PART VII

SOME POSSIBLE ELEMENTS OF A NEW STRATEGY TO PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN COUNTRIES EXPERIENCING DROUGHT AND DESERTIFICATION

Integrated community driven approaches: participation in decision making, freedom of information, education and awarenss, role of NGO's, women and other groups
Presented by : Mr. Gary Howe, Project Controller, Africa Division, Project Management Department, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

New Directions in systematic information collection and analysis for Desertification control
Presented by : Mr. W. Franklin Cardy, Deputy Assistant Executive Director, Desertification Control Programme Activities Centre (DC/PAC), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Promising technologies to reverse land degradation: current trends in research, development cooperation
Presented by : Mr. Peter Veit, World Resource Institute

Experimentation and innovation in capacity building
Presented by : Mr. Tijan Jallon, Technical Adviser, United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office (UNSO)

Development of alternative livelihood systems: conservation and utilization of dryland biodiversity, processing of agricultural/pastoral products, infrastructure and other facilities to support new industries and services, migration strategies
Presented by : Mr. Gary Howe, Project Controller, Africa Division, Project Management Department, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

Alternative energy sources for dryland areas: agroforestry, improved stoves, solar and wind power
Presented by : Mr. Masse Lo, Environnement et Developpement du Tiers Monde (ENDA)

INTEGRATED COMMUNITY DRIVEN APPROACHES: PARTICIPATION IN DECISION MAKING, FREEDOM OF INFORMATION, EDUCATION AND AWARENESS, ROLE OF NGO's, WOMEN AND OTHER GROUPS

Presented by : Mr. Gary Howe, Project Controller, Africa Division, Project Management Department, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

INTRODUCTION

It has become increasingly clear that desertification cannot be addressed from a purely technical and material perspective. Desertification is a social process. Individuals and communities have an autonomous impact on natural resources, and they mediate the effects of natural processes. In the last analysis, successful responses to drought and desertification are impossible without changes in the way individuals and communities use resources. The challenge is not that of finding the best technical solution, and then seeking to enlist local support - as an afterthought. Rather, it involves developing approaches to resource conservation which reflect local economic interests, which utilize the technologies and resources available to local people, and which are embedded within local social structures. It is not so much the people that must accommodate themselves to external technologies and objectives - as the technology and objectives that must accommodate themselves to people. This reflects a simple fact: sustainable conservation activities are not what technicians, projects and Governments do (although they can help). Sustainable conservation activities are those which ordinary people do in using resources in the normal way of producing and securing their livelihoods.

The fact of widespread desertification indicates a certain disjunction between what some people are currently doing, and what is necessary for a stable equilibrium with the natural resource base. The challenge lies in giving rise to new patterns of individual and community resource use which are compatible with, or preferably improve upon, ways in which people gain their livelihood. This is a consultative and cooperative process. The challenge has been recognized, and new approaches have been experimented with - in a host of individual projects and, in a focused fashion, within IFAD's Special Program for African Countries Affected by Drought and Desertification, which is exclusively dedicated to this search. The elements of a general approach to desertification and drought are becoming widely known. They have yet, however, to be brought together in a comprehensive, unitary strategy enjoying the full commitment of Governments and international donors.

This strategy, if it is to be based on what people do, must involve people themselves in deciding and doing. It must involve communities, but it must also seek to involve those who are often marginalized from community decision-making - particularly the poor and women. It must involve existing structures of community action, but also new ones - like NGOs - representing new forms of local response to new challenges. Engaging the community means a process of consensus building: it requires free communication. It also involves education. But the information flow and education cannot be one way, from top to bottom. It involves an informed dialogue seeking not only consent, but active local support and initiative.

The following paper is divided into five major sections. The first deals with the rationale, from the individual users point of view, for community action in resource conservation. The second deals with resources that are already under community management, and where there is no viable alternative to this form of control and use. These sections ground the need for community participation in actual conditions of resource use. The third section addresses the need for the community to involve all resource users, not only those who are typically considered influential. This section deals with the particular conditions and interests of women resource users. The fourth section reviews project experience, highlighting critical areas of community participation, the relation between local and exotic technologies, and appropriate forms of education and training. The fifth section identifies the essential elements of a participatory strategy, including the relations among external agencies.

The perspective informing the paper is that participation, education, and awareness can never be meaningfully separated from what the participation is about. Forms of technology and education, and forms of management must reflect the substance of the resource, the character of the production system, and the composition of the society of users. These vary considerably, and so, therefore, do the concrete organizations and technologies that sustainable conservation is built upon. The meta-principles of strategy are clear. What is also clear is that they are meaningless unless applied in manner supremely sensitive to the context - of what users want, what they have, and what they can do.

ISSUES OF SUSTAINABILITY IN SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION

Some of the most fundamental issues in combating drought and desertification involve developing long-term patterns of resource (land, water and forest) use. There are very few natural resources that are not used by someone, and many resources are subject to very long- established use rights. There are, therefore, rather few opportunities for conserving resources without regard to these users. In most cases there is little possibility for conservation based on exclusion. On the one hand, even degraded resources are vital for the livelihoods of their users - particularly for the rural poor; on the other hand, the policing of exclusion regimes against former users is virtually impossible without their consent. Conservation programs throughout the world have failed to effectively maintain exclusion regimes in the context of competition for resources, in failing to do so they may have actually accelerated the processes of degradation they were designed to combat.

It has become increasingly clear, therefore, that only rarely can resource conservation involve non-use. It must typically involve better use. In the majority of cases in areas subject to drought and desertification this means better agricultural use - principally involving crop agriculture, forest exploitation, and livestock production. This is particularly important because accumulating evidence suggests that an extremely important element of resource degradation arises from new and unsustainable patterns of resource use, it being understood that "resource use" in this context involves the means of making a living.

A fundamental condition of enlisting users in any new system of resource use is that the new pattern offers an improved livelihood to those involved. No major changes are likely to be accepted which do not both guarantee and increase incomes. Attempts to de otherwise will meet both passive and active resistance. The issue of resource conservation, therefore, is intimately associated with alternative economic strategies - most often alternative strategies for the rural poor. These improvements must be within the parameters of both income expectations (and flow) and investible resources. The precarious income flow and extremely limited savings of the poor signify that changes involving only long-term income improvements are (in the absence of supporting income transfers) relatively unattractive to users - and also that the possibility of mobilizing important local savings for investment is quite low. Sustainable responses to degradation, therefore, can only be the product of a complex integration of technology, user income strategies, and investment linked to the real possibilities of primarily local investment mobilization. Resource conservation is not an engineering problem. It is a technical, economic and social problem, the principal criterion of possible solution of which involves compatibility with user interests and resources.

If one of the most important dimensions of resource degradation is associated with prevailing patterns of resource use, the dominant cause is rarely ignorance. The emergence of degradation as a major problem in areas subject to desertification has been, in large part, a reflection of changing pressures upon users. An extremely important element of this change has been the rise in rural population, motivating higher intensity of resource use (more cropping, more livestock, higher off-take of forest products, etc.). Thus the declining availability of arable land per person across the whole of Africa has led to declining fallow periods, shortening periods of natural regeneration of fertility. Similarly, rising land pressure has involved a relative decline of mixed cropping, just as the impoverishment of much of the rural population has deprived them of the mixed-farming option (crops and livestock) or has led to forms of sedentarized stock raising placing excessive pressures on local grazing resources. Environmental pressure leading to, inter alia, desertification is thus very much an economic problem, particularly associated with impoverishment - as cause and effect.

It would be incorrect, however, to view the process of degradation only as the result of traditional systems of production being subjected to new pressures. Part of the problem arises from the development of new systems of production and marketing. Thus the spread of animal and mechanical traction, while contributing to overcoming the production bottleneck represented by limited labor power within production based on human energy inputs, contributes to reductions in fallow cycles and rising cropping intensity (to contain the costs of de-brushing and de-stumping). Equally, the development of pumped water supplies for animals has raised animal concentrations around water points. And the emergence of commodity markets has, in many areas, given rise to monoculture. Not only does poverty give rise to desertification, but some of the apparent solutions to poverty give rise to the same effect. The issue is not one of traditional versus modern techniques. Traditional techniques of production may, under sufficient pressure upon resources, become environmentally destructive. The same may be true of modern techniques when market pressures lead to reduction of investment to the minimum level required to maintain annual cropping.

Defining effective action to combat desertification in terms of sustainable patterns of resource use, resource conservation is, effectively, part of the overall system of production. While there can be no a priori judgment that "traditional" techniques are any more amenable to modification/development towards sustainability than "modern" techniques, there are reasons to believe that locally available techniques and materials are preferable to exotic (i.e., "externally" sourced) techniques and materials. The reasons for this superiority are based less in technology per se than in economics. An appreciation of this requires a "contextualization" of problems of desertification.

In general, areas subject to severe desertification are located in poor countries with:

i. important foreign payments problems;

ii. governments facing major budgetary pressures; and

iii. weak systems of extension and general education.

Specific areas affected be desertification within countries tend to be characterized by:

i. very low levels of productivity and marketable surplus;

ii. low levels of individual household incomes;

iii. high transportation costs;

iv. low resource availability at the level of local government; and

v. particularly weak systems of extension and general education.

Taken together, these factors represent a formidable obstacle to adoption of techniques of conservation (and, indeed, general techniques of production) based upon exotic material and technical inputs. Imported inputs are generally in short supply (because of foreign exchange scarcity), they are expensive (because of high transportation costs), and are frequently economically inaccessible to poor households (whose cash incomes are low because of low local commodity prices and generally low levels of productivity). Moreover, these obstacles at the household level are usually no less formidable at the level of Government, under the prevailing conditions of shortages of finance for both investment and recurrent expenditures. Leaving aside the issue of applicability to specific local conditions, factors militating against exotic material inputs are also accompanied by economic factors militating against exotic techniques: the purchase of external technical assistance is incompatible with limited national and local resources; and systems of extension and education are inadequate to the task of adequately maintaining and disseminating expensive "higher level" technical advice.

Economically, the arguments in favor of low-cost, locally sourced conservation inputs utilizing techniques already existing in user communities are exactly the same as the arguments in favor of such production techniques. Indeed, as noted above, the distinction between conservation activities and production activities is of little value, as they are simply different aspects of the general process of resource management in pursuit of livelihood. This is by no means to suggest that all exotic inputs and techniques are incompatible with local economic and institutional conditions but rather that, ceteris paribus, they will enjoy lower levels of sustainability unless the income enhancement derived from conservation is both very large and very visible, which is rarely the case. It should be noted in this regard, that external financing of "exotics" is only a very imperfect solution to the cost barrier involved. On the one hand, the total amount of such assistance available is frequently small relative to the total identified problem. On the other hand, assistance for capital costs does not address the problem of recurrent (maintenance) costs, particularly given that like frequently demands like, i.e., that maintenance frequently involves the same sort of inputs as those required for the initial investment.

Sustainable responses to the processes of resource degradation underlying desertification, then, must:

i. involve the possibility of conservation activities into the user-controlled production process in such a way as to offer positive returns to the user resources required;

ii. be compatible with the user resource endowment (present and future); and

iii. make recourse as much as possible to local material and technical resources.

With regard to the local input requirement, the principal relevant inputs for use involve labor, natural resources, local products, and existing draught power. It should be noted, however, that the term "local" is not equivalent to "cost-free" - all inputs have an opportunity cost (which will typically vary in a predictable way on an intra-annual basis), and the "localization" of input sourcing in no way relieves conservation activities from a de facto user evaluation in terms of costs and benefits.

With regard to sustainable techniques, local sourcing is, as indicated above, also preferable - because of the prohibitive economic and institutional costs of maintaining and servicing complex exotic technologies. Implicitly, this means articulation and development of the conservation technology already existing in user communities - in effect, building upon traditions. In most communities such traditions do exist: the issue is that they are no longer applied, or have become inadequate to new pressures upon the resource base. Traditional techniques have to be approached, therefore, in a dynamic sense: emergent obstacles to use must be identified and overcome; and new elements have to be introduced to resolve the contradictions arising from new user situations. Critical factors in adaptation to new user circumstances, as will be elaborated upon below, are land tenure and labor availability. With regard to land tenure, important dimensions are the amount of land per holding and the form of property. It is evident that traditional techniques based on extensive land use may not be applied without substantial modification to farming systems based on reduced land areas (i.e., inescapably intensive systems of use). It is also evident that long-term investments to arrest degradation can only take root where the user/investor has expectations of long-term individual/household enjoyment of the benefits, expectations associated with security of tenure and compensation for loss of future benefits in the act of transfer of control of benefits. With regard to labor availability, a striking dimension of most marginal agricultural areas is a reduction (long-term and/or seasonal) in household labor supply as labor seeks higher returns elsewhere. The response to degradation, therefore, cannot take the form of a Romantic atavism, i.e., a return to the "wisdom of the past", it must involve innovation to take account of new material circumstances, a strategy which builds upon tradition, but which cannot simply revive it.

The arguments for integration with profitable systems of production, the use of local materials, and the modification of existing techniques hold true for all forms of resource conservation to combat desertification. The user (his or her economic interests; his or her resources; his or her knowledge) must be central to the whole exercise. However, the individualization implicit in the term "user" can be extremely misleading. In many cases there is not a single beneficiary of conservation activities. There are a number of sources of resource degradation which are contained within a single plot (e.g., abusive farming techniques) and whose effects are largely contained within the plot. In these cases, the individual plot or farmer may be taken as the basic unit of planning, accounting and action. It is perhaps more common, however, that causes, effects or both are not contained within the individual plot - and in these cases it is typically organizationally and economically imperative that conservation takes a broader social form. Given that this broader social form involves action by users of resources, it is preferable that this social form be the organization of users themselves rather than the intervention of higher level administrative authorities with limited actual rights over resources and without a direct interest in the economic consequences of changes at the user level.

If the causes and effects of resource degradation cannot easily be "individualized", neither can the tenure or use of resources. In many parts of Africa there is no simple identification of the individual "holding" with individual use. It is very common that the use of a particular land resource (the farm holding) may be exclusive to a family or household for a certain part of the year, while being open for use by others (with varying degrees of specification) at other times of the year. This is the case, for example, in those systems where use of plots is "individualized" during the crop season for plant production, but "socialized" for livestock grazing of crop residues in the post-harvest period. In this case the "user" whose interests must be responded is not only the plot "owner", but also all others who gain economic benefit from it. Of necessity, any proposed change in the pattern of use involves the whole community of users - and must respond to all interests involved. As will be described below, not only are there important resources which are managed by an overlapping set of users (individuals and groups), there are also extremely important assets which are only managed by groups.

Thus, even from the use perspective, conservation frequently involves collective (supra-individual) interests, and action requires group agreement/commitment. Under these circumstances community (defined here in terms of a community of interested parties with a right to use, which is not necessarily identical to the "community" defined in terms of residential propinquity or juridical/administrative status) participation in decision-making relative to conservation is not simply a desirable option, it is the sine qua non of sustainable action: community participation is not an external value, but a real dimension of resource use and planning. It is, of course, necessary that this community be defined in concrete terms, it being evident that within any given area there may not be a single community, but a variety of communities of those with overlapping individual use rights.

While the nature of existing patterns of rights over resources dictates the need for group consultation and consensus in many cases, it should also be noted that communal decision and action may also be either necessary or preferable in cases where use of the resource is purely individual. Clear examples are:

i. situation where the benefit of conservation is strictly determined by adoption of similar measures by other individual users; and

ii. situations where resource conservation by some may benefit others who make no similar investment.

Examples of the first case include situations in which the user costs of conservation to obtain a given benefit vary significantly and inversely with the number of users adopting it. A classic case of this is fencing and hedging. In the case of facing to control grazing by animals, the cost per unit of land protected clearly varies according to the number of perimeters involved. The cost of fencing every individual plot may be prohibitive; the cost per unit of land of putting a perimeter fence around a bloc of plots is considerably less. From a purely economic view, the larger the number of contiguous plots/users involved in a developing a common perimeter, the more favorable the cost/benefit ratio. The realization of such advantages, however, requires a certain degree of cooperation among beneficiaries (i.e., those within the perimeter must agree not to introduce untethered livestock, and those who are not required to construct fencing because of their central location must agree to share some of the cost with those who must construct fences because of their peripheral location). An identical logic applies to hedging/construction of wind-breaks, the economic advantages of which are directly dependent upon the number of, and level of cooperation among, those participating.

It should be noted that there are also cases where the non-adoption of conservation practices in individual cases may not only reduce the benefits of such measures taken by others, but may actually contribute to accelerated degradation on the plots of others. This is particularly evident in the case of water management, where the failure to develop a complete, multi-plot system may exaggerate problems (of, for example, erosion arising from run-off), absolutely necessitating coordination and cooperation from the start. Such considerations are the basis of approaches to soil and water conservation involving whole watersheds.

The above considerations refer primarily to the management of conservation activities, reflecting both the overlap of user rights and the economics of coordination. There are also elements of the conservation investment process which militate for collective/co- ordinated action. Specifically, it may be imperative that conservation work take a level of intensity in selected areas that transcends the ability of any given individual user unit to preform in a given space of time, with failure to so do involving losses for other units. Under such circumstances, it may be preferable to seek collective inputs into the conservation process within an agreed upon rolling work program starting in priority areas - but nonetheless guaranteeing eventual work at all levels.

In conclusion, community involvement is fundamental to sustainable resource conservation in that:

i. it provides the framework for the articulation of user interests in resource use, and the point of elaboration of the relation between interests in long-term resource value and current income;

ii. it provides the framework for addressing the management/reconciliation issues involved in measures involving individual costs and benefits beyond individual units; and

iii. it provides the basis of organization of a conservation work process which frequently involves the need for resources grater than those mobilizable by individual economic units at any given point in time.

These points suggest the necessity of community participation, insofar as all the above elements must be present if action is to enjoy user support. This refers to the communities of users as defined above. In the broader sense of community participation, i.e. mobilization of local resources, the economics of improvement suggest strong reliance upon locally embedded technology and materials. This is not to suggest that community participation is, in either sense, completely sufficient in itself. But it does appear to be a necessary element of any conservation strategy directed towards resource conservation.

THE SPECIAL CASE OF COMMON PROPERTY RESOURCES IN AREAS SUBJECT TO DROUGHT AND DESERTIFICATION

The thesis developed above is directed towards elucidation of the necessity for community participation and management of conservation activities on resources which are held under predominantly individual forms of tenure and use. In fact, the thesis addresses two issues: first, the need for conservation activities to be driven by user interests and capabilities; and, second, the need for user interests and actions to be addressed within a community or group framework. It was suggested that the collective form of the consultation and action frame reflected both the forms of mixed use rights common in many parts of Africa and (inter alia) the supra-holding causes and effects of erosion phenomena.

There is, however, a whole class of resources in which (user) community management and action with regard to conservation would directly reflect the form of tenure and use management. This involves all those resources currently held under common property relations. It might also preferably involve many of the resources currently exploited under open access regimes.

In Africa four types of property regime may be broadly delineated: private (including limited corporate) property; state property; communal property; and open access. Private property and state property are relatively well understood, not least because it is in these areas that rights tend to be officially registered and sanctioned (by governments). Very large areas, however, fall under neither of these property regimes. They are neither private property nor state property. They represent the commons. Encompassing huge areas of grazing land, forests, and important water resources, these commons are absolutely critical to the livelihood of the rural population in many areas, particularly to the rural poor with limited individual property rights.

It is commonly assumed, with some justification, that these areas are typically at the front-line of desertification. They are certainly the areas with poor soils and poor access to water. Indeed, it is often precisely because they are relatively unproductive resources that they have not been integrated into private property regimes. In effect, the maintenance of private claims to property involves definite costs, and the productivity of these areas is insufficient to justify them. The incidence of such non-private resources clearly expresses the incidence of agriculturally marginal areas: in the arid and semi-arid regions of the Sahel they are of enormous importance - as they are, for example, in the marginal agricultural zones of Zimbabwe, Kenya, etc. However, the propensity to degradation of any given resource expresses not only its physical characteristics, but the manner in which it is used and managed. It is at this point, i.e., the use and management of the "commons", at which there emerge very fundamental misunderstandings of the dynamics of desertification.

An extremely fashionable understanding of the use (and degradation) of the commons is expressed in the "tragedy of the commons" thesis. The argument is that because the commons are not subject to private property or state property regimes, anybody may use them. Moreover, because nobody controls them, nobody can be sure of access to the long-term benefits of use - leading to a "rational" strategy of getting as much use now without regard to long-term usability, and to the total absence of investment in resource conservation. Given that the major use of such areas is for grazing, the concrete image offered is of unmanaged grazing, overstocking of ranges, and rapid process of desertification. From this perspective, the commons are an ecological disaster in the making, implicitly justifying their appropriation as state or private property.

The importance of this perspective cannot be overstated. It addresses huge areas of the most ecologically vulnerable regions, and it implies the need for changes in tenure affecting millions of users. It should be noted, however, that the implicit solutions (land privatization or the assertion of state control) are inconsistent with certain underlying realities. On the one hand, the option of privatization seems hardly feasible, given that the benefits of individual use do not typically cover the administration costs of the private property regime (quite apart from the negative impact on the rural poor, who rarely are in a position to exercise private property claims over valuable resources). In this regard, it should be noted that common resource areas are not unproductive because they are "common"; on the contrary, they are common because they are unproductive. On the other hand, exclusionary state property regimes have tended to be unsustainable because of the excessive financial and social cost of excluding users.

