BALANCED increased the number of environment, health and community development organizations adopting and implementing PHE approaches by marshaling leading edge and nontraditional capacity building approaches. This included building capacity throughout all stages of the learning process. This practice fostered development of gold standard PHE projects in the Philippines

The project maximizde the use of existing PHE e-learning tools and developed new ones to meet intra- and post-learning needs and made PHE materials more widely available. This was done in close collaboration with the USAID knowledge management project (www.usaid.org) and other online resources( http://www.ehproject.org/phe/phe.html) and through the virtual learning portals of the CRC and Conservation International.

Build Regional Sources of Expertise in PHE Project Design, Resource Mobilization and Training Delivery (Year 1 and 2)

In partnership with the Secretariat of the East Africa PHE network, the project conducted a four-day regional PHE Project Design and Resource Mobilization workshop for selected organizations from at least six member countries in the network that have ongoing conservation projects in areas of high biodiversity and that could serve as platforms for integration of family planning and health interventions. Eight of the most competent individuals emerging from the regional training participatef in a south-to-south exchange with counterparts in the Philippines. Participants visirft one of IPOPCORM’s learning centres (Bohol or Cebu) to gain first-hand information and knowledge about how local NGO partners forged partnerships with local government and civil society groups, leveraged resources for implementation and built community capacity to implement and sustain integrated PHE approaches. These eight individuals then replicated the training they received and shared their learning with other NGOs in their countries and mobilized their own sources of funds for those workshops. In Year 3 or Year 4 the project brought together selected  individuals trained in Year 1 and individuals they subsequently trained to participate in a Knowledge Management and Sharing of PHE SOTA Practices workshop delivered in conjunction with the Secretariat of the East Africa Regional network.

Build local institutional capacity for implementation and monitoring of effective PHE approaches, particularly in East Africa.

County-level workshops were tailored to PHE network members from Ethiopia, Madagascar and Philippines based on the results of the rapid assessment mentioned earlier, for example:

Integrating Family Planning into Conservation Activities (Year 2). This four-day skills-building workshop targeted member organizations from the Ethiopia PHE Network that have ongoing conservation projects in biodiversity rich areas and wish to integrate family planning and reproductive health interventions into conservation and NRM/CRM mechanisms. Individuals from CRC’s PHE project in Taznania also participated.

Building a Community of Practice for PHE M&E and Learning (M&EL)(Year 2 and Year 3).

The project delivered two four-day skills-building workshops in conjunction with the Secretariat of the PHE Networks in Madagascar and the Secretariat of the Philippines PHE Network. Each workshop built capacity to use low-cost program monitoring methods and tools that enabled practitioners of PHE projects to track changes in conservation, family planning and health practices among people living in their program areas.

Knowledge Management (KM) and Sharing of PHE SOTA and Lessons (Year 4 and Year 5). Three separate workshops (in Madagascar, Philippines and Ethiopia) provided continuing education and the opportunity for NGOs attending previous workshops to share lessons and “promising” practices.