions, improving men’s support for FP [7,8]. The organisation Blue Ventures in Velondriake, coastal Madagascar, reported that after linking FP and family size with marine environmental resource management and food security, men became more engaged in reproductive health issues [3,9].…”