Fortunately, this perspective is, in simple terms, an inadequate representation of the reality of the situation of the commons. Historically, the commons have not been open-access. On the contrary, rights to their use have been claimed (and policed) by clearly identifiable communities or user groups. These groups have excluded others, and have regulated use of the resource by their members in order to maintain the long-term value of resources. In effect, many (perhaps most) areas of the commons have been under common property regimes involving group management and conservation of natural resources. Contrary to popular misconceptions, these areas have not been subject to user-induced degradation, and have not been characterized by clear over-stocking of grazing lands.

It is, however, correct that some areas of the commons are not (or are no longer) common property regime areas, and, indeed, open access has come to prevail - with extremely serious consequences for the desertification process on both grazing and forest lands.It is evident that without a change in management and use patterns, the degradation process will continue, representing a threat to equilibrium in all other areas. The issue is what other sorts of regimes are feasible, and how they might be achieved. An important factor in this situation is that many current open access regimes "govern" areas that were previously under common property regimes, i.e. in the past they were subject to group/communal management.

It is by no means clear that common property regimes have collapsed as a result of their inability to manage resources on a sustainable basis. The failing has not necessarily been either technical or managerial. Rather, there have been important social mechanisms at work, which have been closely related to the evolution of the relation between the state and civil society. Two changes are of primordial significance:

i. the proclamation of state property rights over previously communal areas; and

ii. the de-legitimation of forms of local/group authority.

An extremely important dimension of the evolution of land tenure in post-colonial societies has been the proclamation of state control over large areas of land not subject to recognized private forms of property rights, a process often rationalized under the heading of resource planning and husbandry. Much of the land so appropriated, however, was not subject to a "non-property" regime, but actually was under common property regimes. The results have frequently been disastrous. With user communities being prohibited from exercising control over these resources (now in the "domain" of the state), and the state itself being incapable of exercising direct local control, these areas have become "no control" areas. In effect, the negation of common property regimes by the state has not given rise to (effective) state property regimes, but to open access regimes - with all their known shortcomings. Measures aimed at improving resource use through the introduction of "exotic" and non-communal forms of property and management have, therefore, actually undermined locally viable management systems - to the clear detriment of resource conservation. This is by no means an exclusively African phenomenon, although in Asia the resources involved tend to be forests (e.g., Nepal) and uplands (e.g., The Philippines) rather than arid and semi-arid plains.

An equally important and related process is the de-legitimation of non-state authority. One of the defining characteristics of any property regime is the right of the proprietor to exclude other users. such exclusion is ultimately based on sanctions. It is evident that the claim of the state to the monopoly of certain decisive sanctions has undermined the sanctions available to user communities to enforce property/use rights, involving an effective erosion of the rights themselves, and, ultimately, an erosion of the resources over which the rights are claimed.

While these political factors have played an important role in weakening common property regimes, it is also evident that other factors have been involved in many parts of Africa. In the Sahel zone, climate changes have impelled major movements of humans and animals away from their traditional areas of use, overwhelming the ability of management systems in "host" areas to effectively control resources in response to external pressures. Meanwhile, internal pressures (arising from, inter alia, rapid demographic expansion) have created difficulties in establishing a balance between valid user claims and the natural resource base, involving a gradual move towards unsustainable patterns of use.

Thus while community organization of resource conservation appears preferable in relation to many more or less private resources, it is also (and not fortuitously) the actually existing form of organization of use over vast areas in fragile ecological zones. There are good reasons to believe that this is the only sustainable and equitable basis of conservation management in these areas, and that the sole practical possibility for the recovery of current open-access areas is through their reintegration into common property regimes. This does not, however, imply simply the resurrection of tradition, nor does it imply that common property management regimes are capable, on their own, of responding to all the challenges confronting them. New users have to find a place within a system of secure rights to resource use, and the resources themselves have to be up-graded to bear increased claims. This will involve external assistance. Experience shows that for assistance to bear sustainable results, it must be articulated through community/group organization, and should not displace it.

GENDER ISSUES IN COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION AND RESOURCE CONSERVATION

In referring to community involvement above, care was taken to refer to "community of users", which was distinguished from community defined in terms of propinquity. Equally, it was indicated that the community "inclusion" dimensions of common property regimes were necessarily associated with community "exclusion". The point here is that it would be a mistake to view de facto community resource management as a phenomenon which includes the whole rural population on an equal basis. Even in relation to resource use, the "residential community" is typically divided into (frequently overlapping) "user communities" within which rights of use and control are not necessarily equally distributed. This often presents formidable challenges to external agencies seeking to cooperate with local groups in resource conservation and development, i.e., some of the objectives of the external agency might not be compatible with the structure of tights and interests within local groups.

This issue becomes particularly pressing with regard to interventions seeking to combine resource conservation with a focus upon alleviation of poverty. Most systems of rights involve inequalities of access and control, which can be modified only with extreme caution. In particular, the cooperation of the privileged is frequently a sine qua non of effective community action, and few changes can be envisaged which do not serve the interests of the privileged at the same time as they serve the interests of the poor. One of the most pervasive lines of differentiation - with regard to both patterns of resource use and control over resources - is gender differentiation. The characteristic orientation of development programs towards men has hindered the emergence of a comprehensive approach to sustainable resource use and conservation. There are clear indications that the implications of such de facto discrimination are becoming more negative as a result of important changes taking place in the production systems of marginal areas - particularly those involving use of common property resources.

In sub-Saharan Africa the prominence of women in the populations of regions dominated by common property resources, and in the exploitation of these resources, is now widely acknowledged. On the other hand, the specific nature of their modes of common property resource exploitation is not always recognized. African women are generally not perceived by the external observers as responsible managers of their environment. A rather tragic perception tends always to view them as eternal collectors of wood, carriers of water and children, the poorest of the poor, ignorant and excluded from the domains of power and decision making. These stubborn images mask other realities and fail to recognize current major changes in women's role with regard to common property resources.

Women represent more than 50% of the labor force in the rural environment. In many regions massive migrations of the active men have considerably increased this proportion and have given women de facto authority in the management of rural areas and their common property resources. To forget or to marginalize women in initiatives aimed at enhancing the use and management of common (and private) property resources would therefore be an error and an injustice. Due to their permanent presence in the rural environment, their roles as producers and reproducers, and the responsibilities they assume in the local community, women have a major role to play in the implementation of such initiatives and in guaranteeing their sustainability.

Women's Status With Respect to Common Property Resources

The gender division of labor and the distribution of responsibilities and work between categories or groups of individuals are central to the functional structure of rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa. The position of women is based on two fundamental and interdependent elements: the function of reproduction of the family; and dependency with regard to the head of the family. These two elements are characterized by extreme diversity and are subject to major and sometimes rapid changes.

An essential function of women is to assure the reproduction of family labor. The sexual division of tasks partly results from this function, through assigning specific obligations to women: supply of domestic water and firewood, contribution to he food supply, preparation of meals, health care and education of children, participation in the management of the residence and sometimes total responsibility for the residence (for example in nomadic societies). It is in the accomplishment of these "statutory" tasks that women rely most on common property resources, either for home consumption (wood, fruits, medicinal products), or to obtain essential monetary income (for instance, collecting and selling wood to pay for formal education).

The framework in which women fulfil these functions is that of the family, of which the head is usually a man. In many respects, the majority of African rural women have dependent status with respect to the family head. The man has the power of decision making with regard to external and internal family matters, and the management of land, animals and harvests. He participates in the village council and has access to external information.

The large majority of traditional societies thus confine women to second place, but accord them domains of specific competence over which they have authority. This knowledge and these rights are exercised in domestic space and in that of common property resources: collection of firewood and medicinal plants, minor forest products, etc. The bush is also a women's zone and their use rights there are acknowledged. They sometimes crete their own use and management rules. Thus on the Mossi Plateau, the use of species like Mitragyna inermis or Acacia gourmaensis is distributed between categories of women according to age and social rank: the young wife of a chief is subjected to major restrictions whereas a poor old woman has more freedom to harvest the resource.

The diversity in the position of women is considerable and makes generalization very dangerous. The most important variables concern:

i. ethnic group: the status of nomadic Touareg women is quite different from that of Mossi women, for example;

ii. religion-animist, Christian, Moslem: the latter normally guarantees women an inalienable part of the inheritance;

iii. marital status (monogamy, polygamy, widowhood);

iv. age group: from the extreme dependence of young girls to the relative autonomy of old women;

v. the dominant productive activities: agriculture, livestock;

vi. socio-economic rank (compare the wife of a marabout or of a big trader and the wife of a client person or a man of low caste);

vii. level of education (the large majority of rural women are illiterate);

viii. migration, masculine and feminine.

The diversity of these factors conditions the roles of women - individuals or groups - in the exploitation of common property resources. Evidently, the most deprived women are the ones who depend most on common property resources and who suffer most from their degradation.

Recent socio-economic changes have reinforced these diversities and accelerated change: the resultant imbalances from it lead either to a deterioration in the position of women, or to a positive evolution. As a general rule, however, socio-ecological imbalances create new obligations for the majority of women without really giving them new powers: they are family heads and/or resource use managers de facto, but not by right. The complexity of these changes is ignored or badly understood by external agencies; but local communities recognize the new roles played by women and know that if women decide to migrate, the rural areas will be deserted by the entire population. The situation is often confused and requires case by case analysis.

Status determines roles; their interaction is decisive, in particular in the use of common property resources. Although tasks were traditionally clearly divided between men and women in the exploitation of private resources as well as common property resources, the degradation of socio-ecological conditions is now leading to a confusion of roles and to situations of competition between groups and individuals which have a harmful effect on the collective environment. This is particularly marked in two areas: use of the forest and use of natural resources.

Women and the Forest

Through their position as reproducers, women place essential demands on forest resources. For them, the functions of the tree are to nourish and to nurse the family, and to provide firewood. The obligation of the family head is the production of food grains; that of the rural woman is to supply the other foodstuffs and to prepare the sauce, which is the only variation in the monotony of the diet. Ingredients for this come mainly from the gathering activities practised by women and children in the common property resources. Although it is a priority for the women, the nourishing function of the tree is often not recognized by foresters, who are mainly concerned with firewood and wood for construction. But fruit and leaves are often more than just a nutritional complement: they can guarantee basic protein and calorie needs. Especially during the hungry period before crops are ready for harvest, they provide - in particular for children, for whom certain species are reserved -a hidden nourishment outside normal meals, which is too often neglected or ignored in the calculation of food balances.

The healers have a central role in the medicinal exploitation of trees. But they are not numerous, whereas virtually all rural women use various tree products according to specific needs: fruits, leaves flowers, bark and roots. The generally weak presence of health infrastructure, inadequate medicine supplies and their often prohibitive cost make the traditional pharmacopoeia the first resort in case of illness, both in the rural environment and in town. The objective of the WHO, "Health for all in the year 2000", will be in greater jeopardy if the poorest social categories lose access to these resources. Certain medicinal tree and plant species are in danger of disappearing because of droughts and tapping by women and traditional healers. In addition, knowledge about their use will disappear at the same time as the species and will no longer be transmitted to the young: every mother has her recipes of phytotherapy which she passes on to her daughters.

A supply of fuel - firewood - is as essential to assure the feeding of the family as the production of grains or tubers. It is the role of women, assisted by girls and young boys. Only the collection of dead wood is authorized in the Sahel countries. Except where drought has largely destroyed the forests, the collection of firewood has become more and more difficult and erratic. Women are forced to cut live wood or surreptitiously to destroy trees and shrubs by fire in order to obtain dead wood. The lack of woody resources forces the use of crop residues and animal droppings as combustibles. Moreover, women's knowledge and skills are lost because they can no longer be used - for example, preference for species with the best caloric value; the pruning of certain species to encourage bushy growth and natural regeneration; and the selective preservation of trees according to their traditional uses -nutritional, curative, or handicraft.

The energy deficit is exacerbated by traditional cooking methods, which consume large amounts of wood by long cooking with an open fire. Improved stoves sometimes do not perform well, are poorly adapted, or may not be well promoted or readily available. Substitute energy sources like gas and paraffin are often desired by women, but they lack the money to buy them and the men refer to the division of roles to justify not paying for them. In forest zones women sell wood all year or seasonally to satisfy their needs for money in order to be able to pay various costs (the formal education of their children, clothing for a girl, urgent medical expenses). However, women do not practice the massive cutting of wood as men do (with teams of wood cutters or charcoal makers).

Finally, numerous plants, especially trees, supply the basic material for handicraft products made by women: vegetable butter, fermented or non-fermented drinks, traditional condiments, sauces, baskets, pots. Other products are less specifically made by women, like utensils, furniture (mats) and hose materials (grass weaving, mats). The profits from the sale of goods produced in excess of family needs are mostly reinvested in family or social obligations.

Techniques for the collection, conservation and processing of forest products are often the domain of women, whose knowledge and skills for this purpose are as diverse as the environments from which these products come. Certain techniques ass value to the gathered product and prevent it going to waste, while improving family nutrition: for example, sheanut butter, whose preparation can extend for months; néré powder; and the leaves or flowers of fruits, consumed fresh or dried.

But this knowledge is also threatened. The conditions for gathering are bad: the increasing rarity of species and forest products, the increasing distance of the collection areas, competition with other users (village men or strangers solicited by traders) repressive or poorly adapted legislation. These circumstances, the obligation to do things quickly and the need to profit from long, difficult and risky collection trips force women to adopt predatory behaviour. These are constantly cut, stripped of all their leaves, topped or mutilated, or completely bled for their sap. In this way, traditional knowledge becomes inappropriate and ineffective and is no longer transmitted to children - girls and boys - who accompany their mothers on these expeditions. Women can no longer fulfil their role as initiators to the environment. On the contrary, they are more and more often forced to give a bad example.

Women and Pastoral Resources

The role of women in livestock raising is generally considered to be secondary, because they have less livestock than men and tend to own small stock (especially goats), which are accused of causing damage due to uncontrolled grazing. However, in some livestock raising societies women are traditionally owners of individual cattle, or even of herds. There is a recent tendency for the wives of farmers in the Sahel to acquire cows and keep them for milk and for reproduction.

In livestock production too, the major role of women is to increase the value of various products: marketing and processing of milk tanning and leather handicrafts, weaving of wool. These products play an important role in trade between sedentary villages and transhumant pastoralists: the barter of butter and fresh or sour milk for food grains. This role is also important for pastoralists because, during major droughts, one often sees their women reselling their jewerly to assure the survival of the group and its herds.

The roles of women in the use and management of common property resources are tending to lose detail. The primary activities of simple gathering for family consumption and for sale take priority over secondary activities of processing and adding value to sometimes very sophisticated products.

Knowledge and skills are in danger of disappearing along with the primary material. The impoverishment os not only ecological and economical, it is thus also cultural. In contrast to this, in certain zones, women have been associated with the rehabilitation of common property resources. They have learned new techniques; they have organized themselves; they have mobilized their skills and their labor to safeguard their productive environment. Examples are rare and recent, but encouraging: they open perspectives in a situation which is generally gloomy.

Increased Dependency: Beyond Sustainable Resource Use

A first observation is that women have to face a quantitative increase in needs due to demographic growth. On the on hand, their burdens have become heavier: the decrease in mortality and consequent reduction in spacing between births have increased the number of dependents in families. Men contribute less than before to the costs of formal education, because of a lack of sufficient income and because they migrate for longer periods. On the other hand, new financial burdens have appeared: health care, formal education of children, and their clothing create new imperative monetary demands which fall to women, either because of their status or because of the circumstances of the moment (absent men or men without money). As a result, the demand from women for minor forest products is grater and the time needed for gathering is getting longer, at the expense of other activities.

A second observation is that demographic growth has accentuated the pressure on tights to arable land. Women are often the first victims of the compression of these rights on family fields, because they rarely own their fields: they cultivate fields allocated or lent by the family head, a relative, or a friend. Because the size of his family has increased or because his soils are degrading, the owner is often constrained to reduce or to cancel all these allocations or loans of land, either for the benefit of a male member of the family or because he has no free land left. But women have duties and thus irrepressible needs. What their personal fields no longer provide - in the form of food or income - must then be sought in the exploitation of common property resources for family consumption, but also for sale. In addition, through the clearing of marginal land, women sometimes contribute to the contraction of common property resource areas. The capacity of these marginal lands is more sylvo-pastoral than agricultural.

Women's demands on common property resources also grow selectively under the impact of various pressures. To meet urgent obligations, women center their gathering activities only on the products likely to give them an immediate income form sale to traders. Certain species that used to be common are now cut clear and become rare to the point of disappearance in some areas. Insufficient harvests on the family fields also push men into finding income to buy grain; in the south of Burkina Faso, for example, men have started to collect and sell sheanuts, which grow on their own fields, to itinerant traders. They exclude women from this activity and force them to look in the bush for sheanuts. This competition between men and women in the same land using community is recent and very detrimental both to common property resources and to women.

Processing and marketing chains have been modified, often resulting in destructive behaviour: to fill a van with sheanuts or a bag with flowers on a specific day, the trees are stripped and even mutilated. Because the raw product is worth much less than the processed one, the quantities gathered are greater. Moreover, the traders buy in the period of full production, which means when the price is lowest. Driven into a corner to compensate for multiple losses, women over exploit species, which tend to disappear: at present in Timbouctou, women have to cross the river and go more than 10 km into the Gourma to find leaves of the doum palm.

The supply of firewood becomes impossible in some areas. Deforestation has led to a situation in which firewood collection areas are half a day or a full day on foot from the village. Harvest residues from the family fields are sold. Women are sometimes forced to burn inappropriate species like Calotropis procera. To escape punishment by forest guards, Sahelian women cut and transport firewood at night. Sometimes their only solution is to buy wood for the kitchen from the men of the village who have donkey carts and a permit to cut; they have to find the money, again through other forms of exploitation of common property resources.

The contraction of common property resource areas and the reduction of their biodiversity form a spiral of impoverishment for women, while their needs increase. The time and effort needed for gathering and transport exhaust women. In some places, the disappearance of certain species means that traditional health care can no longer treat some diseases, for which one now has to rely on paid medicaments and services.

In this context, the principal if not the only option open to women is to intensify still further their already excessive exploitation of common property resources, on which they become more and more dependent.

In the same circumstances, the first solution for men is short- or long-term emigration. Generally, women do not have this opportunity, but throughout the Sahel, one observes that seasonal migrations by young girls to urban centers are becoming more common (in addition to certain long standing migration patterns like those of the young Dioula girls from the Casamance).

A third possibility is to rely on income from local employment outside the family farm. This is rare and largely monopolized by men. However, here too, women are taking more and more temporary paid agricultural work, for which their salary is generally mich lower than that of men.

Finally, women have been largely excluded from development activities. The best performing agricultural materials, extension and training, credit, allocation of irrigated land and so on have hardly benefitted women. The wives of migrants guarantee a permanent presence in the most degraded rural environments, where they have to ensure the survival of the weakest through the most difficult periods (dry and hungry seasons) and where they have to act as man and woman at the same time. Somehow struggling through is the driving concern for African women. It often demands more from common property resources than they can give, because there is no other alternative open to women. It is the last stage before the abandonment of the rural environment and escape to what are euphemistically called "less privileged" neighbourhoods. Environmental concerns in the fight against the degradation of common property resources are thus functionally linked to socio-economic concerns in the struggle against the further impoverishment of rural women and under privileged groups.

Involving Women in Common Property Resource Management

Several reasons amply justify the integration of women in the conservation and management of common property resources. On the one hand, they are more dependent on these resources, and more deprived in terms of rights and powers over land and in society. But on the other hand, they have a more effective presence in the threatened environments than men; and they have now shown that they are ready and able to organize and to manage themselves, and very determined to continue to live on the land. Two stumbling blocks should be avoided, however:

i. marginalizing women through "women for women" micro-projects, while forgetting that they are major partners in their communities, linked to them by a series of obligations and reciprocal interests;

ii. singling out women by making them the target group of an intervention. Sooner or later this will bring them into conflict with the family or village hierarchy. Activities to be undertaken by women must obtain the consensus of men and women of the community.

Thus it is clear that the fight against the degradation of common property resources should not be confused with that for the socio-economic advancement of women. However, these two objectives integrate perfectly into the framework of measures aimed at the reduction of the dependency of women with respect to common property resources. In practice, this reduction can be obtained through two principal lines of action: promotion and assurance of better access to farm land and common property resources for women; and improvement in women's incomes.

