TACLOBAN CITY – A two-day workshop kicks off today at the Leyte State University (LSU) Baybay, Leyte for stakeholders on population, health and environment (PHE) in Leyte. The workshop aims to develop strategies on how “family planning helps save the environment.

Sponsored by the Social Acceptance Project-Family Planning of the USAID-Academy for Education and Development and the Department of Development Communication (DDC) of LSU, the workshop is to be attended by some 70 representatives from different sectors in the province.

The holding of the workshop stemmed from the March 24 to 26, 2006 regional consultative group meeting held in this city. The consultative workshop was the first attempt at looking into the links between population management and the environment in Eastern Visayas.

On the first day of the workshop, Commission on Population Eastern Visayas Regional Director Merlyn Rodriguez will present plenary paper on population impacts on development while Dr. Paciencia Milan, LSU President, will present a plenary paper on the PHE link: Realities, Threats and Challenges.

Participants will also identify and sort out actual and potential PHE links.

On Thursday, PHE stakeholders’ programs and capabilities would be identified including their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and identifying gaps in terms of PHE interventions.

The group is expected to develop strategic plans to address PHE interventions gaps, identifying strategies vis-à-vis strengths and weaknesses, and threats.

Dr. Rotacio Gravoso, OIC of DDC and the PHE workshop coordinator, said that the Leyte Governor Jericho Petilla and Vice Governor Mimiette Bagulaya are expected to attend the closing program. The workshop output would be presented to them during the program .