INTRODUCTION In serving poor and marginalized people, the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) seeks to help them live life to their full potential. To do so, our programming is guided by Catholic Church teaching on integral human development (IHD), which forms the guiding principles behind our work. IHD promotes the good of every person and the whole person, and is a process that enables individuals and communities to live with dignity and improve the quality of their lives. IHD helps us to address the multiple needs of the poor, either directly through programs that we support with our partners or indirectly by linking to programs and services provided by other organizations (see Figure 1.) The IHD conceptual framework allows us to examine household and community assets as well as structures and systems that affect health positively or negatively. It also allows us to look at the trends and threats that influence health status and the degree to which people have access to health care services and can influence the management of those services. Figure 1. Integral Human Development Framework Shocks, Cycles & Trends
Outcomes Strategies
ASSETS
STRUCTURES
Spiritual & Human Physical
Social
Natural
Access & Influence
Institutions & Organizations Public Private Collective
SYSTEMS Social Economic Religious Political Values & beliefs
Political Financial
Feedback = Opportunities or Constraints To that end, the CRS global health and HIV strategy will use the IHD framework as a lens to understand household and community dynamics. This will help us to develop effective strategies and approaches to address health challenges (see Annex 1). To address these challenges, CRS has established one strategic objective and four intermediate results that aim to influence behaviors and systems at three different levels (see Figure 2):
1