PROJECT EXPERIENCE

The issues involved in resource conservation in marginal areas of Africa are, therefore, extremely complex - expressing the interaction between natural resources, economic pressures, different forms of tenure, and differentiated rights and duties, all of which are subject to change. With some exceptions, the results of soil and water conservation projects carried out since 1960 have been disappointing. There were two major problems. First, "beneficiaries" did not, or did not adequately, maintain the conservation works, which were sometimes constructed at great cost. Second, land users did not adopt the project inspired conservation techniques, which implied that at the end of a project all conservation activities came to a halt. Some reasons for failure are:

i. most approaches to soil and water conservation in the region have been of a top down nature, which means that conservation specialists (outsiders) determine the techniques to be applied, the modalities of implementation and the areas needing treatment;

ii. an emphases on an engineering approach to soil and water conservation, leading to the introduction of techniques of considerable engineering complexity (e.g. graded channel terraces), implying the effective exclusion of land users from processes in which they should feel fully involved;

iii. the introduction of inappropriate techniques: in semi-arid regions of Burkina Faso and Niger, it took well over a decade before the shift was made from soil conservation and in-situ moisture conservation techniques to water harvesting techniques;

iv. due to an uncritical use of food-for-work as an incentive, land users may closely associate soil and water conservation with the distribution of food aid. In many cases, land users now refuse to implement conservation activities unless they know that food aid will be distributed. In such instances, the incentive (food-for-work) effectively acts as a disincentive;

v. training of land users in simple techniques of land survey, in principles of construction and in a number of complementary measures has been neglected, which prolongs their dependence on outsiders and reduces their ability to adopt conservation techniques;

vi. the unit of analysis and project design has often been the natural catchment. But the priority of land users may be the treatment of their own cultivated plots. The catchment area is in most instances not perceived as the logical unit of management and decision making. Catchment based project design tends to emphasize technical parameters and first world' methods, such as remote sensing and land evaluation;

vii. projects have too often emphasized the long-term benefits of soil conservation and the interest of future generations. These arguments are unlikely to be convincing to land users facing food shortages. Inadequate attention has been given to the short term benefits (i.e., yield increases) of soil and water conservation;

viii. different donor organizations favor different conservation techniques, different approaches to land users, different funding philosophies and different procedures for project planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting. This situation complicates organization and management of the programs at the level of the ministries involved. Different modalities of implementation cause friction and competition between projects at field level.

Land users can make the transition to more intensive production with appropriate resource conservation; but they need an appropriate policy environment; a suitable framework of local institutions; and external support (at the national and international levels). This external support can help them to accelerate the transition to sustainable, increased production. It can also help to minimize hardship and reduce land degradation while the transition takes place. Although soil and water conservation has already been the subject of numerous aid programs in sub-Saharan Africa, it is clear that much of this aid has been misdirected.

Inappropriate technical methods have been employed, with inadequate attention to indigenous conservation practices. Local socio-economic realities have not always been appreciated by project designers; extension and incentives approaches have rarely resulted in optimum participation by the affected land users. Despite the investments already made, land degradation continues to accelerate, drawing rural incomes downwards with it into a tightening spiral of poverty.

There is therefore an urgent need for stronger support to the rural people of sub- Saharan Africa as they struggle to maintain agricultural productivity by combating land degradation. But this support must take into account the lessons offered by experience in the sector to date.

A principal reason for most project conservation work to date being so short lived is that land users have either been ignored or instructed, rather than being consulted or trained. They usually responded with indifference, incomprehension or hostility. Lasting success is more likely when soil and water conservation methods are identified, tested at farm level and evaluated in partnership with farmers.

Perhaps the only discrete, relatively large scale investment assistance program focusing exclusively on resource conservation and income generation among the marginal rural poor in Africa is IFAD's Special Program for Sub-Saharan African Countries Affected by Drought and Desertification (SPA), which has entered its second phase. The first phase (SPA - I) had two objectives. The first was to help restore the productive capability of smallholders, including rehabilitation of services and infrastructure in the wake of problems arising from drought and economic dislocation. The mechanism for pursuing this first objective was to be quick disbursing program-loan type operations. The second objective involved long-term improvement, i.e., helping to build greater drought resilience to drought and environmental stress at the farm level. this involved a combination of activities, including: (i) better utilization of water resources (small scale water control schemes); (ii) improved water conservation (e.g., improved retention in soil); (iii) soil conservation and agro-forestry, (iv) promotion of traditional drought resistant crops; and (v) institutional and policy development in support of these on-farm measures. The later emergence of new schemes for rapid balance-of-payments relief to countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (e.g., the World Bank's SPA and IMF's ESAF) enabled IFAD's SPA to concentrate on the second set of objectives. Under SPA I, IFAD supported 32 projects (with a total value of approximately USD 520 million) in 22 countries between 1986 and 1992 - in addition to investments under its Regular Program.

The second phase of SPA preserves the focus of the first phase, while extending its conceptual frame and operational scope. Specifically, it carries environmental and soil conservation objectives from on-farm to off-farm (particularly in the common property resource domain); and it addresses overall coping strategies of households and communities through economic diversification. Finally it seek to be sensitive to the total complex of factors contributing to drought vulnerability (including infrastructure and institutional development), and to provide a systematic programming response involving concrete targets in priority areas.

Since IFAD's first soil and water conservation policy review stressed the issue, a consensus has emerged on the role and importance of land users' participation in soil and water conservation. Although there is agreement at the policy level on the issue of participation, little or nothing appears to have changed at project level. Conservation specialists continue to determine which technical package will be introduced and what the modalities of implementation will be. Despite rhetoric about and lip service to participation, land users' priorities and perceptions are largely unknown and continue to be ignored.

Whether land users are able and willing to engage in soil and water conservation depends on a range of often interrelated aspects, such as incentives, land tenure, labor availability, the selection of techniques, training opportunities, the impact of conservation techniques on yields, crop prices and the economic position of the land users. Several aspects mentioned here will be analyzed in more detail.

Labor Availability

Conservation project planners often overestimate the availability of labor for the construction of anti-erosion or water harvesting works. They sometimes assume that labor is almost freely available during the dry season, as there seem to be few or no alternative employment opportunities in that period. However, in most cases this is not true. In many regions, the young men are absent during the dry season and mostly women, children and old men remain behind. The young men who stay can be involved in a range of activities varying from trade in cereals to off farm employment. Important and time-demanding social activities, such as funerals and marriages, are often postponed to the dry season. Availability of labor is therefore often a major constraint to the implementation of large scale soil and water conservation measures. Smaller scale conservation activities suffer fewer labor constraints. design of the IFAD funded agroforestry program in Senegal took labor constraints into account, but they have nevertheless continued to hinder farmer participation in the activities proposed. Ultimately, land users' preferences for specific techniques depend on a large number of elements, including labor requirements for construction, but also labor requirements for maintenance.

If labor can be a constraint in the dry season, it can be an even greater problem during the rainy season. Projects planning the planting of vegetative barriers have to take into account the fact that the planting of perennial grasses by splits in the beginning of the rainy season coincides with a peak in labor input for agricultural activities (land preparation, sowing and a first round of weeding).

The Role of Incentives

Many conservation activities require a major labor input. This is the case in projects involved in construction of conservation works as well as in projects promoting the planting of vegetative barriers. As voluntary participation has been difficult to achieve, conservation planners have been quick to compromise and pay villagers for soil conservation labor with food or with a combination of food and cash. In this way, bottlenecks in motivation can be bypassed and physical targets achieved. Indeed, it is sometimes argued that conditions are so severe that an element of relief assistance is justifiable in soil conservation projects: that the people who have not migrated cannot survive without subsidy while they conserve rapidly eroding land resources. But practice shows that if land users are given any form of payment by government to conserve their land and water, they tend to assume that government will also be responsible for maintenance of what has been constructed, either by paying them or by undertaking maintenance itself. They regard themselves as labourers rather than as participants. Rural people may even come to expect that when conservation activities are introduced in their area, they will be accompanied by food payments. Governments may thus be rendered dependent on sources of food aid - usually external - if conservation activities are to be extended. Farmers may otherwise refuse to contribute their labor.

These arguments do not mean that the use of incentives or subsidies for soil and water conservation should be wholly discarded. Erosion can cause substantial off-farm and downstream damage (for example, siltation of reservoirs in valleys and lowlands, damage to irrigation systems) and this can be a justification for subsidizing on-farm prevention of such costs. Intricate terracing systems can be found in several African mountain regions. These terracing systems, which have been built over several centuries, are now increasingly abandoned. This leads to their collapse. In certain cases, economic justification may exist for a subsidy for the repair of terraces. This would help prevent irreversible damage to such systems, which represent a considerable investment. In other cases, where conservation work relates to maintenance or creation of public assets (such as drainage from roads or rehabilitation of badly degraded public lands), there will be a clearer rationale for using direct or indirect incentives.

A useful distinction in deciding on the use of incentives is that between conservation by individual land users on their own lands, and conservation activities collectively undertaken by villagers on communal land. In the case of individually used land, farmers could be supported with training - which can act as a stimulus in itself - and small equipment in order to improve the quality of their work and to facilitate as well as accelerate the rate of construction. The conservation activities carried out by individual land users on their own fields should lead to short term yield increases. Provision of inputs such as seed and inorganic fertilizer to enhance these first season benefits may be a justifiable incentive, subject to analysis of local farm budgets to assess the longer term feasibility of any innovations included in the incentives package. Where there are significant yield increases, clearly sustainable with the farmer's own resources, these can act as an important incentive to continue the conservation activities. In case of collective conservation of communal land, food aid could be provided in years of serious food shortages (e.g., through village cereal banks), while in years of food self sufficiency, food aid could be replaced by other incentives in the form of community infrastructure, e.g. a well or a village health clinic, or in the form of tools, fertilizers etc.

The Role of Women

In many rural areas, women constitute well over 50% of the adult population, as men have migrated to urban centers, commercial plantations and mining areas. An increasing number of rural households are managed by females. Male labor migration is also shifting more of the responsibility for natural resource management to women. Not surprisingly, women often play a major role in the construction of conservation works.

With dwindling amounts of male labor available, women's growing contribution to soil and water conservation activities tends to increase their already heavy workload. But recent analysis of women in desertification control activities in the West African Sahel have shown that although they play a major role in these activities, they derive only limited benefits from them. So the extent to which women benefit from soil and water conservation must be assessed in program design, and the constraints to their participation addressed. Benefits may include: (1) the construction of conservation works on private fields of women or on fields belonging to women's groups (enhancing production over which women have direct control); (2) yield increases resulting from soil and water conservation activities on family fields; (3) the improvement of skills as a result of training provided by projects; (4) shorter distances to cultivated lands, if those near the villages can be rehabilitated and travel to ever more distant fields obviated; (5) shorter distances to firewood, where rehabilitation programs include successful plantings near villages.

The important contribution by women in soil and water conservation activities is usually recognized by the various agencies involved. But women are allocated the simplest and most physically demanding jobs. They do not get adequate access to training in land survey techniques and in principles of land husbandry. Tools and means of transport (e.g. donkey carts) that can be used to alleviate their workload are often allocated with priority to men, and monopolized by them. They do not easily get access to land they have rehabilitated or to trees they have planted and nurtured. The IFAD funded soil and water conservation programs in Burkina Faso and Niger have not yet been able to reverse this situation.

Practice shows that wherever women have trained in land survey techniques and in principles of bund construction, they perform as well as or better than men. Projects should therefore provide women with adequate access to training and material support, and help them to get access to land and trees. Project design should specifically acknowledge the constraints to women's participation and address these through such measures as appropriate timing of activities; sensitive extension and mobilization methods; and provision of tools and equipment to lighten the construction load. Although major cultural and practical obstacles have to be overcome in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the energy and skills of women as natural resource managers may be a decisive factor in the battle against land degradation.

The Poorest Groups

Unlike many parts of Asia, sub-Saharan Africa is not yet confronted with large numbers of rural landless. But in regions with high population densities and a contracting resource base, for instance Rwanda, Burundi and the Highlands of Ethiopia, numerous land users cultivate less than 1 ha. Under such conditions, soil and water conservation measures will only be accepted by these small-scale farmers if their planting or construction do not lead to a reduction in the size of the land they cultivate. Vegetative barriers can be productive in the sense that grasses, shrubs and trees are sources of fodder and other products, and terrace risers should be planted with fodder grasses. Very often the trenches in front of the terrace risers are planted with bananas and other perennials.

Like other rural development activities, soil and water conservation may in some circumstances increase economic differentiation between groups of land users. Although everybody can be trained to construct contour stone bunds or semi-circular hoops (demi- lunes) and everybody can dig improved traditional planting pits, the indications are that the relatively rich can do so more easily than the poor. The relatively rich have more land and labor; they can also more easily hire labor for the construction of conservation works on their fields, which channels some benefits back to the poorest. Although everybody benefits from these soil and water conservation techniques, some will benefit more than others. The challenge is to design interventions and techniques which not only raise production for the rural majority, but also give special recognition to the constraints surrounding the poorest groups.

A way to help the poor participate

The relatively poor land users in the Yatenga region of Burkina Faso do not always have the labor to construct contour stone bunds on their own fields, or they are hired to construct stone bunds on the fields of others. The Oxfam funded Agro-Forestry Project therefore decided to create food loans. These loans are managed by well organized village groups. The relatively poor members of the group can get a food loan, which allows them to organize a traditional work party on their fields. Those who help with the construction of stone bunds get food and drinks. The loan has to be reimbursed after the next harvest. Normally the yield increase should permit reimbursement.

Most soil and water conservation programs have little information about the socio- economic characteristics of land users benefitting from their activities, or of those who refuse to adopt the technical packages proposed. Therefore they are unable to take any remedial action and adjust the packages or the implementation arrangements. More research on the socio- economic aspects of soil and water conservation is urgently needed and should be integrated into regular project monitoring and evaluation. A sensible early step in program design and implementation is a detailed inventory of household resources in order to obtain its access profile to land, labor, food reserves, draft power, equipment, knowledge and skills, off-farm income, credit and so on. Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) techniques can facilitate this process.

Unit of Intervention

From a hydrological point of view, the catchment presents the rational and technically appropriate unit of intervention for soil and water conservation. Most soil and water conservation projects have been organized on this basis. The catchment may be large or small - it can be an entire river basin or merely a single small tributary valley. Governments and projects have conventionally based their activities on the integrated planning of land and water use for various sizes of catchments. However, this has led to two particular problems.

First, whatever the size of catchment, it is rarely perceived as the appropriate management unit by land users and village communities. Land users often consider their own fields as the starting point for conservation efforts without due consideration of their neighbours, leading to conspicuous differences in the field. Secondly, because the catchment is essentially an "artificial" unit, surveyed, mapped and planned by outsiders, it leads inevitably to the enforcement of the "top-down" approach. This bypasses local people's priorities and skills and leaves them as onlookers. Ways must be found of reducing the scale and redefining the unit of intervention to one with which land users are more familiar. Expansion can take place from this base.

Soil and water conservation projects which have concentrated on individual land users, and their privately managed crop land, have been more successful than those focusing on the inanimate catchment or watershed. When the appeal is to the individual and the benefits accrue directly to the land user, the picture changes dramatically.

Village Land Use Management

There needs to be a progression from individual fields to an integrated plan including conservation of communal land. However, rather than a strictly defined hydrological catchment or watershed as the physical basis for planning this expansion, the village boundary is the natural unit in much of Africa. This is where "village land use management" takes conservation a step further. It must be noted that in many parts of Africa such management of communal resources had been a tradition, although in some areas it has now disintegrated and in others it only remains in atrophied form.

Village land use management as a project planning concept has been emphasized by recent programs in the West African Sahel, where there are few or no remnants of traditional communal property management. In Burkina Faso, the number of programs involved has warranted a national coordination unit for village land use management ( the Programme National de Gestion des Terroirs), which was established in 1988. Village land use management attempts to address the problems of the whole village territory, but does so from the perspective of the villagers themselves, who are involved in land use planning and coordination of activities. The technical accent of village land use management is on the management of the communal resources of grazing land and firewood, in addition to conservation of privately cropped land.

A variation on the theme of village land use management has been proposed. This is "Gestion Conservatoire des Eaux et de la Fertilité des Sols" (GCEFS): loosely translated "the conservation management of water and soil fertility". It comprises an integrated development plan for village land, structured over a period of ten years or so. The components of the plan include the integration of livestock into the overall system, the use of manure on fields and the division of the countryside into management blocks. Although much of the technical content is not new, the involvement of the villagers in the structured planning and execution of the program is the essence of the innovative approach.

Local Institutions

True participation implies that land users are fully involved in the design of conservation packages and accept a major responsibility for their implementation. The necessary dialogue between conservation projects and land users is greatly facilitated where local institutions already exist. Such institutions can assist in mobilizing and organizing land users, managing equipment provided to support conservation activities and sanctioning those who do not respect locally established rules for communal property management.

But in many rural areas, it is hard to identify adequately functioning local institutions, be they government extension agencies or village groups. In a discussion on the decentralization of natural resource management in francophone West Africa, a participant remarked in some despair: "everybody talks incessantly about the need to transfer responsibilities for natural resource management to local institutions, but where are they?" In the short history to date of the IFAD funded agroforestry program in Senegal, the importance of village groups for the introduction of innovations has already been made clear. Much effort therefore goes into organizing and motivating them, but the process takes time.

It is great advantage when new programs can be based upon already functioning local institutions, such as government technical services and village groups. Where these do not exist, they have to be created or revitalized. This is a difficult and time consuming process. In such cases, a new conservation program will not produce many tangible results in the first few years. As in Senegal, the IFAD funded program in Guinea has had to recognize that an extended period of support and motivation will be needed before new village organizations are likely to become self sustaining. These delays may be hard for many donor agencies, national governments and the media to accept.

Training for Extension Staff

Adequate training for field staff must be an integral part of all soil and water conservation programs. Prior to this, the essential first step is training of trainers. Although formal agricultural training at colleges may include some soil and water conservation, this is often inadequate and needs to be reinforced by in-service training. Such courses can also help staff to keep abreast of developments: improvements to techniques as well as changing approaches, such as participatory land use planning.

Where there is already an established system of in-service training for agricultural extension staff, such as in Kenya (under the "training and visit system") it is relatively easy to introduce specific modules on soil and water conservation. These can be included at appropriate times of the year, for example in preparation for the annual soil conservation campaign which takes place after the harvest. The reorganization of the extension service in Lesotho under the IFAD funded SWaCAP program specifically includes five modules for in- service training of staff, of which conservation farming is one. Monthly workshops are also proposed for extension staff at the newly established Resource Centers.

A relatively innovative concept is for area based programs to organize training for the staff of other projects, and government services, working in the same area. One advantage is that it helps to standardize techniques and approaches among development organizations working in the same area. This is the approach adopted by the GTZ funded PATECORE project in Burkina Faso, which has established training facilities at the project headquarters, and offers training both in techniques, such as permeable rock dams, and in aspects of village land use management. The IFAD funded SWaCAP program in Lesotho, which only covers some districts directly, has recently agreed with Government and other projects an integrated approach to extension refresher courses throughout the country.

Training of Land Users

Land users normally have a much better knowledge of their environment than outsiders. They adapt their land use practices to changing conditions and they experiment with crop varieties and mixtures. In the past, changes such as population growth were slow. Land users had time gradually to adapt their farming practices. During the last three decades, the pace of change has accelerated. Local economies have been integrated more strongly into international systems. Population growth rates have increased. Indigenous farming systems and conservation practices have come under increasing pressure and need to be improved. Land users now have less time to adapt to changes. The injection of new knowledge and skills is necessary for survival.

Training of land users is a precondition for sustained efforts in the sector. In order to achieve replicability, conservation must be done by land users themselves. While a valuable foundation often exists in indigenous knowledge, this must be built upon with enhancements and innovations,k through training. Training in land survey techniques should be a sore element in many farmer training programs. Here, planning for the new IFAD funded program in Cape Verde appears to have missed an opportunity. It is proposed to use survey instruments for levelling terraces, instead of training farmers to do the job themselves.

Five years ago, training of land users was, with some exceptions, almost entirely neglected in francophone West Africa. The situation has now improved somewhat, but there is still a long way to go. One of the lessons learnt is that training at village level is more efficient than training in so-called farmer training centers. Maximum impact can be obtained when training is accessible to a larger number of villagers and not only to a selected few. Another important lesson is that direct exchange of on-farm experience between land users is more efficient in getting the message than any presentation by outsiders, such as extension agents and conservation specialists.

In Kenya, training of staff and land users is an integral part of the Swedish funded soil and water conservation program. By 1989 about 300,000 small scale farmers had been trained during soil conservation field days and nearly twice that number had been reached with soil conservation messages through the existing National Extension Program. Out of two million farms requiring conservation measures, about 800,000 farms are now fairly well conserved.

Practice shows that land users quickly master simple land survey techniques (water tube level, line level, etc.), which enable them to undertake soil and water conservation without having to wait for the arrival of a survey team equipped with a theodolite. Other elements of a training program can include principles of bund or terrace construction, management of village nurseries, the production of compost, village level conservation planning and ox training. On- farm trials also offer good possibilities for training in appropriate, simple research techniques. At the same time, they offer an excellent opportunity for program staff to listen to farmers' comments and learn about their farming systems.

Training for and by farmers:

Niger and Burkina Faso

The IFAD funded soil and water conservation program in Niger's Illela District has sent a group of land users to the Yatenga region in Burkina Faso to look at contour stone bunding and planting pits (zai). This has influenced the re-introduction of traditional planting pits (tassa) in the Illela District.

