Number of enabling local ordinances/policies supporting PHE Number of enabling local ordinances/policies supporting PHE Definition: An enabling policy refers to a policy that promotes integrated municipal and/or regional plans linking human and ecosystem health. This could be on a variety of topics or technical areas involving forests or marine ecosystems and different issues that enhance the quality of human life. The exact definition of “enabling” will differ by region, according to local ecosystem and community needs. Data Requirement(s): Evidence of ordinance, policy, or law. Supporting documentation may include the ordinance, policy, or law itself, where or by whom it was issued or published, and an explanation of how it supports PHE integration. Data Source(s): Secondary records (laws). Purpose: Some PHE programs work toward changing policy to improve the implementation of PHE projects. This helps to ensure local ownership and sustainability of PHE programs. The adoption of ordinances and policies supporting PHE sometimes involve allocation of budgets from public sources for integration of services and activities. Achieving enabling ordinances/policies is a strong indication that elements in local, regional, and/or national government are supportive of PHE integration. Issue(s): While this indicator gives information on increased willingness of officials to codify integration, it does not indicate whether there was a budget allotted for activities or service provision or whether any other action was taken in the community. However, most legislative processes involve long review and public debate and should be a good indication of the governmental commitment to integrating the locality/country approach to development. Permission may be needed to research and track laws of another country or in a local setting. Strictly adhering to a predetermined definition of what exactly is an enabling ordinance or policy is important for consistency in collecting this indicator. Ordinances and policies generally take significant effort and time investment and may take years to achieve. If the ordinance also requires a budget allocation, projects could track the amount of funding appropriated connected with the PHE ordinance or policy. Keywords: policy, population-health-environment (PHE), integration References: Finn T. “A Guide for Monitoring and Evaluating Population-Health-Environment Programs.” USAID and MEASURE Evaluation, 2007. Related content Policy Environment Filed under: Family Planning, FP, FP/RH, Indicators, integration, phe, policy, Reproductive Health, RH