Our History
The Family Planning and Environmental Sustainability Assessment (FPESA) project was launched by the Worldwatch Institute, under the leadership of Robert Engelman, in 2014.
FPESA aimed to document evidence to assess whether family planning promoted environmental benefits and helped lead to an environmentally sustainable world that meets human needs. In 2016, the “Family Planning and Environmental Sustainability: Assessing the Science” report was published.
Since 2020, the FPESA project is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Population Institute. On June 29, 2021, FPESA launched its new website and changed its name to FP/Earth. Read our press release here.
Our Sponsor
The Population Institute (PI) is an international non-profit (registered 501(c)(3) organization) that seeks to promote universal access to family planning information, education, and services. Through voluntary family planning, PI strives to achieve a world population in balance with a healthy global environment and resource base. PI was established in 1969 and is located on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
Our Team
Céline Delacroix is the Director of the FP/Earth project, where she manages the research process and oversees communication and outreach. Céline is Senior Fellow with the Population Institute, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Ottawa’s School of Health Sciences. She is particularly interested in analyzing how the linkages between family planning, population size, and environmental sustainability are perceived and could be harnessed to strengthen reproductive rights and improve environmental sustainability.
We are privileged to work with volunteers and consultants who support our work in many ways. We want to express them our gratitude for lending their time and energy to pursue FP/Earth’s mission.
Irene Natukunda Kananura is an environmental scientist from Uganda with specific interests in biodiversity conservation and Climate advocacy. She worked as a research assistant with the FP/Earth Project in 2023.
Catherine Joachin was pursuing an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology at the University of Ottawa when she volunteered with us. She is very passionate about research, climate change and population dynamics. Her role in FP/Earth was to recruit research participants.
Akosua Pokuaah Obeng is from Ghana and has a background in Economics. She worked as Research Assistant with the FP/Earth Project in 2023, focusing on the annual literature search.
Ayah Beydoun was studying sociology at the University of Ottawa when she volunteered with us. During her time volunteering, she assisted with a literature search to identify articles relevant to reproductive rights and environmental sustainability. Additionally, she performed an initial review of the selected data for inclusion in the 2022 literature search.
Hugo Andre was studying Environment and Business at the University of Waterloo (Ontario) when he volunteered with FP/Earth. Hugo helped us develop Francophone content for our website, and organize our event at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal (COP15). He also performed regular searches for resources on gender equity, environmental justice and environmental sustainability.
Yupeng Chen was pursuing an Honours Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Geography at the University of Ottawa when she volunteered with us. She has a strong interest in cultural geography, population geography, and environmental sustainability. As a research assistant, her main responsibility was to help collect, review and organize literature to lay the groundwork for further research of the FPESA project.
Gavin Woodward was completing his bachelor's degree in Psychology at St. Thomas University when he volunteered with us. His role at FP/Earth was updating the website.
Sarah Shahi was completing a Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences with a focus on womxn’s health at the University of Ottawa when she volunteered with us. Being very passionate about womxn’s reproductive health, FP/Earth allowed her to study this topic from a unique perspective. While volunteering, she assisted with the collection of literature research and reviewing of scholarly articles. She also helped with the creation of the FP/Earth website and resource database.
Myriam Adi was studying biopharmaceutical science at the University of Ottawa when she volunteered with us. Her role at FP/Earth was to help translating the website from English to French. She also helped to update the website.
Nura Mesoud was completing her second Bachelor’s of Science in Ophthalmic medical technology at the University of Ottawa when she volunteered with us. Over the 2020 summer, she volunteered as a research assistant and assisted with updating the FP/Earth database by screening articles.
Aritshana Kathiresu was completing her degree in Honours Health Science at the University of Ottawa when she volunteered with us. She decided to work on FP/Earth because she was interested in how family planning affects environmental factors such as environmental degradation, water scarcity, and resource consumption. As a Research Assistant, she primarily worked on a literature search to identify articles relevant to the FP/Earth.
Kesiena Obroku was a final year student in Biochemistry at the University of Ottawa when she volunteered with us. Kesiena is interested in environmental studies. She helped with the literature search and database creation.
Natalia Rojas Villa was completing her Honours Bachelor of Social Science in International Development and Globalization with French Immersion at the University of Ottawa when she volunteered with us. She decided to volunteer as a research assistant with FP/Earth given her interest in the intersection of public health and the environment. During her time with FP/Earth, she has helped create and update the new website.
Dana Dayeh was a student at the University of Ottawa pursuing an Honours Bachelor’s of Science degree in Biopharmaceutical Science when she volunteered with us. Her role in FP/Earth was to research the literature to identify articles relevant to the fulfillment of reproductive rights with links to environmental sustainability. She also helped in the database creation process.
Hiba Zafar was doing her Honours Bachelor of Health Science at the University of Ottawa when she volunteered with us. She has volunteered at FP/Earth as a research assistant doing literature reviews and contact tracing. She believes it is essential that we study and try to understand these ideologies in order to provide better reproductive and contraceptive health care.
Robert Engelman is a Senior Fellow at the Population Institute and an adviser to FP/Earth. A former president of the Worldwatch Institute, Bob launched the Family Planning and Environmental Sustainability Assessment in 2014 with support from the United Nation’s Fund Universal Access Project, the Wallace Global Fund and the Turner Foundation. He is a long-time researcher, writer and author on connections between reproductive health, gender, population and the environment.