Land users in the Yatenga region have the impression that they are working in a most difficult environment. They are proud of their success in rehabilitating degraded fields with stone bunds and planting pits. In 1989, the OXFAM-funded Agro-Forestry Project organized a field visit to the Djenne-Sofara region and the Dogon Plateau in Mali. In the Djenne-Sofara region, the people from Yatenga saw several spatial arrangements of planting pits which were new to them. On the Dogon Plateau they met land users working in an even harsher environment and creating new fields on bare rock. A group of Dogon are to pay a return visit to Yatenga.

The PATECORE project in Burkina Faso has trained land users in the interpretation of aerial photographs (scale 1:10,000). Land users can now use aerial photographs to delimit the village boundaries, to identify suitable sites for the construction of permeable rock dams and to plan other interventions based on present land use.

ELEMENTS OF STRATEGY

Fundamentally, there are two policy perceptions of how to support land users in combating land degradation. Much policy and program design fails to distinguish them clearly. On the one hand, it is commonly assumed that land degradation is a discrete problem which can be tackled once and resolved. After this one time effort, the need for an often ill defined "routine" package of extension support to land users may be recognized. But the emphasis is on area by area "treatment" of degraded or threatened regions, until the whole country has been covered and the problem is under control.

Alternatively, support to land husbandry may be provide through a flexible package of extension inputs and conservation measures which, in appropriate combination from region to regional, permit land users to regain, maintain or enhance productivity while conserving natural resources. This is a longer term approach which, while allowing for the area by area introduction of innovations, assumes that conservation oriented extension support is an open ended process.

Most development thinking is too narrowly confined by the project as unit of design and analysis. While discrete interventions are normally necessary, it is important to plan for their integration into routine activities by land users and governments and not to erect barriers around project areas or staff cadres. With this emphasis, it is possible to think more critically about levels of external input and about the scale and duration of programs.

This paper deliberately refers to "programs" rather than "projects" because of the connotations the latter term has acquired. Common perception of "projects" stresses finite duration (typically five years or less); a restricted set of activities or inputs; segregation from government institutions; and little emphasis on what happens afterwards (except that another project is likely to follow). Programs imply an extended duration and may therefore offer a better prospect of integration with the long term content of national extension services.

The Long Term Perspective: Replicability

To translate national strategy into sustainable activity, replicability must be recognized as the single most important criterion in the design of soil and water conservation programs. Replicable conservation techniques are those which land users continue to apply themselves with no or minimal external support. The issue of replicability is now receiving increased attention, but until a few years ago it rarely figured as a design issue.

One of the great weaknesses of project inspired soil and water conservation activities in sub-Saharan Africa is that the majority come to a grinding halt as soon as external project funding is withdrawn. This may be because inappropriate techniques have been used; because of institutional failings at local or government level; or because government cannot meet the recurrent costs. Little attention has been paid by conservation specialists to the capacities of governments to continue implementing conservation activities without external funds. Nor have specialists adequately considered the capacity and willingness of African land users to adopt conservation packages. The reality is that some projects are not interested in replicability. They come in with a number of experts, machinery, blanket solutions, clearly defined targets to be attained within a specified number of years, and plenty of food for work. This type of project is almost bound to fail.

Deliberate efforts should be made to design conservation packages so that their potential for adoption by land users, with no or minimal external support, is optimized. For this to be achieved, conservation techniques should conform to the characteristics set out below:

i. soil and water conservation techniques should be low cost;

ii. soil and water conservation techniques should lead to significant short-term, sustainable yield increases;

iii. soil and water conservation techniques should be relatively simple;

iv. labor requirements for construction and maintenance should be as low as possible;

v. soil and water conservation techniques should where possible build on indigenous practices with which land users are already familiar, rather than introduce new technical packages;

vi. soil and water conservation techniques should be tailored to the specific situation.

Local Knowledge as the Foundation

The soil and water conservation strategies of governments and aid agencies must be grounded in the environmental knowledge, agricultural skills, economic context and local institutions of the affected rural people. Deviation from this guiding principle is likely to diminish participation, increase costs, cut replicability and reduce the cost effectiveness of conservation programs.

This means that such programs must be designed in close consultation with rural resource users. In 1991, after some years of international emphasis on popular participation and the value of indigenous environmental knowledge, this recommendation may sound like a truism. In fact, there is more lip service to these concepts than effective field commitment. Interventions in the resource conservation sector, if they are to be designed in real partnership with resource users, must be planned and researched over extended periods in rural areas. Careful design attention should also be given to the past and existing experience of other projects and organizations. Current design arrangements, as will be noted below, rarely allow for these detailed investigations. The proposed improvements to the design process have cost implications. These should be balanced by streamlining other components of the lengthy design chain and reducing their cost.

Collaboration Among Organizations

Increasing concern with environmental issues and commensurate growth in interest in soil and water conservation are now leading to interventions in this field by a multitude of donors and agencies. Quite often there is no arrangement for coordination between such institutions. Moreover, the governments concerned are in most cases not adequately equipped to ensure such coordination. Differences in strategies, approaches and even technical methods may lead to duplication of effort and confusion or resentment on the part of land users. Within their overall strategies and national plans for resource conservation, the governments concerned should devise specific arrangements and establish a harmonious framework within which the various donors should operate.

It would be mistaken to expect that this task of coordination could be assumed effectively by any single donor. Instead, donors should assist government in the creation of functional national capacity for sector-wide coordination. It is highly desirable that one major donor, or a small group of donors, assume responsibility for assisting the government in this area, in close consultation with all other donor. Donors themselves should adopt coordination as a major principle in their programs of assistance. As part of its support to soil and water conservation in Lesotho, the IFAD funded SWaCAP program has promoted the establishment of a Conservation Task Force for this purpose and has funded a study on the coordination of conservation policies.

Government programs should acknowledge the presence, and the potential, of non governmental organizations (NGOs), which often have comparative advantages in contact with resource users at local level. There is much to be gained by collaboration with such organizations.

Both in program design and in execution, NGOs can make a valuable contribution. Recent technical innovations in soil and water conservation in the West African Sahel (contour stone bunding and level permeable rock dams) are to be credited to volunteer staff working for NGOs and not to conservation experts or researchers. NGOs' local insights and links with local institutions may offer important advantages. Their administrative procedures may be simpler and their overheads lower, all of which may mean a more direct impact on a larger number of land users. Governments and NGOs therefore need to coordinate their activities more closely. International agencies, some of which have indicated an interest in working with NGOs, should try harder to make this commitment operational. However, collaboration with NGOs does not offer a panacea. Their capacity to implement conservation programs should not be overestimated. Where tasks are allocated to NGOs, commensurate assistance to increase their capacity should also be provided.

Slow Starts and Flexibility

Appropriate conservation program strategy normally requires a slow and modest start to execution. However extended and thorough the design process, many things will change when implementation starts. Design assumptions about the fielding of international staff, the allocation of local personnel and the acquisition of vehicles and buildings are normally too optimistic. More significantly, conservation programs must have time built into them for learning from design errors and early mistakes in execution. Further time will also be needed for additional consultation with land users on technical and institutional matters. Indeed, there may be viewed as a necessary virtue in program execution. This means that governments and funding agencies must be prepared for major interim reviews during which program content and budget are reexamined. Such adjustments should not always be deferred, or restricted, to a mid-term review.

In the midst of this complexity, there is also an appropriate sense of urgency about achieving progress on the ground. This is quite often translated into actions aimed at expediting projects' or programs' physical establishment in the field, at the cost of focus on the technical content of a program; its monitoring and evaluation; and, above all, the response of rural people to the support it proposes.

NEW DIRECTIONS IN SYSTEMATIC INFORMATION COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS FOR DESERTIFICATION CONTROL

Presented by : Mr. W. Franklin Cardy, Deputy Assistant Executive Director, Desertification Control Programme Activities Centre (DC/PAC), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

INTRODUCTION

The topics assigned for this paper cover the systematic collection and analysis of a wide range of data ranging from soils to economics, in so far as they relate to desertification control. The paper mainly addresses new ideas and directions, rather than the technical details of the information business. Nevertheless, it should be emphasised at the outset that a rigorous approach to systematic information collection and analysis is necessary, broadly separating data acquisition and information management.

There are at least five main stages of information processing: (1) the determination of what information is required; (2) the acquisition and quality control of data; (3) the analysis of that data to turn it into "information"; (4) the management of that information - using it to respond to the specific needs; and finally (5) dissemination of the information.

The first of these is critical to minimise costs of data acquisition: i.e. define the question to be answered. Acquisition and quality control have to be very carefully carried out if the subsequent analysis is not to be positively misleading. The analysis and handling of the data turns it into the required information so that it can be used for decision making. In complicated multi- sectoral problems, it is likely that it will then have to be managed in the sense of combining data and information from several sources and scales to reach a decision. Finally in most cases the information supporting the decision may be made accessible at some location and perhaps disseminated widely. This might be on paper, electronically, verbally, or through demonstrations ranging from exhibitions to field projects.

There are several related areas in which various types of information are needed for successfully combating desertification. UNEP has been at the forefront in developing methodologies for data collection and analysis related to desertification.

The types of information that are needed can broadly be divided into the following categories:

i. the ecological, social and economic indicators of desertification;

ii. successful local level methodologies and technologies for combating desertification;

iii. the economic and social costs of desertification and the projected socio-economic results of programmes and projects designed to introduce sustainable development;

iv. indicators for early warning systems;

v. methods for the efficient dissemination and application of information collected and analysis;

vi. indicators for a monitoring and evaluation system for tracking implementation of the Convention's provisions.

ECOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Ecological Indicators

In 1984, FAO and UNEP produced a Provisional Methodology to collect and analyse data on the ecological processes associated with desertification, including pressure exerted by human actions and livestock. Versions of this have been tested in pilot projects in Kenya, Mali, Mongolia and parts of the former USSR. The results showed that the methodology can successfully monitor and assess desertification but application of the Provisional Methodology at more than local levels is very expensive because the specialized procedures of field data collection are costly and time-consuming to carry out over large areas.

Because of its complex nature desertification requires detailed ground-level study but at the same time it is so extensive that national, regional and global monitoring measures are required. At present, satellite imagery is capable of measuring at an approximate accuracy basically five indicators related to desertification: (1) vegetation cover, (2) ground surface albedo (highly correlated with vegetation cover), (3) large-scale soil erosion features and sand dune movements, (4) ground surface roughness and (5) green biomass production. Soil and vegetation quality, degree and some types of erosion, and salinity levels cannot now be measured with the degree of accuracy needed to monitor and assess desertification.

There is thus a paradox. A methodology exists that can monitor and assess desertification, but it is too costly to use over large areas. To remain economically feasible, as area increases, less ground work can be done, forcing reliance on remotely sensed data, which currently are not capable of monitoring and assessing some of the indicators needed.

To overcome this problem new directions in monitoring and assessing desertification necessarily involve the following:

i. sampling strategies that will allow using the minimum area required for monitoring larger areas;

ii. methods for extrapolating from small areas where detailed studies have been made to larger areas;

iii. the development of mathematical and conceptual models of desertification processes;

iv. the testing of the models against hard data to prove their validity;

v. the development of methodologies and technologies to improve data obtained from remote sensing platforms;

vi. the provision of relevant sensor and data specifications to those nations that are developing new remote sensing platforms; and

vii. the development of methods by which complexes of desertification indicators can be combined and mapped utilising GIS technologies to provide meaningful information.

Several large scale programmes under way or recently concluded aim to monitor desertification using remotely sensed data and the analysis of satellite imagery and aerial photographs. These programmes have to be evaluated and compared with the pilot projects utilising the Provisional Methodology, and other detailed remote sensing studies. The overall goal is to identify and agree upon cost effective methodologies involving different mixes of ground and remotely sensed information collection appropriate to various geographic scales and end-uses.

Another problem to overcome is access to remotely sensed data in developing countries. There are few satellite imagery receiving stations and selecting appropriate imagery requires considerable technical capability, time and expense.

Information collection and analysis activities being carried out in connection with the Plan of Action for the Implementation of the World Soils Policy are also relevant. Updating and promoting implementation of the methodology for compilation of the World Soils and Terrain (SOTER) database will continue. The main new directions will include the interpretation of human-induced land degradation based on the SOTER database. This will include development of methodologies to assess status, rate and risk of soil degradation and other desertification processes. In addition, studies relating to soil carbon management and appropriate land use practices to optimize carbon sequestration will be undertaken. The use of halophytes (salt tolerant plants) for soil erosion reduction, livestock feed and carbon sequestration will also be carried out.

Social Indicators

In the context of the 1990 World Summit for Children, UNICEF has been developing a monitoring and evaluation system to apply to the Child Goals for the Year 2000 at both the global and national levels. Many of the social indicators used to measure progress towards achieving the goals have relevance in the context of monitoring and evaluating the impacts of desertification. For example, Madagascar has taken steps to integrate the goals and indicators of their Child Goals for the Year 2000 and their National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP). Madagascar's integrated monitoring and evaluation system should present a major new direction in information collection and analysis. It recognizes the fundamental interrelationships of the natural environment with the human socio-economic condition.

Indicators include forest cover, rates of deforestation and soil erosion and sediment discharge at river mouths, levels of child and female mortality, nutritional status, education status, clean water availability, aspects of agricultural production and income levels, plus many more. The system will look at what is happening in both the environmental and socio-economic domains and analyse their interrelations as they mutually influence each other. The system can be strengthened by employing some of the economic indicators used in the UNDP Human Development Report. Sustainable development cannot be achieved with populations that are unhealthy and poorly educated. Nor are they likely to remain healthy if land productivity is declining.

Economic Indicators

Very little attention has been devoted to developing economic indicators of desertification. A possible new direction in this area would be adapting the methodology employed in social benefit-cost analysis (SBCA) to monitoring economic aspects of desertification. SBCA traditionally is used to assess whether a proposed project will result in a net benefit both socially and financially to society as a whole. Rather than evaluate a hypothetical situation, SBCA could be applied to an actual community or regional situation to assess the economic status of the target population. Comparisons of the status at points over time could be a method for monitoring and assessing the economic impacts of desertification. A method for integrating the desertification cost components would have to be developed, and this could be a very valuable new direction.

In conjunction with monitoring and assessing the socio-economic status of populations living in desertification prone areas, some method must be developed for assessing whether sustainable development is occurring. An improving socio-economic situation based on the depletion and degradation of natural resources will prove ephemeral. Indicators for sustainable development must also therefore be devised, and these will be some form of integrated ecological, social and economic indicators.

Quality Control

Data collected and analysed will only be usefully applied, and have the desired results if it is accurate. Quality control methodologies on data and information collected related to ecological, social and economic indicators of desertification have not yet been perfected. This complex area of paramount importance is still in the research stage, but it is necessary to develop and apply these methodologies.

Prioritization

Because monitoring and assessment is so costly, and because such large amounts of data may be produced that need to be treated and stored, countries should determine the geographic areas that in their view are top priority for desertification control actions. It makes little sense to monitor areas where land production possibilities are not and will not for the foreseeable future be realized and where degradation, even if severe, has few serious consequences in comparison with other areas.

In this regard, international programmes to monitor and assess desertification at regional and global levels should select their sample areas with care after consultation with governments. Too often, low priority areas are selected because good satellite imagery is available, the workers have past experience in the area, or some other reason related to convenience rather than to effective application of the results.

Research

Information on how land-use and management practices interrelate with climatic and biotic variations over time is of crucial importance not only in monitoring desertification, but also in determining the causes of desertification and for estimating what will happen in future. Information relating to climate change and biodiversity conservation is highly relevant to desertification. Further work is needed to resolve many of the controversies surrounding the understanding of what desertification is, and what it is not. A historical perspective, which can only be found in the geological and archaeological record, will be required to achieve valid results. Pollen analysis, geomorphology and geochemistry can reconstruct past climate, while archaeology and palaeotology can tell us something of past land use practices and demography.

An important new direction over the next decade will be filling gaps in knowledge in the socio-economic sphere. The Desertification Control Programme Activity Centre (DC/PAC) of UNEP is planning workshops on the social and economic causes and impacts of desertification and by sponsoring a study by the United Nations Research Institute on Social Development to compile a comprehensive bibliography of publications and reports relating to the social aspects of desertification. DC/PAC plans to continue, in collaboration with many partners, the search for social and economic solutions to the problem of desertification.

SUCCESSFUL LOCAL LEVEL APPROACHES

Although much has been heard about past failures in desertification control there have also been successes which are less well known. DC/PAC has begun a broadly based programme of collecting information on activities and projects that are considered as being successes from around the world. Once the information has been collected and analysed, an evaluation process will be carried out to select the valid cases and a database will be created for access by anyone via computer, diskette or hard copy. The results will be disseminated in various formats to achieve the most widespread dissemination possible.

The study of indigenous knowledge systems, including the management of common property resources, should in future compose an important new input to the formulation of desertification control strategies and specific management plans. This was proposed in 1977, but little was done until recently. Detailed studies have shown that land use practices initially thought to be irrational and unsustainable were just the opposite when factors related to risk, environmental variability and the equitable distribution of resources were considered. Much remains to be done to transform newly acquired information on indigenous knowledge systems into planning and management applications.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COSTS OF DESERTIFICATION

Desertification is a global problem that puts up to 900 million people and about 100 countries at risk, developed and developing alike. We know the income lost is enormous but this is difficult to quantify. Methods for measuring and quantifying the costs are under development, but still need to be applied.

Promoting sustainable development through integrating environmental concerns with mainstream socio-economic policies and programmes is a principal goal for the future. A new attempt to achieve this is the application of environmental and resource accounting (ERA), which attempts to incorporate resource depletion and degradation into conventional accounts. This modified system of accounting can measure environmentally sound and sustainable economic growth.

The current System of National Accounts (SNA), which uses such standard measures of economic growth as gross national product (GNP) and gross domestic product (GDP), does not adequately reflect the depletion and degradation of natural resources. The United Nations is therefore developing a new methodology for analyzing socio-economic, environmental and natural resource information that will initially supplement the SNA, and perhaps eventually replace it.

The immediate objective of SEEA is to provide a conceptual basis for implementing a SNA satellite accounting system which describes the interrelationships between the natural environment and the economy. SEEA can therefore be used in costing the negative effects of desertification, but there is still work to be done on producing a widely accepted methodology.

A methodology for determining and prioritizing the information needs of an ERA system should be developed. The approach to ERA adopted depends on the natural resources to be accounted for and the particular information needs. The first step is thus to identify for which environmental assets information is required. The second step is to decide what information is required about the selected vital assets. This two step process will assist in ensuring that ERA methods meet real and important needs and do not result in the generation and compilation of unused data - a luxury developing countries cannot afford.

In the field of desertification, many of the vital assets have already been defined by the Provisional Methodology for monitoring and assessing desertification. These are soil type and quality, vegetation cover and quality, and livestock distribution and densities. Other obvious assets are crops. There can thus be a link between collecting information related to physical indicators of desertification and ERA. Developing this integrated methodology should be a major challenge and new direction for the 1990s. UNEP, in co-operation with the U.N. Statistical Office and other organizations, is sponsoring workshops to discuss and monitor experiments by governments and research institutes that are attempting ERA and SEEA applications.

To determine and evaluate the cost-benefit ratio of different approaches and interventions at the field level to halt desertification, rehabilitate degraded land, and promote sustainable development the methods of environmental impact assessment (EIA) and cost- benefit analysis (CBA) are employed. These tools have undergone extensive methodological advances over the past two decades. However, two main challenges remain:

i. EIA and CBA still need to be fully integrated into socio-economic development programmes and policies and project planning, and

ii. EIA and CBA must shift from their present narrow emphasis on the minimization of environmental degradation to the broader issue of environmentally sustainable development.

New directions therefore involve developing methodologies that are accepted by governments and donors and that incorporate the sustainability aspect in EIA and CBA applications.

EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS

In the drylands, we cannot predict when a drought will occur, but we can predict that one will occur. Early warning systems depend on timely information to function properly.

There are many early warning systems in operation and the methodologies of both local, ground level systems and remote sensing systems are well developed. The Kenya system, developed in West Turkana, is a good example of the former and the USAID FEWS is an example of the latter. Early warning systems need to be introduced more widely where they are needed. The problem today is not the development of methodologies, it is in their application.

It is also necessary to ensure that an adequate response occurs even when a warning has been given. Somalia is a good example of what should not be repeated. Warnings were given by the United Nations and NGOs about famine in Somalia two years before an adequate response was forthcoming. By that time, an estimated 300,000 people were already condemned to death by starvation and disease. Ways must be found to set up effective political and institutional responses to the warnings that indicates famine is approaching.

METHODS FOR COLLECTING AND ANALYZING DATA

Vertical Integration

Data and information are collected at different levels: local community, district, provincial and national. National data are collated into regional and global reports, when enough exist. Much work remains to be done to integrate vertically the flow and feed-back mechanisms through these different levels, and to target data that are really useful. Enormous quantities of data are collected that are never used. A way to determine needed data and information is to set up quantifiable goals and indicators as part of global, national and sub-national programmes. In this way the data needed are defined by the monitoring and evaluation system designed to track progress towards the goals. For example, at the national level a goal might be to plant multi-purpose tree and shrub species on one million hectares of degraded land by the year 2000. The indicator would be area planted and the data might be collected first by district and then collated at the national level. A new direction in this area would be to set out specific goals in the field of desertification control to reach by a certain date. One of the flaws of the PACD is the lack of specific, quantifiable goals.

