Population, Health and Environment Ethiopic Consortium (PHEEC) was initiated and legally established on the backdrop of the global issues related to evolving demands and dynamism related sustainable development. Principle eight of the Rio Declaration states that: “to achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people, States should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and promote appropriate demographic policies.” The Declaration also states, “The growth of the world population and production combined with unsustainable consumption patterns places increasingly severe stress on the life-supporting capacities of our planet.”
The 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and other studies have indicated that the rate of change on the ecosystems increases more rapidly and extensively through the time which poses threat on fulfilling the demands for food, fresh water, and energy. The idea for establishing PHEEC was initiated following the conference on Integrated Development for East Africa held in 2007 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The consortium was legally established on August 13, 2008 constituting 44 members as Consortium for the Integration of Population, Health and Environment (CIPHE).
The consortium was established so as to promote integrated holistic development model of population, health and environment in Ethiopia and beyond with the premise of contributing to sustainable development. Our guiding philosophy of promoting the PHE approaches upholds that in order to effectively help vulnerable communities, it is important to address the social, economic, and environmental constraints together.
The name of consortium has evolved through time to Population, Health and Environment Ethiopia Consortium (PHEEC) and the numbers of its members have significantly grown. Currently, the consortium has 81 member organizations both international and local origins operating throughout the country. The consortium is unique in its nature and pioneer in Ethiopia working on promotion of integrated multi-sector approaches. Its actions stretches from practical demonstrations of integrated development interventions at the household level to linking results to national and international policy advocacy.