HOPE LVB Toolkit

The Health of People and the Environment in the Lake Victoria Basin (HoPE-LVB) toolkit has been developed to share lessons learned and best practices from the HoPE-LVB project - described as one of the largest and most scaled up integrated Population, Health and Environment programmes implemented in the East African region. It is hoped that the toolkit will help promote the adoption of the PHE approach to sustainable development on a wider scale not only in East Africa but in other areas of the world.

As explained in the toolkit, “Population, health, and environment (PHE) programming is an approach to global development that addresses the complex connections that exist between population dynamics, human health, and environmental conservation. The key objective of PHE programming is to simultaneously improve access to health services while also helping communities manage their natural resources in ways that improve their health and livelihoods and conserve the critical ecosystems that they depend upon. Despite the interdependency of environmental degradation, human health, and food and livelihood security, development efforts have frequently taken a single-sector focus (e.g., focusing on health alone or biodiversity conservation in isolation), while people’s most critical challenges, such as feeding their families and accessing life-saving health care, do not exist in a vacuum. These needs are multi-faceted. At minimum, PHE programs deliver family planning, basic healthcare, and environmental management or conservation information and services to rural communities in a coordinated, integrated fashion.”  The approach seeks to address many of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals, leading to:

•     Healthy empowered people
•     Resilient ecosystems
•     Economically secure communities

This toolkit is intended for governmental and non-governmental organizations, institutions, and development practitioners who want to design, implement, scale up, and/or advocate for, monitor and evaluate PHE initiatives. Training coordinators, curriculum developers, and advocates who are engaged in integrated PHE work will find the toolkit useful in their efforts to educate, guide, and train community, local, national, and regional actors on the importance of integrating PHE approaches as tested by the HoPE-LVB project in Uganda and Kenya into strategic development plans and policies.

HoPE-LVB Toolkit is divided into six sections, which can be used on their own or in conjunction with other sections, depending on one’s objectives.  The sections are as follows:

• Section 1: Introduction to the HoPE-LVB Resource Toolkit - looks at the objectives and overall content of the toolkit.
• Section 2: The HoPE-LVB Approach - this section deconstructs the model so one could learn from the model and incorporate it elsewhere into new programming by other development and governmental actors.
• Section 3: Design, Implement, and Evaluate a PHE Program - examines more specific details regarding the design, implementation, and evaluation of the programme - including conducting ecological and community needs assessments using participatory methods, programme staffing and work plan development, and developing a log frame for monitoring and evaluation purposes.
• Section 4: Scaling up HoPE-LVB Interventions - examines more specific details regarding the scaling up of the programme. This chapter touches on the experience of HoPE applying a multi-stakeholder scaling up strategy development process using ExpandNet/WHO guidance entitled Nine Steps for Developing a Scaling Up Strategy. The Nine Step Guide is built around the ExpandNet/WHO framework, which is laid out briefly below. The chapter ends with some indications of what has evolved since the scaling up strategy development workshops with the scaling-up process.
• Section 5: Tools for PHE Advocacy - Advocacy is an integral part of ensuring the PHE approach is successfully implemented and scaled up to new areas and populations as well as institutionalized in policies, programs, budgets, and more. The HoPE-LVB project invested heavily in advocating for the PHE approach at multiple levels. This section is written for development professionals and field practitioners engaged in PHE work who are interested in similarly positioning integrated PHE programs as a useful approach for achieving broader global health and sustainable development goals.
• Section 6: Resources and Reference Materials - this section contains a range of different documents, media, and other resources from the HoPE-LVB project, including action plans and case studies for other organisations, institutions, and actors to design, implement, or scale up PHE programmes.