Horizontal Integration

In most cases data are collected and analysed sectorially. There are good reasons for this, as normally the most efficient response to the data collected is also done sectorially. This is true particularly in the social domain, in which health, including sanitation and nutrition, education, culture and sports, etc. are handled by specific ministries. For this reason, there will always remain a need for sectorial data collecting and analysis. However, it is becoming increasingly debatable whether sectorial databases are needed.

For complex issues such as desertification, multi-sectoral data are required to assess and respond effectively to perceived problems. The most efficient type of information retrieval system, therefore, would be a "one-stop shop" type of database that contained all of the geographic and environmental information required in compatible format, i.e. an environmental information system (EIS). A GIS data storage, analysis and mapping capability, along with remote sensing treatment, are the components of an EIS. Sectoral interests could still access these EISs for their own needs, and even increase the effectiveness of information utilisation by making use of sophisticated GIS and image processing technologies and hardware that might not be available in their respective ministries.

In New Brunswick, Canada, for example, a Geographic Information Corporation was established in 1989 combining land surveys, property mapping, evaluation and registry functions using a common base which is also available for resource and environmental managers. The corporation operates at a profit and could form the nucleus for further aggregation of basic environmental data.

One problem to overcome in creating the above type of information system is the horizontal integration of information sharing between sectors, which has posed many political and economic problems as well as problems of harmonisation. An EIS encourages intersectoral co-operation and co-ordination for information collection, analysis and sharing of data and information at the national level.

Community Level

Community level systems should not be lost sight of in discussions involving sophisticated, complex national information management systems. The local level is where desertification must be stopped, and in large part where sustainable development will take place, particularly in developing countries. Information collection, analysis and feed-back at the community and local/district levels needs particular attention, and already NGO networks are very active in this area.

Local communities need information on appropriate agricultural techniques, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, tree, shrub and grass species for different uses, financial management tools, operation of credit schemes, etc. in order to improve their standard of living. At the same time, traditional technologies and management methods that are beneficial need to be identified so that the old can be integrated with the new to produce an optimal system that will result in environmentally sustainable development.

INFORMATION CENTRES AND NETWORKS

Once information is in useable form, it only justifies its cost to produce if it is put to good use. There is an enormous mass of information already available related to desertification, and more is being produced daily. DC/PAC, in collaboration with the Office of Arid Lands Studies (Arizona, U.S.A.), has begun a programme to establish databases and a computerized bibliography and reference system that deal with projects, activities, organizations, experts and technologies related to combating desertification. This Desertification Information System (DESIS) is open to all users who desire information. In addition, DC/PAC has started a programme to support establishment of regional networks for the exchange of information between research and training institutes and NGOs.

Networking should result in an increase in the production and dissemination of information that is actually desired and needed by a variety of users. Decision-makers, local government officials, scientists, field workers, community organizations, etc. that are participants in networks will create a demand-driven, rather than supply-driven, production of information. This information could then be channelled to such centralized localities as the DESIS system and the Environmental Information Centres being set up by GEMS/GRID in different parts of the world for further dissemination. Networking should also lead to the identification of gaps where information did not exist.

Research and Training Institutes

There are several national research and training institutes around the world that deal specifically with maintaining and increasing dryland productivity. They tend to be closely associated with national government interests, and most often are government sponsored. Although some attempts have been made to interact with local communities through extension activities, more emphasis is needed in developing ways in which research results on successful anti-desertification technologies are communicated in timely fashion to the grassroots level. The type of research conducted should also be geared towards both appropriate grassroots applications and the more hi-tech technologies carried out by government and big business interests. In all cases, care must be taken to combine environmental concerns with the technological methodologies.

Not all research institutes function adequately due to a lack of human and financial resources. Another question that needs attention is whether these institutes should be strengthened, and also should new institutes be established in countries where the chances of finding adequate resources are small. Almost every dryland country wants its own national institute devoted to desertification issues. Is this practical, given today's economic situation? Strong regional or sub-regional institutes might be more appropriate.

Monitoring and assessment can only be carried out adequately and produce valid results if there is well-trained and competant staff. Research and training institutes need to strengthen their human capacity-building efforts in this area, particularly if high-tech GIS and remote sensing methodologies are being used. Government and NGO staff also need to be trained in how to apply the outputs of these methodologies. There is no point in producing sophisticated satellite imageries, statistics and maps if there is no one capable of putting it to good use, nor if it is not actually needed by decision-makers and managers.

DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION

The dissemination of information is possible in a multitude of ways but is still a very imperfect business. Information prepared to strict scientific criteria may be difficult for a wider public to understand. It may have to be processed further to reach a wider audience. This is frequently done by the media, sometimes by technical writers and sometimes in the form of press releases which should be controllable for accuracy at the source.

There is a dynamic tension in this process between the desire to get the information out to as wide an audience as possible and the concern to ensure it does not get distorted or worse in the process. There is a natural tendency for information managers to guard their information closely; this has to be overcome if full use is to be made of the information. There is a stark contrast between the lack of information available in many developing countries' schools, and the wealth of information that is available in resource centres in the developed world. A major challenge for the future is to disseminate the information relating to desertification control to those who can really benefit from it. This has to be done in an appropriate way to match their capacity to receive it. This means being prepared to distribute the information using the simplest methods and formats and the most grass-roots organisations. Translation of format, language and content requires resources, commitment and effort but is a major area for future development which can bring much benefit.

CONCLUSIONS

The topics presented in this paper are not exhaustive, but are thought to represent the most important issues facing the international community in the years ahead. Specific recommendations made in this paper include:

i. Determine what information is really needed by which users for what specific purposes;

ii. Concentrate data collection on what is really required to increase efficiency and reduce the production of unused information;

iii. Develop improved physical, social and economic indicators to establish recognition of the fundamental interrelationships of the human socio-economic condition with the natural environment;

iv. Develop an acceptable standardized system of desertification assessment that combines technically appropriate mixes of ground and remote sensing methods;

v. Collect and integrate indigenous knowledge system information into development planning;

vi. Collect and disseminate information on successful anti-desertification approaches and technologies and their replicability in appropriate situations;

vii. Collect social and economic information required for measuring the costs of desertification and for evaluating the feasibility of alternative interventions that intend to establish sustainable development;

viii. Pay particular attention to information collection, analysis and feed-back at and to the community level;

ix. Encourage the aggregation of information at the national, regional and global levels;

x. Encourage the use of EISs that facilitate the co-ordination of data gathering and information applications;

xi. Promote sustainable development through integrating environmental concerns with mainstream socio-economic policies and programmes;

xii. Consider adapting the methodology employed in social benefit-cost analysis (SBCA) to monitoring economic aspects of desertification;

xiii. Shift the emphasis of Environmental Impact Assessment and Cost Benefit Analysis from their present narrow emphasis on the minimization of environmental degradation to the broader issue of environmentally sustainable development and integrate them more fully into the process of programme and project development;

xiv. Introduce Early Warning Systems more widely and ensure that provision is made for an adequate response when a warning has been given;

xv. Reinforce research institutes and information centre networks to provide improved coverage of desertification;

xvi. Set out specific goals in the field of desertification control to be reached by specific date; and

xvii. Disseminate information relating to desertification control to those who can really benefit from it in a format they can use.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Abaza, H. (Ed.) 1992. The Present State of Environmental and Resource Accounting and its Potential Application in Developing Countries. Environmental Economic Series Paper No. 1. Nairobi:UNEP.

This publication contains a good summary of the issues involved

in SNA, SEEA, ERA, EIA and CBA and a bibliography.

2. Dixon, J., D. James and P. Sherman. 1989. The Economics of

Dryland Management. London:Earthscan.

This two volume set discusses in detail the issues and methodologies involved mainly in dryland development projects. One volume presents a number of case studies to illustrate the economic principles discussed.

3. FAO and UNEP. 1984. Provisional Methodology for Assessment and Mapping of Desertification. Rome:FAO.

4. Odingo, R.S. (Ed.) 1990. Desertification Revisited. Nairobi:UNEP- DC/PAC.

The proceedings of an expert group meeting, this publication contains an excellent account of the testing of the UNEP/FAO Provisional Methodology for monitoring, assessing and mapping desertification and other national efforts.

5. United Nations. 1978. United Nations Conference on Desertification. Round-up, Plan of Action and Resolutions. New York.

6. UNCED. Agenda 21. Geneva.

Agenda 21, Chapter 12, sets out the most recent internationally accepted general objectives of the global fight against desertification.

7. UNEP. 1992. Status of Desertification and Implementation of the United Nations Plan of Action to Combat Desertification.

UNEP/GCSS.III/3, Nairobi.

This presents the most recent comprehensive information on the status of desertification in the world.

8. UNICEF. 1992. Monitoring and the World Summit for Children. An Overview. New York.

PROMISING TECHNOLOGIES TO REVERSE LAND DEGRADATION: CURRENT TRENDS IN RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, COOPERATION

Presented by : Mr. Peter Veit, World Resource Institute

INTRODUCTION

Considerable hope, faith, and expectation is put in technology to solve the problems of desertification. Much government attention in sub-Saharan Africa, in terms of public resources, has been channelled to a few state-owned and operated efforts utilizing large-scale technologies, including large irrigation schemes, large dams, and large protected areas as watersheds and biodiversity banks. Despite good intentions and the benefits of modern technology, many of these efforts have fallen short of their objectives. The causes are many and well known, including poor management, shortage of resources, and lack of trained manpower. The results are low yields, poor investment returns, environmental degradation, and local hardships. Inevitably the most marginalized -- women, children, elders -- suffer the most.

Increasingly, governments, research institutions, and the international development assistance community are coming to grips with these failures and examining alternative options for managing arid and semi-arid lands for social and economic development purposes. Among these options is increased support for small-scale technologies and local-level natural resource management.

Concurrently, there has emerged a growing body of evidence -- initially from the Sahel - - that given appropriate opportunities, incentives, and capacities, Africa's smallholder farmers and herders effectively can and do manage some natural resources for important social and economic gains. Many of these successes are local initiatives, others are the result of efforts by NGOs, PVOs, farmer associations, and other grassroots organizations.

While much environmental degradation in sub-Saharan Africa's drylands is at the hands of local people, it is also true that most natural resources which are effectively managed are done so by local people. Most local (and national) economies in sub-Saharan Africa are resource dependent, either relying directly on extracting natural resources (i.e., logging, mining) or relying on the productivity of the resource base (i.e., farming, animal husbandry). Although local people are not the legal owners of most land in sub-Saharan Africa, they are the principal resource users and primary managers. They are also the most impacted by environmental degradation and, therefore, have a vested interest in sound resource management.

The purpose of this presentation/report is four-fold:

i. to share some examples of small-scale technologies which are effectively managing resources -- principally soil and water -- in sub-Saharan Africa's drylands;

ii. to present some issues for consideration with regard to local-level natural resource management and small-scale technologies;

iii. to identify some important social dimensions of appropriate small-scale technologies; and

iv. to suggest some policy options relevant to small-scale technologies and local dryland management for consideration in your future deliberations and convention negotiations.

PROMISING SMALL-SCALE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGIES

Local people utilize a variety of small-scale technologies to manage land and resources for social and economic purposes. This overview focuses on small-scale resource management technologies for dryland farming. It is important to recognize, however, that most people inhabiting drylands are also involved in animal husbandry (as well as other economic activities). Africa's herders and pastoralists also employ multiple resource management technologies and practices to ensure their livestock have access to sufficient pasture and adequate water.

This brief overview is intended to share three important messages regarding small-scale resource management technologies:

i. Many effective technologies and techniques already exist and are being practised by farmers in sub-Saharan Africa's drylands;

ii. Multiple variations of each "parent" technology have been developed, principally local adaptations to suit local social, political, economic, and ecological conditions; and

iii. Small-scale technologies can be quite complex and sometimes not so small.

SMALL-SCALE TECHNOLOGIES: SOEM ISSUES FOR CONSIDERATION

Several matters regarding small-scale technologies and local-level natural resource management have implications for dryland management in sub-Saharan Africa. Four important issues include:

Factors of Effective Local Resource Management. As effective small-scale technology intervention presupposes several local conditions, so appropriate small-scale technology is only one of many factors associated with effective local dryland management. Other elements, include:

i. security in land and resources;

ii. socio-economic opportunities and incentives; and

iii. an enabling political environment.

Analyses of effective local resource management indicate the presence of many or all of these and other "core elements of success." The implication is that technology intervention in the absence of these other factors may not lead to adoption and resource management, and, in some cases, may actually result in environmental degradation and destruction.

Technologies with Multiple Objectives. Small-scale technologies are part of larger local survival and development strategies, which include dryland management, drought containment, and a host of other socio-economic activities and potential crises. In addition to managing critical natural resources for farming and livestock production, these strategies emphasize other objectives such as occupational diversity against risk and uncertainty, flexibility of decisions and operations for rapid adjustment to changing local circumstances, and collective means to provide food security for the "large group" (extended family, community, etc.). Small- scale technologies which manage local resources, provide multiple options, facilitate collective sustenance, as well as other strategy objectives are preferred by local people. In some cases, local people may compromise technological efficiency for multiplicity of options and applications.

Technologies as Packages. All technologies are packages of knowledge, skills, resources, and practices. Local dryland management requires that rural people possess or have access to the range of resources necessary to effectively utilize the small-scale technology. Inadequate attention to management, in particular, has resulted in many technology intervention failures. Some management is required of all small-scale technologies, but is particularly critical (and complex) when resource management depends on the interrelated actions of a unified group of resource users. For example, local irrigation systems are among the most highly developed and complex common property regimes. Without effective management, such systems would quickly collapse.

Similarly, in Machakos District, Kenya, the British in the 1930s required farmers to construct terraces, principally to curb soil erosion. Officers laid contours on farms -- often in the absence of the owners -- and the farmers constructed the terraces according to the stakes and ropes. Terracing stopped following independence, but when farmers wanted to resume their efforts, their work was initially limited by their inability to lay level contours. The British had failed to share the technical knowledge to do so.

Indigenous Technologies. Many small-scale technologies are local innovations or adaptations of introduced technologies to meet local conditions and circumstances. Generally, local knowledge consists of dynamic insights, skills, and capacities which are derived from many years of experience or learned from family members over generations. People modify and adapt local knowledge over time through informal experimentation and adjustments to environmental, political, and socio-economic circumstances. The nature, speed, and magnitude of modern changes -- markets, population increases, government interventions -- has strained many traditional technologies. Some local dryland management practices have broken down, some permanently, others have become obsolete and insufficient. Indigenous knowledge continues to evolve, but whether local people can quickly develop appropriate technologies to effectively manage today's drylands is questionable.

THE SOCIAL DIMENSION

Most successful small-scale technologies are socially and culturally acceptable. Many have been locally developed or adapted to fit in with prevailing social patterns and cultural attributes. Technologies which require socio-cultural adjustments must have sufficient incentives to warrant the necessary changes. Several socio-cultural aspects are particularly relevant to small-scale technologies and local dryland management.

Valued Returns. Local people manage natural resources to meet important objectives, usually basic subsistence and, when possible, socio-economic advances. In some cases, resources are managed for productive purposes -- agricultural yields, cattle, fuelwood, income -- which requires the utilization or extraction of resources. In others, resource management is undertaken for socio-cultural purposes and intangible benefits, such as religious satisfaction and social prestige. In some such cases, the natural resources are not extracted or utilized, rather, they are protected and conserved from most or all forms of use. For example, throughout the Sahel, communities protect small pockets of remnant forests -- sacred groves -- which they believe house local spirits or are the abodes of important gods. Technology interventions which address critical constraints to actions that meet local priorities are more likely to be adopted. Technologies for secondary needs can improve local welfare, but often divert scarce labor, funds, and other resources from primary economic activities which are critical for socio-economic well-being.

Known Effectiveness. Many rural people inhabiting sub-Saharan Africa's drylands live in or on the edge of poverty. Securing even basic subsistence needs can be a struggle and is certainly not guaranteed. People with limited resources cannot afford to jeopardize primary production. New and unfamiliar technologies represent potential risks to livelihood and basic survival, and are often unacceptable. Technologies which local people perceive or know to be effective in managing economically-important resources are more likely to be accepted. Such perceptions often come after years of experimentation and long discussions with practising farmers. When accepted, the technologies and practices may, over time, become institutionalized within the agricultural strategy and enculturated within the prevailing socio-economic value system.

Culturally Acceptable. Social scientists have long recognized that some aspects of culture (defined as indigenous norms and a shared system of beliefs and attitudes) are flexible and readily adjust to changing circumstances, while others tend to resist change and are less influenced by external factors. Two cultural aspects which are particularly resilient and important to local dryland management are traditional religious beliefs and cultural divisions of labor. Some aspects of traditional religion/labor support and encourage resource management, while others restrict the adoption of environmental practices and may even encourage resource degradation. Small-scale dryland management technologies which are compatible with prevailing religious beliefs and labor patterns are likely to be locally acceptable and adopted. Conversely, technologies which require changes in these beliefs/practices may be difficult to introduce.

Labor Demands. Labor is the principal energy source for most rural economic activities. It is a valuable asset and usually a scarce resource of most rural households. Most households have access to the labor of family members and some capacity to hire or otherwise mobilize non-household labor. For example, farmers often organize short- term working groups which rotate to the farms of the participants during critical labor periods. The cycles of rural economic activities, particularly agriculture, often result in seasonal labor peaks which may limit further participation in other forms of farming or other economic activities. They may also constrain the adoption of new technologies and practices, and act as bottlenecks to local-level dryland management. Technologies with minimal/no labor demands, especially during peak periods, or which reduce labor peaks or distribute labor more equally throughout the agricultural calendar are often preferred by farmers.

Local Management. In many rural societies, small-scale technologies and common property regimes are the responsibility of community leaders and village institutions. For example, in most small-scale irrigation schemes, the collective management is the responsibility of an organized local water users' institution. Such groups are often specifically formed to conduct three related activities: irrigation system development (design, construction, operation, maintenance), water management (water acquisition, allocation, distribution, drainage), and organization (decision-making, resource mobilization, communication, conflict resolution). Local people and institutions more often have the incentive, knowledge, skills, and proximity to quickly make and implement important day-to-day management decisions. Technologies introduced into societies without the capacity to manage them will fail unless accompanied by efforts to establish such skills. Technology interventions are more likely to succeed if supported by local leaders and housed within existing viable local institutions.

OPTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Small-scale technology and local management assume a community-based approach to development. Community development is not the only approach to reversing environmental degradation, including desertification, but it is a major element which, for the most part, has eluded governments and donor agencies. While development assistance agencies acknowledge the importance of local development, popular participation, and small-scale technologies, real progress in execution has been slow. Local people remain under-utilized development resources, and they are still too often treated as passive, poor, and helpless. For example, in the typical "transfer of technology" (TOT) model, research priorities are determined by scientists and funding agencies; scientists experiment in-laboratory and on-station to generate new technology; and their findings are handed over to extensionists for transfer to farmers.

Community development and resource management requires a fundamental shift in development strategy. One in which communities are recognized for their central position in local and national development, and development assistance agencies work to facilitate and improve local actions. Such a shift requires multiple policy, legislative, institutional, and infrastructure reforms, including, for example, the devolution of administrative and political power for development purposes, and the enactment of new tenure legislation which provides people with real security in land and resources. There is a burgeoning literature on improving community development.

Recognizing the importance of a community-based approach to development and resource management, several more specific government actions can be forwarded to facilitate small-scale technology interventions for improving dryland management in sub-Saharan Africa. Four important options, include:

Improve Existing Technologies. As a result of modern pressures many existing small-scale technologies are no longer viable or effectively managing the resource base. Further, there are limits to technological innovation/improvement through local knowledge and resources. Many successful technology interventions involve improving existing technologies which are adaptations of familiar "parent" methods. Farmers are more likely to accept modified technologies than completely new and foreign practices, principally because the parent methods are known, appropriate, acceptable, and address local needs. African government and international research institutions should consider expanding their work in the development of more effective and efficient locally-known technologies. Similarly, they can encourage farmer experimentation and facilitate the work of local innovators.

Strengthen Village Institutions. Small-scale technologies are important, not only because many are more effective from a technical perspective than large-scale technologies, but because they can be managed by local people. Overwhelming evidence suggests that local management, whether at the household or community level, is more effective and efficient that central management. New technologies, especially technologies for common property systems, must be housed within viable local institutions, and supported by local leaders, if they are to be effectively managed. Traditionally, these local authorities had the responsibility and power to manage community development, including resource management. In recent decades, however, their capacity to manage community development efforts has eroded in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa's drylands. Development assistance agencies should collaborate with viable local institutions in technology intervention, and strengthen their management capacities to meet new management needs. This might include training in accounting and book-keeping as well as consensus building and conflict resolution.

