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This volume highlights some of the challenges in delivering effective environmental health interventions, and presents examples of emergent theories and case studies that can help close the gap between intent and impact. These include impact crediting systems, objective evidence gathering tools, and social businesses that service environmental health. The case studies presented cross disciplines, scales, organizational and national boundaries and can defy easy categorization. A water project may be designed for a health impact, but financed with a climate change tool, and leverage high tech cell phone sensors. A cookstove program may be primarily concerned with employment and capacity building, but balance environmental and health concerns.
Presently, the impact of interventions may not always be aligned to the intent sought. In this book, readers will discover alternative ways to move the mindset of funders and implementers toward pay-for-performance models of humanitarianand environmental interventions. Undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in social enterprise, social entrepreneurship, global health, appropriate technology, international development and development engineering would benefit from these increasingly non-traditional case studies that challenge commonly accepted presentations of poverty reduction and social enterprise.
List of contents
Introduction.- Performance Over Promises.- Trade-offs and Risks in Results Based Approaches.- How Feedback Loops Can Improve Aid and Governance.- Intent To Impact - Diluted Safe Water Monitoring.- Mobilizing Payments for Water Service Sustainability.- Enabling Ecological Restoration Through Quantification.- Incentivizing Impact - Privately Financed Public Health in Rwanda.- A Critical Review of Carbon Credits for Household Water Treatment.- HAPIT, the Household Air Pollution Intervention Tool.- Innovations in Payments for Health Benefits of Improved Cookstoves.- The Role of Mobile in Delivering Sanitation Services.- Combining Sensors and Ethnography to Evaluate Latrine Use In India.- Sustainable Sanitation Provision in Urban Slums - The Sanergy Case Study.- Pay for Performance Energy Access Market.
About the author
Evan A Thomas, PhD, PE, MPH is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Sweet (Sustainable Water, Energy and Environmental Technologies) Laboratory, and a Faculty Fellow in the Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland State University. He works at the interface of engineering, environmental health and social business, with professional experience working in government, industry, non-profits and academia. Evan holds a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the University of Colorado at Boulder, is a registered Professional Engineer (P.E.) in Environmental Engineering in the State of Texas, and holds a Masters in Public Health from the Oregon Health and Science University.
Evan is also a social business entrepreneur engaged in global health programs. Evan was a founding volunteer with Engineers Without Borders-USA in 2002, which led to co-founding Manna Energy Limited in 2007. In 2012, Evan co-founded SWEETSense Inc., an Oregon technology company. Evan is currently the Chief Operating Officer of DelAgua Health, a social enterprise working with the Government of Rwanda. Prior to joining PSU, Evan worked as a civil servant at the NASA-Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas for six years. At NASA, Evan was a principal investigator and project manager in the Life Support and Habitability Systems Branch working on concepts and flight hardware for sustainable Moon and Mars spacecraft. ¿
Summary
This volume highlights some of the challenges in delivering effective environmental health interventions, and presents examples of emergent theories and case studies that can help close the gap between intent and impact. These include impact crediting systems, objective evidence gathering tools, and social businesses that service environmental health. The case studies presented cross disciplines, scales, organizational and national boundaries and can defy easy categorization. A water project may be designed for a health impact, but financed with a climate change tool, and leverage high tech cell phone sensors. A cookstove program may be primarily concerned with employment and capacity building, but balance environmental and health concerns.
Presently, the impact of interventions may not always be aligned to the intent sought. In this book, readers will discover alternative ways to move the mindset of funders and implementers toward pay-for-performance models of humanitarianand environmental interventions. Undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in social enterprise, social entrepreneurship, global health, appropriate technology, international development and development engineering would benefit from these increasingly non-traditional case studies that challenge commonly accepted presentations of poverty reduction and social enterprise.
Additional text
“This text is a practical compilation that provides excellent reference information about how to establish incentive-based programs and describes examples of those programs in relevant settings. The book is a compelling must-read book for funders, implementers, and governments who are focused on sustained impact. A great book motivates the reader to be reflective, and certainly, this book inspires the reader to be thoughtful about program design.” (Helen Petach, EcoHealth, Vol. 14, 2017)
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"This text is a practical compilation that provides excellent reference information about how to establish incentive-based programs and describes examples of those programs in relevant settings. The book is a compelling must-read book for funders, implementers, and governments who are focused on sustained impact. A great book motivates the reader to be reflective, and certainly, this book inspires the reader to be thoughtful about program design." (Helen Petach, EcoHealth, Vol. 14, 2017)
