New audiences, new connections
Roger-Mark De Souza is the Director of Population, Environmental Security, and Resilience for the Wilson Center. He leads programs on climate change resilience, reproductive and maternal health, environmental security, and development, including the Center’s Global Sustainability and Resilience Program, Environmental Change and Security Program, and Maternal Health Initiative. Roger-Mark kindly agreed to chat with Women at the Center about his work and his deep understanding of the links between sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and environmental sustainability. Here are a few excerpts from our wide-ranging conversation.
WATC: Was there a “light-bulb” moment when you first understood how the issues of SRHR and sustainability are linked?
I’m not sure this is a light-bulb moment, but it has always stayed with me. I grew up in the Caribbean and was part of a Catholic youth group. We went out into the community to talk with people about their problems. I was about 16 or 17 years old and I met a young woman not much older than me who was on her third pregnancy. I said, “What about family planning?” and we just looked at each other surprised that we were having this conversation and that we hadn’t really been exposed to the options that it presented for us. But we were both young people, and we thought, this totally makes sense. It’s a question of empowerment and well-being; it allows you to make decisions where you have control over your life and allows you to provide for the children you want to have when you want to have them.
Flash forward 20 years and I had continued working on these issues because I was concerned about the well-being of people and the environment. I felt that focusing on SRHR was one way to get there. I was in the Philippines and we were working with a community in a fragile coastal ecosystem to develop an integrated resource management plan. Young community members were conducting the session with a broad range of community members, and talking about the range of options for the community, including family planning, coastal resource managements, food security livelihoods, and disaster preparedness. One community member came up to me and said, “It’s just all comes together as one. I’m deeply Roman Catholic but this just makes sense. The community wants to talk about, they see it as effective, and it’s what they want.“ So it was 20 years later that it all came full circle for me — ironically once again in an island setting, and in discussions about religion, well-being and empowerment. It was at that moment that I thought, this is where I need to be. There is a real need and opportunity here. So I guess for me it’s been more of a journey than one turning point.
WATC: How do these links relate to your current work?
At the Woodrow Wilson Center our program looks at health, the environment, livelihoods, and security. I’ve worked in this field for a long time on both environmental and SRHR sides, but at the Center a lot of our framing is on security and well-being. So I can be in a meeting with African security and conflict experts and see them come to an awareness that family planning, reproductive health and population dynamics matter to security, to climate adaptation — both in rural and urban settings — and in Africa. Ultimately, I’m working with a new community to bring these issues to the fore, and they see it as effective and exciting.
WATC: What has surprised you lately about this work?
In my time at the Wilson Center, I have been amazed how much population and environment integration arises on its own across the many communities we work with, from military, environmental and SRHR leaders to the development, humanitarian, and futures scenario planning worlds. The security, well-being and efficiency lenses cut across many sectors. What’s really surprising is how organically these connections are coming up from these new and different audiences, and how much receptivity there is.
For example, I did a briefing at the National Defense University for diplomatic personnel from various parts of the U.S. government and the military who were being deployed to Africa to work on peacebuilding and security. I anticipated having to make the case for connecting population dynamics, natural resources and conflict. So I present some analysis, case studies, and data to connect the issues — and they start asking me nuanced questions about reproductive health, about women’s empowerment and women’s rights! Who would have thought?
Another community that is surprising for me is university and college educators and administrators. A couple weeks ago I was invited by NAFSA, the Association of international Educators, to present on environmental conflict and peacebuilding at their international conference. And while discussing these issues and their importance to US and international young people in terms of global citizenship, person to person diplomacy and global workforce development, population dynamics came up — from the audience! Increasingly more and more sectors are starting to make the connection to equity, rights, reproductive health and population dynamics.
So I am seeing an appreciation of these linkages at a very subtle and nuanced level among so many new audiences.
WATC: What’s the one thing that researchers, advocates, and policymakers could do better to recognize and respond to these linkages?
Focus on your purpose and on the difference you want to make. Don’t forget the individuals whose lives you’re helping to improve and whom you’re hoping to empower to make a difference themselves. Once you listen to these voices, you see that that SRHR connections are inherent in so many people’s worldview. It’s all about empowerment of the individual; when you do that, you empower communities, nations, and the world — and help build resilience to manage and plan for environmental changes that will continue to impact our lives.