Strengthen Informal Information Exchanges. In traditional society in sub- Saharan Africa, multiple, mostly informal, methods are used to share information, including information regarding small-scale technologies and resource management. These means are not only effective in exchanging information, but considering the sources, local people are more likely to trust its accuracy and make changes accordingly. For example, farmer-to-farmer contact is an important way to disseminate information about alternative resource management technologies and their relative effectiveness, create awareness about their relative advantages, disadvantages, and overall effectiveness, and facilitate change to adopt appropriate new or improved small-scale technologies. Governments and donors should consider ways to strengthen the range of informal information exchange mechanisms, also including village-village exchanges, model farm visits, etc. Such efforts can improve technology dissemination and significantly reduce the workload of extension officers. It may also encourage governments to shift from traditional prescriptive environmental laws with sanctions for non-compliance, to ones with options and incentives for adoption.

Channelling Resources to the Grassroots. Community development supported principally by local resources is limited. Yet local labor and resources, combined with modest external assistance, and managed by viable village institutions with committed leadership, can foster sustainable development. Linkages with external political, technical, and economic entities are fundamental for continued local development and resource management. Mechanisms need to be established which will enable governments and the multi-/bi-lateral donor agencies to support communities and undertake community-level interventions. Some governments and donors are experimenting with some interesting funding structures, including USAID's PVO-NGO/NRMS project and UNDP's Africa 2000 Network project. These mechanisms should be further tested and refined for broader use.

EXPERIMENTATION AND INNOVATION IN CAPACITY BUILDING

Presented by : Mr. Tijan Jallon, Technical Adviser, United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office (UNSO)

INTRODUCTION

For well over forty years capacity building has been the main, and often the only, objective of international technical assistance (now referred to as technical cooperation). Enormous resources have been spent, especially in Africa, on trying to build local capacity in many fields, sometimes with some success, but all too frequently without leaving easily noticeable results in the form of strong, viable, sustainable capacities. The reasons for the relative failure of these efforts is a subject of debate, but some of the more obvious deficiencies in past performance should be taken into account in formulating a convention on desertification.

While capacity building has always been the prime objective of technical assistance, it has recently taken on special urgency and the term has been given special meaning. For example, UNDP states that "the basic purpose of UNDP assistance is to help the Government achieve the objective of self-reliance through strengthening its capacity to become so." (UNDP, 1992). The World Bank in launching the African Capacity Building Foundation, has concentrated its interest on developing capacity in economic policy analysis and development management. UNDP, following the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) earmarked special resources for a "Capacity 21" programme to be used to "aid countries in the formulation and implementation of sustainable development strategies and of required capacity building programmes." (UNDP, 1993). This programme provides support in: building/enhancing institutional capacity and human resources; policy and strategy formulation; enhancing popular participation; and developing, applying and adopting relevant technologies.

The paper examines capacity building needs and innovative approaches to sustainable development with particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa. According to the Human Development Index of UNDP, the majority of the twenty most disadvantaged countries in the world are in this region (Figure 1). While it is recognized that the challenges to sustainable development are many and varied, for many of the countries in this region the natural resources base (soil, water and vegetation) is, and will continue to be, the principal source of economic growth and sustainable development. For this reason, capacity building needs are examined from the perspective of measures that are required to promote the more sustainable use of these resources.

The paper is structured such that the scope and definition of capacity building is presented in the first section. The principal domains for capacity building covering national and local-level action, as well as in the field of research and extension, are presented in section II. This is followed by a summary of recent UNDP initiatives in capacity building in relation to Agenda 21. Section IV highlights some general principles and guidelines in capacity building and the concluding section discusses some of the implications for the proposed convention on desertification.

FIGURE 1

DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF CAPACITY BUILDING

Capacity building may be defined as the actions needed to create or enhance the capability of a country or an institution (or an individual) to carry out its allotted functions and achieve its objectives. As such, the term is wider than "institution building", for which it is often used as a synonym, in the sense of the development of a particular organization, such as a ministry, but narrower than "institutional development" as applied to the development of the institutions of free markets and private enterprise. Most commonly it is understood to encompass improvements in human resources (such as education, training and management), institutions and organizations. These include improvements in physical assets and procedures, as well as in the environment in which people and organizations function (laws and regulations).

Since its inception, capacity building has been the main objective of technical assistance. The failure of past capacity building efforts is, therefore, often the result of the shortcomings of technical assistance. The key to improved capacity building is not only to be found in improved methods of technical assistance, but more importantly, in improvements in the way that such assistance is supported and assisted by the international community, as well as the extent to which technical assistance is "owned" by the recipient countries. An example will illustrate the point. When a donor agency identifies the need to build a particular capacity, designs the activities required, provides the resources needed and menages the implementation of the resulting project, it is not difficult to foresee failure to develop a sustainable local capacity no matter how well conceived the capacity building measures. The root cause of the failure of the effort is the donor-driven nature of the assistance, i.e. the lack of local involvement in, and control over, the design and implementation of the project. This happens because the priorities of donor countries often differ from those of recipient countries in relation to the needs for capacity building.

There have, however, also been a number of internal constraints to capacity building. In many countries of sub-Saharan Africa, difficulties have been experienced in creating and sustaining the political, social and economic environments needed for successful building of national capacity. This is in part reflected in the crisis afflicting public sector administrative machinery and the poor pay and morale of civil servants. In addition, most efforts have also focused on capacity needs of central governments to the exclusion and detriment of other important sectors such as the private sector and local communities.

A recent review of experiences in technical cooperation commissioned by UNDP (Berg, 1993) has grouped the weaknesses of past efforts into four categories:

i. delivery system failures, touching upon weaknesses in project identification design and implementation;

ii. weak management and coordination of cooperation, especially by recipient countries;

iii. lack of "market", since most technical assistance comes as a "free good";

iv. the environment within which capacity building operates.

These external and internal constraints will have to be overcome if capacity building efforts at the various levels will be successful. The principles and guidelines in capacity building presented in section IV are meant to overcome some of these constraints.

CAPACITY BUILDING APPROACHES FOR THE SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

Strengthening local capacities for sustainable resources management

The failure of past efforts to accelerate rural development in many parts of the developing world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, have revealed serious weaknesses. These are in the following areas:

i. Past efforts have not sufficiently implicated, nor adequately recognized, the roles of local people in the development process. This has resulted in situations whereby governments and donors "delivered" development to communities and local people. A new approach wherein local people contribute to defining the goals and programmes of development and are also involved in implementation is now generally accepted. In relation to natural resources management programmes, the importance of group/community involvement lies in the fact that processes such as the management and rehabilitation of rangelands, croplands and forest formations depend largely on collective actions which at the same time provide adequate incentives for individual actions. As evaluations of several projects have shown, however, while the importance of participatory approaches has been recognized, few have actually been successfully implemented;

ii. There is currently a general lack of clear rights regarding the control and use of natural resources by local communities, resulting in an alienation of common lands and resources from community management. Experience has shown that resource degradation is often a result of the weakening of local-level institutional arrangements, resulting from a complex of reasons, such as the practices of colonial administrations, the rise of the nation state, the increase in rural stratification (e.g. between farmers and pastoralists) and flawed development policies. The weakening of local institutions and the monopoly of the state over resource tenure, without the corresponding enforcement power has led to institutional voids, which in turn has created preconditions for the development of "open access regimes" (Bromley & Cernea, 1989). A major challenge for sustainable resources management is, therefore, to restore some measure of local control over resources, with clearly recognized rights and duties and a mechanism to guarantee the equitable distribution of rewards;

iii. Despite the implementation of many so-called integrated rural development programmes in the past, the approach has essentially been sectoral. Such projects have often been large scale and capital intensive, utilizing imported technologies.

Other factors that have delayed progress include: state bureaucracies that have become progressively weak and over-extended; continuing adverse natural resources degradation, particularly the recurrence of drought and long cycles of desiccation from which most countries have yet to recover, and poverty. At another level, difficult terms of trade between developed and developing countries also have an effect.

While there have been many failures, there has also been some progress, particularly as exemplified by the growing evidence of several successful, albeit small-scale, initiatives in natural resources management (Toulmin, 1993). This has led to a noticeable shift in the development paradigm (at least in rhetoric) from an emphasis on centralized, blueprint approaches, to more decentralized ones. This shift in paradigm is characterized by the following elements:

i. decentralization of power and decision making to local people, including the provision of secure rights and gains for local user groups;

ii. projects that are characterized by: flexible implementation with more open goals, targets and timing decided with villagers; participatory monitoring and evaluations; small-scale with few external inputs and using technologies largely built on improved versions of local

techniques; highly committed project staff; and a high degree of continuity;

iii. recognition of the weaknesses of local-level institutions and the need for incremental step-by-step and iterative processes that build on previous successes and gains.

Some of these elements imply fundamental shifts in the relationship between local people, the state administration and the agents of development, and in the way in which development assistance is administered. Progress has, therefore, been slow and often difficult. These successes are also not widespread enough to make the needed impacts. To ensure that these isolated successes become more generalized, the capacity of local communities to control and manage their resources has to be considerably reinforced or established.

The strengthening of local capacity for sustainable land use involves two inter-related issues; governance/devolution of authority with the corresponding empowerment of local communities and the reinforcement of local popular participation in development activities that directly affect them. Governance and devolution of authority and the empowerment of local communities are now widely accepted as necessary preconditions for the promotion of sustainable development (Thompson, 1992). In terns of practical applications, however, many questions still remain in relation to:

i. whether local communities have functioning institutions to take over these new responsibilities;

ii. the extent that state structures and private interests will allow the process of empowerment to continue;

iii. the type of programmes/project support needed from external partners and whether it can be ensured that local institutions are not destroyed or weakened by such assistance;

iv. the legal and administrative measures required to safeguard community control over resource use.

The moves towards decentralization and local control have several implications for the type of capacity building actions necessary to ensure success. A few suggestions of some of these possible activities to promote more sustainable use of local resources are outlined below:

i. Strengthening and upgrading the organizational capacity of local and community institutions and organizations needs to be undertaken. This should include assistance to enable the recognition and registration of these organizations. Their functional capacity should be strengthened by clarifying their roles and legal authority. Co-management relationships between local communities and local government authorities should be clearly defined and given legal recognition to prevent the possibility of re-centralization. In view of the critical role of women in environmental matters, particular attention needs to be given to the strengthening of women's organizations;

ii. The acknowledgement of the rights of local land users and the integration of customary land-tenure arrangements within new administrative structures is required. This alone may not ensure sustainability, however, unless consideration is given to the diversity of local contexts, based on detailed knowledge of customary systems and how they operate;

iii. Empowerment of community groups must include the power to command and determine the use of local financial resources. Support programmes have to be developed to build financial management skills for rural organizations. In this regard, the strengthening of traditional savings and rural credit schemes is needed, as well as the introduction of such schemes where necessary;

iv. Mechanisms have to be developed and support given for conflict resolution between different user groups, between users and state authorities and within user groups. Competition between people and wildlife for the same ecological space will also require innovative thinking to balance the needs for conservation against productivity and livelihood concerns;

v. Where the balance of power weighs against local communities and rights are at issue, local institutions need to develop greater capacity to negotiate with governments and private or commercial interests. For this to happen, the development of negotiation skills is of critical importance.

Despite the attractiveness of these approaches, serious difficulties will persist for two reasons. Firstly, while in theory governments generally support moves towards greater community empowerment, it is sometimes done under pressure from external donors. In a climate of structural adjustment with often severe "down-sizing" of government structures, there is a danger that these are transferred to communities ill-prepared to assume such costs. Secondly, due to increasing stratification and diversification of income within rural communities and households in sub-Saharan Africa, it is likely that divergence of interests will increase. This will place considerable strain on collective decision making processes for the management of natural resources. Thus questions of decentralization, devolution and empowerment, while extremely important, will need to be handled with great sensitivity, based on a good understanding of local circumstances.

Capacity Needs at National lvel for Sustainable Natural Resources Management

Although the discussion in the previous section has concentrated on capacity needs at local level, these have a number of implications at national level. These range from policy and legislative issues to operational activities of line-ministries. The most important for capacity building would appear to be the following:

i. Strengthening local control over resources would require clearly defined national policies in the areas of land tenure, local administrative mechanisms, etc. These policies will have to be placed within the context of long-term strategies and visions for sustainable development. Most countries, therefore, would require support to build capabilities in policy analysis and management skills to enable governments to weigh options and work out strategies. An extremely important gap that will have to be filled is capacity to monitor the impact of policy changes. Efforts to develop strategic frameworks for resource management need to be strengthened;

ii. To enable the different actors involved in the development process to take advantage of emerging opportunities, up-to-date and accurate information needs to be collected, analyzed and disseminated. This is an undertaking that can most effectively be assigned to government institutions. Support would, therefore, be necessary to strengthen data collection, analysis and dissemination capacity;

iii. Operational responsibilities for rural development are fragmented among several ministries, as are issues of natural resources management. Innovative ways have to be found to bring about better coordination. A central strategy would be skill development aimed at transforming the current "role orientations" of most line-ministries to one of "task orientations". The overall capacity to implement national programmes will have to be strengthened;

iv. The planning capacities of most countries will have to be enhanced. New technical capabilities will have to be added in order to incorporate natural resources environmental and sustainability dimensions to the planning framework. The whole planning system may need to be changed in order to provide local populations and disadvantaged groups with adequate influence in the planning process. This may involve major capacity building efforts at the local level to develop the skills and provide the resources necessary, including investment in training and equipment, in addition to changes in the planning process itself. Special efforts to integrate indigenous and local knowledge and methods of land use, resource management, and a host of other issues into the national planning process may have to be made. Some of these changes, e.g. the introduction of procedures to ensure that the views of women and minority populations are adequately represented in the planning process, may call for basic changes in outlook within government and the bureaucracy;

v. Training of sub-national level officials to improve the capacity and performance of local government authorities is critical in many situations where decentralization and devolution are taking place;

vi. There seems to be a mis-match between the skills and behavior required to make local- level resources management successful and the tradition of technical and administrative services of many government agencies. This calls for new types of training and follow-up to build the requisite skills;

vii. Projects/programmes should complement a focus on physical outputs or activities (e.g. trees, crops, livestock), with a need for more emphasis on processes that encourage the development of versatile institutional capacities at local level.

Strengthening Capacity in Reserrch, Extension and Technology Transfer

Growth in agricultural productivity is crucial to the economic development of many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. For example, the World Bank has stated that agriculture has to grow by 4 per cent annually to improve the prospect for economic growth (World Bank, 1989). According to FAO estimates, the growth in food production needed to meet rising demands in most developing countries will have to come less and less from the expansion of cultivated areas and more from increases in the productivity of already cultivated lands.

In the semi-arid areas prone to drought and desertification, low, variable and uncertain rainfall combined with fragile soils place a serious limit on large increases in productivity. This situation poses a grave challenge to the development and transfer of the technology needed to raise productivity and enhance living standards on a sustainable basis. To date, attempts to develop sustainable techniques through conventional research systems have not met with universal success. Reasons for this include (Oram, 1991):

i. inadequate on-farm testing in different agro-ecological and socio-economic situations;

ii. dissemination of technologies which were only adopted when supported by unsustainable institutional and/or financial resources;

iii. too high economic risk for resource-poor farmers lining in marginal areas;

iv. macro-policies unconducive to rapid adoption (e.g. markets, infrastructure, etc.);

v. inadequate attention to traditional techniques and their improvement.

As a consequence, in most of the semi-arid and dry sub-humid zones, particularly those of sub-Saharan Africa, there are very few technologies available from the conventional research and development institutions.

At the international level, good progress has been realized from the efforts of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The impact of the CG- system, however, has been limited, particularly in the semi-arid tropics of Africa. Research has largely remained focused on commodities (e.g. wheat, rice, sorghum, millet) and little seems to be done on natural resources management issues. Gaps in research cover such critical areas as land use and policy-related issues; forestry and agro-forestry; hydrology and water resources inventory and development, particularly adapted technologies for the exploitation of groundwater resources; salinity in irrigated areas; soil erosion; and monitoring of changes in the natural resource base. Most of these fields are critical to solving the problems of resource use in areas prone to drought and desertification (Oram, 1991).

At national level, the sustainability of many research institutions is threatened by internal weaknesses and resource constraints. Other important factors include:

i. growth in research staff which outpaces growth in financial resources, thus leading to rapid declines in operational expenses for scientists;

ii. national commitment (both political and financial) which is often inadequate and uncertain;

iii. heavy dependence on donor project financing; in several small countries this can be between 20-100 per cent;

iv. serious shortage or experienced staff.

At the other end of the technology generation and transfer system, it should also be noted that the effectiveness of extension services poses serious concerns. Several reasons can be advanced to explain this situation:

i. extension as traditionally geared, which does not in itself produce innovations, but rather relies on the research system. If this is not forthcoming, extension systems will have little to offer and this has been the situation in many cases;

ii. other institutional bottlenecks (e.g. credit systems, seed and fertilizer availability) limit effectiveness;

iii. poor training and under-staffing, particularly for female extension workers;

iv. lack of mobility compounded by low extension worker/farmer ratio;

v. research-extension linkages weakened due to uncoordinated and discontinuous assistance provided to these interlinked components of the technology development and transfer system.

Drylands are often characterized by a great diversity in the cropping/farming systems required to respond to the range in physical and social environments. Thus technological solutions have to be closely tailored to specific circumstances (Warren, 1991). This is best achieved where innovations build upon local skills, knowledge and techniques. Yet it is in this process that conventional research/extension systems have their most serious shortcomings. Local people have an intimate knowledge of their ecology and environment. Such knowledge should be regarded as a national resource and consciously integrated with the more conventional research establishment.

Measures for incorporating knowledge of farmers and pastoralists into conventional research systems may include the following elements (Warren, 1991):

i. greater understanding of why farmers do certain things in terms of the technical and agro-ecological basis;

ii. collective identification of problems and priority;

iii. using problem-solving adaptive experimentation as a starting point for technology generation; and

iv. involving farmers and pastoralists in technology testing and transfer.

TABLE 1

Despite being much criticized, farming-systems research and extension (FSR/E), through working with indigenous systems, has laid the basis for integrating the knowledge of farmers and pastoralists and their concerns into the research process. To build effective capacities in technology generation and transfer, the following measures need to be taken:

i. Local and indigenous knowledge should constitute the starting point for the search and identification of creative solutions to land management problems. Support should, therefore, be given to ensure more rapid dissemination of innovative indigenous technology systems, or improved versions of these, through increased understanding, study and/or documentation;

ii. National governments should undertake critical reforms of the national agricultural research and extension systems with a view to ensuring their sustainability and productivity through inter alia:

a. promoting plurality in the system;

b. providing more adequate and consistent funding from national budgets;

c. transforming the system from civil service structures to more autonomous demand- driven systems with the ability to attract and retain good scientists;

iii. Networking arrangements to overcome problems associated with the lack of a critical mass of scientists in many small countries should be promoted, to capture the benefits of research spill-over effects and solve common problems at least cost. An interesting approach has recently been initiated in the West African Sahel, whereby the countries of the CILSS region are in the process of establishing regional research poles based on the concept of conferring responsibility on national systems to catalyze technology generation and transfer, in close collaboration with other countries in the region. In Latin America, the PROCUSIR (Spanish acronym for Programme for cooperative agricultural research in the southern cone countries) approach has also yielded valuable results (Trigo, 1992).

iv. Support needs to be given to strengthen extension services through the greater involvement of local expertise (e.g. paravets) in ways that will lower costs, improve quality and extend coverage. The use of farmer-to-farmer visits has demonstrated significant impacts on technology transfer in the field of soil and water management in Burkina Faso. There is a need, therefore, to expand the scope of such exchanges.

RECENT UNDP INITIATIVES IN CAPACITY BUILDING IN RELATION TO AGENDA 21

Much discussion preparatory to the Earth Summit centered on lack of capacity in developing countries to develop and implement strategies for sustainable development. A UNDP report indicated that in over 80 developing countries a main constraint to development was the lack of indigenous capacities, a situation confirmed by the call by many delegates at UNCED for increased efforts in capacity building.

In order to respond to these needs and to fulfil the special mandate given by UNCED to UNDP, the "Capacity 21" programme was initiated to aid countries in the formulation and implementation of sustainable strategies and the required capacity-building programmes. This reinforces UNDP's role in capacity-building already established by the Governing Council (92/16). The decision to launch "Capacity 21" was endorsed by General Assembly resolution 47/194 of 22 December 1992, since when, several consultations with donors, governments and different agencies of the United Nations system have been held.

The objectives of the programme are to:

i. Enhance awareness among decision-makers of the need to incorporate sustainable development factors into policies, strategies, plans and programmes and to identify the potential benefits of doing so;

ii. Facilitate, on the basis of existing plans, the formulation of sustainable development strategies and national agendas 21 for the achievement and implementation of development goals;

iii. Enhance the capacity of developing countries to continue to formulate and implement their own sustainable development policies;

iv. Identify major capacity-building requirements for effective implementation of the national Agenda 21 and sustainable development plan;

v. Formulate and implement programmes and projects to meet capacity building requirements; strengthen institutions, legal and regulatory frameworks, and policy tools; strengthen national or regional scientific and technological research and development, and enhance knowledge, information and data bases; and increase the participation of all stakeholders in the decision-making processes;

vi. Facilitate consensus building among different interest groups, so that solutions may be developed which will be implementable and sustainable;

vii. Establish and strengthen appropriate local mechanisms for facilitating broad participation by major groups in the national dialogue and by community groups in decision-making at local level.

