BALANCED is an exciting new five-year Population, Health and Environment (PHE) technical leadership initiative, awarded September 17, 2008 by the USAID Office of Population and Reproductive Health. The Coastal Resources Center at the University of Rhode Island leads the project in collaboration with international partners PATH Foundation Philippines Inc (PFPI) and Conservation International (CI).

PHE provides a sustainable approach to protecting both human and ecosystem health. BALANCED follows on a decade of USAID investments in PHE global leadership and field-based projects to promote wider adoption and use of PHE approaches by:

• Increasing the PHE knowledge base and making information more accessible to and user-friendly for diverse and widespread audiences
• Building the capacity of field practioners, policymakers, decisionmakers and other PHE professionals to use state of art techniques and approaches at local, regional, national and international scales
• Fostering implementation of field-based PHE initiatives in areas of high biodiversity

BALANCED will build on past accomplishments of dynamic PHE networks in the Philippines, Madagascar, Tanzania and Ethiopia, where PHE professionals have been successful in advocating widely for the integrated PHE approach and the added value it brings over single sector efforts. BALANCED will continue this advocacy while scaling up and expanding efforts to increase access to and use of family planning and reproductive health services in some of the most remote, rural, and biodiversity rich areas.