It is expected that the programme will have a pilot phase in 1993-94. Management modalities for the funding and refinement of its area of focus are still being worked out. It is, therefore, still too early to make any evaluation of its eventual impact on building capacities for sustainable development.

PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES IN CAPACITY BUILDING

The capacity building needs and requirements outlined above at local and national levels, and those needed to strengthen technology generation and transfer, will require considerable efforts and new approaches to ensure success. In section II some of the underlying factors/causes for failures of previous attempts at capacity building have been presented. Based on these previous experiences, and in relation to the needs discussed above, a few principles and guidelines are suggested below which might be relevant to defining a strategy to enhance capacity for the implementation of a convention on desertification:

i. Capacity building should be "recipient-driven". This implies that the initiative must come from the country concerned itself. All countries have some capacity on which capacity building initiatives must be based. They also have unique environments within which those initiatives have to function in order to succeed. In addition, every country has a set of development goals and objectives, which must guide any attempt at capacity building. In all these areas, only the government of the country concerned is fully competent to make judgements, set priorities and design and implement actions that have any prospect of success. In other words, the country itself must determine the capacity it needs to carry out a convention, the deficiencies in existing capacity, the steps required to remedy those deficiencies and the specific actions to be taken and their sequence. Finally, this recipient-driven approach must be real and not contrived; requests engineered by outsiders or extracted under penalty of reduced assistance will not do, if internationally assisted capacity building efforts are to succeed.

ii. There is a need for choice among competing priorities. This point needs to be particularly stressed. The one thing known with certainty about the capacity requirements for most prospective signatories of a convention on desertification, especially those from least developed countries, is that they will far outstrip existing capacities and that the resources (human and financial, local and external) required to build the necessary capacities will be far greater than those immediately available. A careful selection process is needed, therefore, to set priorities and determine the sequence of capacity building initiatives in terms of their urgency and the availability of resources. Again, only the country concerned has the knowledge and the competence to carry out this task.

iii. Detailed and coherent programmes need to be prepared. The result of the recipient- driven nature of the capacity building process is that international assistance for this process should only be provided on the basis of detailed and coherent programmes of action, including clear priorities and timing sequences of those actions. Such programmes could take the form of the Technical Cooperation Programmes (TCP's) being developed in a number of African countries, and other LDC's, as part of the NTCAP (National Technical Cooperation Assessments and Programmes) process. While the NaTCAP's focus on assessing and programming technical assistance needs, one of the major basis for determining those needs, in a sector or for a country as whole, has to be a determination of the relevant capacity building requirements.

iv. External assistance needs to be "unbundled". Focusing on capacity building as the demand side of technical cooperation leads to a broader view of the composition of international assistance. Traditionally, technical assistance has consisted of resident expatriate advisers, supplemented by some equipment, training for local staff and funds for operation and maintenance. As seen from the demand side, the adviser is the cost that has to be paid for in order to secure the other resources involved. This view of the relationship is not conducive to effective capacity building. If the focus is the capacity building effort, rather than the TA project, however, it becomes necessary to take a broader view of resource requirements and to look at resource needs rather than inputs. For example, the element missing in the capacity of a statistical department to carry out household and other sample surveys may not be technical know-how, but computing capacity and transport facilities for its field staff. To spend money on expensive international resident advisers would be a waste of resources and would likely create unnecessary friction within the department; resources spent on computing equipment, including training, and vehicles would be more appreciated and have a greater capacity building impact. This broader view of input requirements should lead to an "unbundling" of external assistance inputs and a severance of the connection between the resident expatriate adviser and other external assistance, so allowing the inputs to be determined by the specific needs of the capacity building effort. It should also lead to a more sympathetic consideration of the use of local consultants and experts, instead of expatriate consultants and the more frequent use, where appropriate, of devices such as operational support, gap filling and twinning.

v. Capacity building efforts must be sustainable. Any capacity that exists or is created must be sustainable i.e. it must in some sense be permanent. While this may seem a trivial point, past experience shows that much of the capacity built over the years, with and without outside assistance has proved to be unsustainable, in the face of reductions in local financial resources and/or the withdrawal of external support.

There are certain clear requirements for sustainability:

i. There must be recipient commitment to the capacity building effort; the only way to ensure such commitment is to make the process of identification, design and implementation fully recipient-driven;

ii. The measures taken must be fully integrated into the administrative, institutional and social structure of the country. Specially designed project and implementation units outside normal administrative structures have proved unsustainable and sometimes, destructive. The success of a particular approach in one country does not necessarily guarantee success in another; the differences in civil service traditions brought about among other factors by the practices of the colonial powers and still maintained are instructive in this regard;

iii. The capacity must be within the human and financial capabilities of the recipient. Capacity that is technically sophisticated and requires advanced technical capabilities and large financial resources (local and external) to operate and maintain will not be sustainable without external assistance. Few countries can afford to hire the technical experts or buy the equipment and spare parts required using their own resources. It is important that all capacity building efforts (projects) are fully costed and included in the appropriate budgets. For example, positions held by externally financed expatriate experts should be included in the establishment lists, so that both position and local funding are available when a local replacement becomes available. Similarly, operating funds for transport and equipment should be included in the budget, even if they are financed temporarily out of external assistance funds.

iv. The notion that technical assistance is a "free good" has to be dispelled. While this perception on the part of recipients is to a large degree correct, it has led to waste and inefficiency and to the funding of many projects that are unsustainable without permanent external support. Solving this problem requires actions that increase the opportunity cost of projects that it cannot carry out and should have to make budgetary provision for the cost, including those financed through external assistance, of all capacity building projects.

v. Capacity building in the public sector, while important, should be balanced with the need to build it in the private sector and at local level. At a time when most observers have concluded that the present size of these public sectors, at least in Africa, is unsustainable and that the scope of their responsibilities and their size need to be reduced, capacity building initiatives must avoid increasing the size and responsibilities of the public sector in these countries. It is clear that in many cases, capacity building efforts centered on the public sector will not be sustainable, whereas the same capacity created in the private sector might be. A part of the private sector whose capacity could be used to relieve the public sector is the Non- Governmental Organizations.

vi. A positive environment within which the capacity will function is essential. The growth of public sectors combined with severe resource constraints has, in many countries, led to an erosion of public sector salaries and incomes. The resulting increase in moonlighting, as well as the decline in morale within civil services has made almost any capacity building effort unsustainable. Until such time as this issue is confronted openly and honestly, there is little that can be done in terms of creating sustainable capacity in the public sector.

CONCLUSIONS

A close reading of Agenda 21 reveals total capacity requirements that are far beyond the human, financial and institutional resources of most developing countries, especially the LDC's. For example, the data gathering and reporting requirements of all programme areas in all Agenda 21 chapters would test the capacity of many developed countries, let alone the LDC's.

While this paper has outlined some of the needs and approaches to capacity building in relation to a fairly narrow and restricted range of issues that are likely to be tackled by the convention, it is clear that massive efforts will be required, especially by the LDC's, to ensure that they have the capacities necessary to carry out their commitments and undertakings under a convention on desertification and Agenda 21. Given the magnitude of the task it is doubly important that these countries are given adequate time and resources to carry out their capacity building efforts. Equally important, the time and resources need to be carefully used in order to ensure that the capacity that is built is sustainable in the long run and not wasted on unrealistic programmes that cannot be supported by the country's own human and financial resources. The priority and sequence of the capacity building actions to be taken by the respective signatories need to be carefully considered to ensure that the available resources (human and financial, local and external) are adequate and can be sustained.

Under current practice, the use of bilateral external technical assistance resources is tied to expertise and goods from the donor country regardless of the recipient's frequent need for standardization of equipment and some coherence in the advise and training that its staff receives. Efficient capacity building requires that the recipient is able to determine the technical specifications of equipment, the technical qualifications of the consultants and advisers hired and the content of staff training. Serious consideration should be given to the "unbundling" of technical assistance packages to allow treater flexibility in the use of such assistance and to allow recipient countries to channel resources more effectively.

Recipient countries on the other hand ought to develop coherent capacity building strategies and programmes. Ultimately, responsibility for the creation and enhancement of indigenous capacity for sustainable development lies with the developing countries themselves. In the long run, capacity building will only succeed if measures are taken at national level that will guarantee that erosion of capacities that has characterized so much of sub-Saharan Africa in the past two to three decades are minimized. This implies commitments to plurality and political stability, as well as the initiation and implementation of needed institutional and legal reforms.

Many of the difficulties with past efforts at capacity building emanate from the lack of common perception on its role and on differences in the expectations of donors and recipient countries. Efforts have to be made to define more commonly-shared objectives for capacity building. The NaTCAP process launched by UNDP appears to be a useful starting point on the road to achieving such an objective.

The proposals on the strengthening of capacity for more effective technology development and transfer systems call for actions at national level going beyond what can be achieved through individual projects. The necessary national commitment has to be forthcoming if there is to be any meaningful change.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Berg, E. 1993, Rethinking Technical Cooperation: Reforms for Capacity Building in Africa. UNDP, Regional Bureau for Africa

Bromley, D.M. & Cernea, M.M. 1989, The management of common property natural Resources: Some conceptual and operational fallacies. World

Bank Discussion papers, 57

Lawry, S. 1990, Tenure policy towards common property natural resources in sub-Saharan Africa, Natural Resources Journal, 30, p 403-422

Murombedzi, J. 1991, Decentralizing common property resources management: A case study of the Nyaminyami District Council of Zimbabwe's Wildlife

Management Programme, IIED, paper 30

Oram, P. 1991, Institutions and Technological Change. In Agricultural Sustainability, growth and poverty alleviation: Issues and policies. Proceeding of conference held 23-27 September, 1991, Feldafing, Germany. Edited Vosti, S. Reardon, T. von Uvff, W.

Swift, J., Toulmin, C. 1992, Guidelines and Strategies for pastoral development in Africa, discussion paper

Thompson, J. 1992, Decentralization in Mali: Action options (Executive Summary), Ms Toulmin, C. 1993, Gestion de Terroir: Principles, First Lessons and Implications for Action, Discussion paper prepared for UNSO, March 1993, pp 31

Toulmin, C. 1991, Natural Resource Management at the local level: will this bring food security to the Sahel?, IDS Bulletin, 22, 3

Trigo, E. J. 1992, The Role of Research Networks and Regional Cooperative Programs in the context of the 1990s. Paper presented at the International Conference on challenges and opportunities for NARS in the year 2000: A policy dialogue. Berlin, Jan. 13-18, 1992 ISNAR & DSE

UNDP, 1992, Capacity building and technical cooperation - managing the connection

UNDP, 1993a, A strategy for assessing UNDP effectiveness in capacity building during the fifth programme cycle. Central Evaluation Office, Bureau for Policy and Programme evaluation

UNDP, 1993b, National capacity building. Draft report of the Administrator to the 40th session of the Governing Council

UNDP, 1993c, The follow up to UNCED: UNDP's strategy in support of sustainable development. Draft report of the Administrator to the 40th session of the Governing Council

UNDP, 1993d, Capacity 21: a programme in support of Agenda 21

UNSO, 1992a, Assessment of Desertification and Drought in the Sudano- Sahelian Region 1985-1991, New York

UNSO, 1992b, Draft strategy for the Management of Drylands, pp 13

Warren, D.M. 1991, Using indigenous knowledge in agricultural development. World Bank Discussion papers, 127

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DEVELOPMENT OF ALTERNATIVE LIVELIHOOD SYSTEMS: CONSERVATION AND UTILIZATION OF DRYLAND BIODIVERSITY, PROCESSING OF AGRICULTURAL/PASTORAL PRODUCTS, INFRASTRUCTURE AND OTHER FACILITIES TO SUPPORT NEW INDUSTRIES AND SERVICES, MIGRATION STRATEGIES

Presented by : Mr. Gary Howe, Project Controller, Africa Division, Project Management Department, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

DIVERSIFICATION OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR STRESSED NATURAL RESOURCE USERS

Introduction

The phenomenon of desertification is associated with patterns of use. It is, therefore, an index of the economic opportunities available to users, as well as of the resources and organization available to users in developing those opportunities. As was indicated in the presentation on Integrated Community Driven Approaches: Participation In Decision-Making, Freedom Of Information, Education And Awareness, Role Of NGOS, Women And Other Major Groups, the relation between resource and user is mediated by different forms of user organization making some uses possible (and others impossible). It is evident that support for user organizations of various types can open the way for more sustainable and profitable (in the long term) forms of agricultural and pastoral exploitation of resources. Nonetheless, it is also evident that in many of the most vulnerable areas (to the process of desertification) improved resource management, both individual and collective, is not compatible with higher rates of exploitation -- particularly in the short term. In the context of the extreme poverty of much of the population of marginal areas, and rising demands on resources arising from both natural population growth and migration, strong individual and immediate demands on existing resources are undeniable forces reducing the emergence of sustainable forms of use and supportive organizational arrangements.

It has become increasingly evident, therefore, that the operationalization of schemes to develop more sustainable systems of resource management in areas subject to desertification must involve means of reducing pressures on the resources to be so managed. Given that this pressure is a direct reflection of the opportunities currently available to resource users, this involves the development of alternative economic opportunities for the population of marginal rural areas, i.e., the diversification of economic opportunities. In effect, the rural population of such areas must be given alternative sources of income, relieving pressure on vulnerable natural resources.

This process is already taking place in many areas. Faced with declining returns from traditional activities, the populations of areas characterized by a high degree of desertification have independently sought supplementary forms of income -- from labour migration, trading, and small scale local off-farm enterprises. Continuing resource degradation indicates that these spontaneous economic explorations have not provided the solution to the problem of resource conservation. On the one hand, the low level of incomes from alternative sources has not yet resulted -- in most areas -- in reduced pressures on natural resources, although such incomes may have reduced the rate of increase of those pressures (but not in all circumstances). On the other hand, these alternative income generation strategies have not provided the answer to the need to develop stronger collective resource management regimes. Indeed, in some areas they may have weakened existing management regimes -- through, for example, the absence of those traditionally responsible for resource management (e.g., men) from the local community for extended lengths of time.

Sustainable resource use and management, therefore, confronts an extremely complex challenge. On the one hand, it must involve increasing alternative opportunities for income generation. On the other hand, it must provide support for organizational frameworks ensuring that this avenue of securing relief from one set of pressures on sustainable use does not give rise to new problems. Although integrated rural development planning has gone through a period of harsh criticism in the development community, the fact is that resource users in marginal environments have differentiated economic strategies (and, possibly, the more marginal the environment, the more differentiated and complex the strategies), the elements of which clearly interact. Assistance to only elements of these strategies, without reference to effects on other strategies (and the resources they involve), is an enterprise undertaken only at the peril of failure with regard to sustainable resource management.

Local and National Dimensions

The issue of alternative livelihoods or income generation has frequently been posed as one inherently capable of solution within the boundaries of the community. While there is some scope for such an approach, it has important limitations in its pure form. The first point to be made in this regard is that all forms of economic diversification involving a shift from direct subsistence production involve sales of commodities on markets. Given the low cash incomes of households in marginal areas, the success of such diversification is necessarily conditioned by linkages to, and the level of development of, the extra-local market economy. Local diversification, therefore, is very much tied to the development of the larger economic systems within which they are inserted. The second point is that while there may be a need for local economic diversification, there may be no local opportunity for it. Under such circumstances, which are not at all uncommon, effective diversification may involve movement of people and resources out of the local economy. This is already practiced on a very large scale in many parts of the Sahel, for example, where male labour seeking cash income has been constrained to engage in long distance short- and long-term migration.

The scope of the issue of development of alternative livelihoods is, therefore, not inherently local, and must encompass the emergence of alternative sources of income in other areas of national/regional economies: the answer to community problems is not always to be sought within the community itself. It is worthwhile here to step back from general formulations to consider the issue (for illustrative purposes) in relation to two different eco-systems: semi-arid areas already subject to severe desertification; and sub-humid areas beginning the process of desertification.

Differentiation in Challenges and Responses

The first type of area (semi-arid) is typically characterized by low agricultural marketed surpluses (expressing low levels of productivity), and low levels of population density. While there is a great need to arrest the process of desertification, there are often few opportunities for greatly increasing income under/from sustainable resource management regimes -- signifying, inter alia, that anti-desertification schemes will tend to privilege management over investment. In these areas the response to increased pressures on natural resources will tend to involve exploration of new alternative forms of income generation. However, local possibilities for this tend to be limited by the "shallowness" of local markets. In sum, in such circumstances, sustainable resource use will pivot around improved management combined with extra-local development of alternative income opportunities. The practical challenge here is national level development of income generating opportunities for the poor, acting as an escape valve for unmanageable local pressures. While macro-economic development strategy is necessarily different from actions to combat desertification, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that significant inroads into the problem of desertification will be dependent upon more dynamic national development -- be this in urban areas, or in less stressed rural areas.

The situation in sub-humid areas can be very different. Again we refer here to an "ideal type" for the purposes of illustration. Most sub-humid areas are characterized by higher levels of marketed surplus and higher population density. What is more, the rather low technical level of production in many areas (in Africa, but also elsewhere) suggest that there are significant opportunities for improving agricultural productivity and agricultural incomes. With regard to sustainable resource use and management, the potential income gains from improved practices suggest that the struggle against desertification might well involve much higher levels of user- sustainable agricultural investment (justified by anticipated increases in income). While communal forms of management will be important for some purposes, the prevalence of the private (as opposed to common property) tenure regime suggests that collective management will be much less important than in semi-arid areas. With regard to new alternative forms of income generation, the greater "depth" of the local market (and its potential for expansion on the basis of greater local agricultural activity) suggest far higher possibilities for local diversification than in semi-arid areas. In sum, while clearly affected by national level developments, the sub- humid areas affected by desertification offer much greater potential for local responses to the challenge of income: through both investment in agriculture and more diversified non-agricultural activities.

The point of the above is not to present a fixed and absolute dichotomy between semi- arid and sub-humid areas, but to suggest that the problem of developing alternative livelihoods is not susceptible to a single type of solution. Alternative livelihoods are sustained not only in relation to needs, but also to opportunities -- which vary more or less systematically according to the underlying resource regime. At a time in which the advantages of community-driven approaches to resource conservation are being increasingly appreciated, it is imperative that it be recognized that while the community is part of the solution, its does not necessarily encompass all its elements.

THE FORMS OF ALTERNATIVE LIVELIHOODS

Linkage of effective action to combat desertification to the development of alternative livelihoods brings the conservation issue firmly within the purview of poverty alleviation strategy, to the extent that this, too, is increasingly constrained to explore non-traditional avenues of income generation. In principle, almost any form of economic organization may offer the basis of alternative livelihoods -- the only criterion being that income be derived from it. Thus, if large scale industrial or service expansion could provide a sustainable basis for employment of the rural poor (either in situ or in urban areas), then, in principle, support for its development might be considered part of overall anti-desertification strategies. In practice, however, the focus of alternative livelihoods development strategies (apart from those involving agricultural diversification) has come to rest on support for small-scale and micro-enterprises.

Particularly in Africa the development of relatively large scale production in the private sector has been supported by a variety of more or less hidden subsidies, ranging from import controls to privileged access to capital at below-market rates. Many of these enterprises have been inherently inefficient, with high production costs and quite distorted capital:labour ratios relative to underlying factor prices. Nonetheless, they have, in certain sectors, represented a major obstacle to the development of smaller-scale production. With the implementation of structural adjustment programmes the situation has changed considerably. In particular, the elimination of policy-based economic distortions in favour of large scale enterprise has significantly increased the local competitiveness of small scale enterprise. Moreover, the devaluation of local currencies has generally increased the competitiveness of local production relative to imports. In principle, therefore, micro-enterprise expansion seems eminently possible, and appears to be the route of preference in expanding alternative livelihoods for the poor -- at a very low capital cost per unit of employment created. It should be noted, however, that realization of the potential for micro-enterprise development is very much dependent upon the development of a supportive policy and institutional environment -- it is, in sum, an area for positive development action.

The rural non-farm enterprise sector in sub-Saharan Africa accounts for a sizable and increasing share of GDP in many countries. In Ghana and Sierra Leone, for example, they account for more than 37% of value-added in manufacturing. A number of recent studies have concluded that rural non-farm production in Africa has grown more rapidly than employment in agriculture and, consequently, the share of non-farm activities in total rural employment has grown. Employment projections to the year 2000 indicate that 50% of all rural employment in Kenya will be in the non-farm sector. While the linkage multiplier between the farm and non-farm economy in Africa is lower than that reported for Asia, the elasticity of employment in the non-farm (informal) sector is significantly higher than that in the private formal sector. Studies in Kenya have shown that a given increase in GDP can generate six times as much employment in the informal sector compared with that in the private formal sector.

A study on "The Impact of Economic Recovery Programmes on Smallholder Farmers and the Rural Poor in Sub-Saharan Africa", prepared for IFAD by the Overseas Development Institute, has indicated the special importance of the labour market to smallholders. Additional income gained from the sale of labour is central to the survival strategies of the landless and to the marginal and smallholder farmer. Most employment opportunities occur in the informal sector, which consists of small units, often family-owned, providing simple goods and services.

Besides the flow of labour, powerful symbiotic linkages exist between smallholders and non-farm rural enterprises. The resource flow between the two sectors, in the form of capital, constitutes the major source of accumulation and investment in the rural economy. Forward and backward linkages ensure the provision of implements, inputs and a host of processing and distribution services essential for increasing agricultural output. Moreover, the consumer demand linkage between the two sectors has the potential of being an important stimulant to the growth of the rural non-farm economy. Finally, the demand for farm labour is seasonal, while non-farm employment fills the idle periods; thus, farm and non-farm employment demand are complementary.

DROUGHT, DESERTIFICATION, ALTERNATIVE LIVELIHOODS

Much of the discussion of the development of alternative livelihoods has focused on situations in which desertification is advanced or is advancing. The rationale, as indicated above, is that the creation of alternatives reduces pressure exerted by the poor on the existing natural resource base to generate income -- as a substitute for, or supplement to existing activities. However, alternative livelihoods may also play an important role in enhancing the resilience of the rural population to drought, irrespective of whether drought takes place in a situation of local desertification or not.

Studies of the impact of the recent Southern Africa drought upon the rural poor suggest that it may have a long term impact through the decapitalization of the small scale agricultural unit. Specifically, the emergences of a major household food deficit can have the impact of impelling sale of farm assets (e.g. animals and equipment), exercising an enduring (negative) influence over future household production -- particularly as it appears that the recovery influence over future household production -- particularly as it appears that the recovery capacity of poor households seems to be diminishing. In effect, drought can contribute not just to immediate problems of food availability, but also to an increase in structural poverty. It is evident, however, that not all rural families suffer equally from this process. Specifically households with non-agricultural incomes which are relatively insulated from fluctuations in production occasional by rainfall show the follwoing characteristics:

i. they are less constrained to sell farm assets when on-farm production falls beneath consumption requirements; and

ii. they are capable of building up on-farm capital stocks at an accelerated rate.

Even in areas not subject to major long-term resource degradation (but, nonetheless, subject to drought) development of alternative income generating opportunities can play an important role in raising the resilience of poor households to drought. The significance of this can hardly be overstated. The impact be overstated. The impact of drought on current consumption during the drought incidence period can be very substantial, and its is this which tends to receive the focus of concern. However, drought has much wider impact on resource use. Specifically, the prospect of forced sell-off of assets in food deficit periods tends to lead to low levels of fixed investment on the farm and the holding of assets in easily and quickly realizable forms (e.g., livestock). The consequences of this coping strategy at the household level are severe both for agricultural production and natural resource conservation, suggesting that measures to reduce the need to resort to sell-off (e.g., through exploration on non-agricultural income generating activities) may, under certain circumstances, exercise an important positive influence on both drought resilience and long- term maintenance of natural resource assets.

Emphasis upon the potentially positive role played by alternative livelihood development with regard to resource conservation and drought resilience should not be taken to signify that the potentials inherent in existing livelihood systems (including the value of diversity, see Appendix I) have been exhausted. With regard to resource conservation, the capital and management inputs applied by users varies directly with the anticipated income flow form use of assets, with he implications that the higher the anticipated benefit stream, the higher the level of investment and management. From this point of view, there are positive benefits to derived from assisting users to raise productivity in existing livelihood systems -- and, therefore, conservation strategies to cope with drought should in no radical measure be differentiated from rural development strategies. Indeed, expansion of productivity in existing activities is one of the surest means of establishing the economic viability of alternative systems, (whose vitality is often closely linked to the level of agricultural surplus.

While support in this direction involves local application of resources it also like micro- enterprise development, require activities above the level of the individual community. One of the major determinants of reduced investment behavior at the farm level in marginal (and not only marginal) agricultural areas is the anticipation of risk -- of loss of production (and not value of output) and assets. Anticipation of drought is a major factor in risk assessment. However, the level of risk associated with drought is heavily influenced by factors other that water availability. Transport and marketing conditions, for example play an important role. The poorer the transport and marketing system, the higher the price paid for food during proportion of assets in non-fixed form. One of the most important interventions to reduce drought vulnerability and raise fixed farm investment, therefore, is not direct investment in the natural resources themselves, but in the infrastructure with effectively determines the value of resources (by virtue of its influence over benefit streams). As in the case of alternative livelihood development, conservation-related activities cannot be de-linked from development in, and linkage to, the larger economic system.

TYPES OF ALTERNATIVE LIVELIHOODS SUSTAINABLE IN MARGINAL AREAS

Experience has shown that there can be no fixed "menu" of micro-enterprise based alternative livelihood systems: development in any sector must depend upon the structure of the local and national markets (dependent upon the general level of development of the economy, the prevailing import regime, and support for the medium-and large scale enterprise sector, as well as upon the availability of local raw materials and productive infrastructure (e.g. energy, water, transport). The conditions of success are not only the side of markets; they also include compatibility with existing local skills and activities (given that many alternative activities are pursued on a part-time basis, exploiting "slack" periods in the agricultural cycle).

Nonetheless, it is possible to identify a "positive list" of general types of activity which are particularly relevant to combining resource conservation with income generation in marginal areas (the issue of bio-diversity is treated separately in Appendix I):

i. non-extractive primary production: beekeeping, poultry raising, market gardening, and wildlife and tourism;

ii. processing activities: post harvest crop processing;

iii. cottage industries: livestock-based activities, oil presses and stove manufacture

Beekeeping. Beekeeping is a form of primary production that is widely practiced but whose products have a large unmet local demand in Africa. Honey production represents an important nutritive and monetary supplement especially during the hungry season. Strategies for increasing income from beekeeping can be based on modifications of existing knowledge;. They do not require large capital or training investments. Although much remains to be learned about using the apis Mellifica adansonii, and other tropical bees, in large commercial operations, there is a long and rich history of beekeeping and beekeeping projects in the tropics. Beekeeping is a non-extractive activity which is environmentally beneficial, since the pollination activity of bees improves crop production.

Poultry Raising. Poultry raising is widely practiced by most families in rural semi-arid Africa. It demands little investment of resources, returns in the form of family nutrition and income are steady and it is ecologically benign. Nevertheless, there is a potential for much greater returns from both small- and large-scale poultry enterprises. The attractiveness of poultry raising programme lies in their potential to benefit directly the nutrition and income of rural families. Nevertheless, important difficulties in increasing small-scale production must be recognized and accommodated, in particular the problem of disease and the possible competition between the need to supply feed and the food needs of the family.

Market Gardening. Market gardening is an activity that can be adopted with little investment in land or money, and responds well to increases in labour. It produces high-value crops that supply a constant flow of ready cash and nutritious food for the family. In many areas it is the most important source of income for women. With technical assistance and improved marketing, it has great potential for growth since the demand for year-around vegetables is strong and increasing in towns and cities.

The key to market gardening is water availability, so that vegetables must be grown either during the rainy season or in areas with available surface or ground water for irrigation. Since the produce is perishable, the commercial garden must also be either near a market or have a system of daily marketing.

Market gardening is already widely practiced and has little social or cultural constraints on expansion or the adoption of new techniques. The labour and cash requirements are variable and flexible. The major season for market gardening in semi-arid regions is after the rainy season, when the labour demand for the cultivation of field crops has ended. Market gardening is one of the few activities in which both men and women earn a cash income.

Wildlife And Tourism. The world's marginal lands maintain populations of birds and wildlife with the potential for generating revenues from a variety of wildlife-related activities, including game viewing and consumptive activities, such as hunting, culling and wildlife ranching for meat production. Large and diverse wildlife populations exist in semi-arid areas of eastern and southern Africa from Sudan to Botswana. Lesser populations are found in West Africa.

The contemporary distribution of wildlife species is frequently a function of policies to protect wildlife from interference from human populations. National parks have been created and laws governing hunting have been enacted in many countries. The conservation of wildlife has, however, resulted in land use conflicts with indigenous herding and cropping systems. Under circumstances of increasing population pressure, wildlife conservation is often seen as a luxury by indigenous land owners. Governments and conservation groups increasingly recognize that in order to maintain wildlife populations, the wildlife must generate economic returns for the affected populations. Wildlife can generate revenues and employment potential in rural areas where significant economic potential exists.

The potential for wildlife-based activities to contribute to the improved welfare of rural people depends upon the nature of the activity. Consumptive uses contribute little to rural populations and in their competitive demand for land may, in fact, have an adverse effect. The non-consumption tourism for wildlife-viewing, is potentially very profitable, but is vulnerable to fluctuations in demand. Further, the structure of ownership is such that little income flows to rural areas.

A number of promising alternatives are being explored as a result of the recognition that the willingness of rural people to continue to support a profitable activity which yields them little, yet competes for land and water, is eroding. Wildlife managers in Kenya and Zimbabwe are making major efforts to engage local communities in wildlife management and to return to them more of the income the wildlife generates. Expansion of similar income- and employment-generating opportunities in other countries depends upon the presence of significant numbers of wildlife or of unique species, political stability, the infrastructure to attract tourists and an explicit policy to distribute revenues in rural areas.

Post Harvest Crop Processing. Improved technology for processing agricultural products is being developed for a variety of crops. Among them are grain mills and oil seed presses. These technologies generate employment and income through both processing and marketing a product; manufacture and repair of the machines.

In considering food processing technology a number of key questions need to be raised on:

i. the existing processing method and whether the alternative is competitive;

ii. whether there is a demand for the services that technology would provide;

iii. if people have sufficient income to pay for the service; and

iv. whether the end product is compatible with the tastes and cooking methods of the people.

Machines operating at a variety of scales will be more profitable if they are used to process more than one crop.

A principal constraint in adopting a number of such technologies is the availability and cost of power supplies, when electricity or diesel fuel is required. Hand-operated machines avoid this problem and are essential if electricity is unavailable or fuel costs high.

Other concerns relate to the degree of training needed for operators, maintenance requirements and possible occupational hazards implied in their use.

Livestock-Based Activities. Slaughtering, curing and tanning are also possible economically at scales ranging from small, labour-intensive operations employing two people and processing as few as two hides per day, to large capital-intensive enterprises employing a hundred people and processing two hundred hides per day. The leather industry, therefore, offers opportunities for expanding rural employment in areas where a reliable supply of hides and skins is available. It is a particularly appropriate supplementary activity in herding societies such as the Fulani Tuareg and Maasai especially where dependence upon subsistence livestock production is leading to impoverishment and to environmental degradation.

The expansion of such activities, based on existing skills in livestock production and leather craft, requires institutional and infrastructural support for training, market analysis, provision of inputs and in setting competitive price structures. Activities based on the processing of hides and skins are a by-product of the meat industry and thus they cannot be analysed without reference to the policies and marketing arrangements in the meat sector.

As long as most demand for meat is from urban areas and refrigerated transport is limited, the vast majority of hides and skins will come from urban abattoirs. The employment generated from the processing of these hides and skins also occurs in urban centres. Nevertheless, substantial numbers of animals are slaughtered in rural areas and small market centres. The hides and skins of these animals are usually dried and then either collected for use in urban industries, export, or local artisanal industries.

Production of Energy Saving Devices. In rural areas, the "three-stone" hearth is the most common cooking device. It is fuel-inefficient, using firewood freely collected by household members from available stocks (usually dead branches) near the homestead. In urban areas, fuelwood is purchased in commercial markets. It is common to find charcoal replacing firewood in the fuelwood market as forests surrounding cities and towns are cleared. This is due to the greater ease and lower cost of transporting charcoal over longer distances compared to heavier firewood. Urban households typically use some version of the widely disseminated fourneau malgache type of metal stove.

The design, production and dissemination of improved wood-burning cooking stoves have been supported by numerous development agencies and non-governmental organizations over the last two decades. Stove programmes have usually focused on two areas of intervention: "massive" mud stoves of the Lorena type, for the use of firewood in rural villages and metal charcoal-burning stoves, such as the successful Kenyan jiko, used in urban environments. It is the charcoal- burning metal cooking stove that has the greatest potential for reducing wood use and for generating income and employment opportunities.

FACTORS GOVERNING THE SUCCESS OF STRATEGIES

The interrelated objectives of generating employment and increasing income in the rural areas of marginal lands focus upon the promotion of innovations in existing agricultural systems and small-scale enterprises. By reducing the size of the population directly dependant upon primary agricultural production, land pressure and associated environmental degradation can be curtain led and living standards improved.

Such a decentralized approach is geared to rural areas and market towns rather than the common tendency of concentrating investment in cities. An emphasis on employment and income enhancement in rural areas has implications in terms of possible trade-offs between labour and capital-intensive, small scale and large-scale enterprises, industry and agriculture, production to meat local and export demands and district-based and centralized planning.

The linkages between urban and rural areas are the critical elements in the success of rural development approaches and must become the focus of policy. This contrasts with previous approaches, which have emphasized the distinctions between rural and urban areas. A focus on small-scale activities in villages and rural market towns requires careful integration with existing economic structures, which are often urban-based. These top-down structures can, given a facilitative policy framework, promote rural development. In the absence of such a framework, however, participatory rural development may be symied.

While each of the strategies discussed above has particular charesteristics, there are common principles which determines their ability the advance the goal of increasing rural incomes and employment, while sustaining the natural resource base.

The first general principle is the importance of integrating the strategies into the existing system, taking into account social, cultural, economic and environmental conditions. Successful integration requires:

i. recognition that rural systems are characterized by diversity of economic activity and flexibility in the allocation of resources to them at the household level. These features contribute to the ability of rural societies to adjust the variability and unpredictability of the production environment. Interventions should therefore build upon, not disrupt the existing patterns of production;

ii. not only must the strategies be socially and culturally acceptable, but they have differential impact upon segments of society - not every strategy is appropriate for every group. The potential of individuals, households and groups to engage in these strategies varies according to social characteristics (gender, age, caste), economic status (availability of land, labour, capital), environmental factors (climate, soils) and locational factors (access to markets and infrastructure). For example, some activities are carried out predominately by women, others by a certain caste and still others by families with small land holdings;

iii. successful adoption of these strategies depends upon people integrating them into existing livelihood systems. Rural people are both experimenters with and potential beneficiaries of alternative systems and thus they should participate fully in all phases of the process, from definition to implementation;

iv. a single strategy may generate relatively little employment and income in and of itself. A combination will usually be needed to provide a significant improvement of family well-being. Market gardening, for example, is usually a very seasonal activity, but it may be successfully combined with poultry raising to provide a year-around income;

v. the most viable are integrated strategies, which not only complement existing systems but generate backward and forward linkages. For example, growing cash crops may generate forward linkages in food processing and packaging. These two activities relate additional forward linkages in the manufacture of machines, which in turn has backward linkages to repair facilities. Trade networks connect them together. The employment generated creates a demand for food, stimulating backward linkages to food production and for consumer items, thus reinforcing forward linkages to their manufactures and marketing. These in turn generate more off-farm employment with its associated multiplier effects.

A second critical factor is access to markets, since the success of many strategies depends on increased marketing of products. Consideration include:

i. the size and location of the demand. For some strategies the demands is present at the village level, perhaps initially to meet basic needs (e.g. grain milling, poultry, vegetable production). These can be adopted in areas far from a larger market. Selling the products of other strategies requires the population size and market linkages of a town (for honey, fruit juice, fish and furniture). For others it may require the aggravated demand of a large city or export market (stoves, exotic fruit or vegetable, leather goods, pyrethrum, beeswax). The distance from the appropriate market, transport costs and perishability of the product will determine its economic viability;

ii. the degree of specialization, product uniformity and regularity of supply varies with the level of the market, the requirements become more stringent from the village market to export sales;

iii. the reliability of demand varies depending upon location of the demand and characteristics of the product. Export demand is often already served by existing firms and may offer few opportunities for fledgling firms. It is often local demand which, though smaller, may offer the most reliable market for new enterprises. Locally produced honey and leather products, for example, may be marketed domestically, but not compete successfully in the world market. Marginal environments have a comparative advantage in the world market for selected products, such as gum arabic produced in drylands and off-season fruit and vegetable grown in irrigated and mountainous areas;

iv. as local demand increases and rural entrepreneurs respond, so competition from well- established urban-based firms, operating at lower unit cost, may increase and undermine the process of rural capital accumulation and income generation. It is critical that the policies which initiated rural development be complemented by others which prevent the undercutting of recently established rural producers.

BASIC ELEMENTS OF A STRATEGY TO DEVELOP ALTERNATIVE LIVELIHOODS

In gradual recognition of the importance of non-farm activities, a number of actions in favour of the informal sector were initiated during the last two decades, although the results of these interventions have been mixed. A difficult policy environment combined with an inadequate institutional infrastructure are constraints on the development of non-farm rural employment, and though donors have recognized the importance of the sector and the need to support it, there is less agreement about how. A number of research and evaluation exercises by donors, individuals and research institutions have provided an insight into the intricacy of development programmes in support of the informal sector.

Perhaps the only discrete, relatively large scale ivestment assistance programme focusing exclusively on resource conservation and income generation among the marginal rural poor in Africa is IFAD's Special Programme for Sub-Saharan African Countries Affected By Drought and Desertification (SPA), which has entered its second phase. The first phase (SPA - I) had two objectives. The first was to help restore the productive capability of small holders, including rehabilitation of services and infrastructure in the wake of problems arising from drought and economic dislocation. The mechanism for pursuing this first objective was to be quick disbursing programme-loan type operations. The second objective involved long-term improvement i.e., helping to build greater drought resilience to drought and environmental stress at the farm level. This involved a combination of activities, including: (i) better utilization of water resources (small scale water control schemes); (ii) soil conservation and agro-forestry, (iv) promotion of traditional drought resistant crops; and (v) institutional and policy development in support of these on-farm measures. The later emergence of new schemes for rapid balance- of-payments relief to countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (e.g., the World Bank's SPA and IMF's ESAF) enabled IFAD's SPA to concentrate on the second set of objectives. Under SPA I, IFAD supported 32 projects (with a total value of approximately USD 520 million) in 22 countries between 1986 and 1992 in addition to investments under its Regular Programme.

The second phase of SPA preserves the focus of the first phase, while extending its conceptual frame and operational scope. Specifically, it carries environmental and soil conservation objectives from on-farm to off-farm (particularly in the common property resource domain); and it addresses overall coping strategies of households and communities through economic diversification. Finally it seeks to be sensitive to the total complex of factors contributing to drought vulnerability (including infrastructure and institutional development), and to provide a systematic programming response involving concrete targets in priority areas.

Drawing upon IFAD's experience in micro-enterprise development, and in close coordination with multilateral agencies operating in the field of micro-enterprise development, IFAD is building its alternative livelihoods strategy in areas subject to diversification upon the following bases.

Spatial Considerations. In the past, programmes of assistance to the informal sector have been primarily targeted at urban areas. However, the spatial distribution of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa requires a greater concentration of efforts in rural areas. To this end, the SPA-II is to be the first international investment initiative geared specifically towards the development of rural non-farm enterprises.

Responding to the Diversity of Sectors. The promotion of non-farm employment in Africa has not sufficiently taken into consideration the fact that the sector includes very heterogenous activities, diverse economic sectors and sub-sectors and varied enterprises each with a different set of problems and potentialities. Moreover, the focus of both donors and policy makers has been placed on the manufacturing sector to the neglect of commerce and other services. In fact, the available data indicate that the size of the non-farm work force engaged in rural services significantly exceeds the number of employees in the manufacturing sector. In view of this heterogenous nature and the consequent differing requirements, separate sub-programmes are being designed for two broad categories of enterprises:

i. household-based income-generating activities that are carried out in a home or cluster of homesteads. These activities are primarily executed by women, who face particular constraints due to their domestic responsibilities and their lack of access to schooling, training, credit and marketing. A community development approach closely tied to an agricultural development programme will be adopted. Major activities to receive support will be food processing and on-traditional household-based activities;

ii. rural small-scale enterprises related to agriculture. The targeted enterprises are very small, with an average number of employees per unit of between 1.6 and 2.6, including the owner. In other words, almost two-thirds of the enterprises involve only the self-employed owner while the rest have the assistance of only one or two helpers, often family workers and apprentices. Only in fa few instances do rural enterprises in Africa have a more substantial number of employees for example, saw mills and car repair workshops. Notwithstanding the paucity of data, it can be assumed that the small-scale enterprise sector in the rural areas of sub- Saharan Africa is almost entirely composed of those units which are conventionally defined as "micro-enterprises". Even when taking into consideration the substantial variations between activities and locations, the capital requirement of these establishments is very modest, ranging from a few dollars in charcoal burning and retailing to more substantial capital outlays of a few thousand dollars for processing units. Women play an active role in the sector, a role that is likely to increase in the emerging non-farm economy of sub-Saharan Africa.

Recognizing the Importance of Demand. The experience from all interventions testify to the importance of demand in fostering the development of the sector. In the absence of a favorable economic environment which stimulates demand for the basic goods and services provided by non-farm enterprises, the provision of services and finance will have a limited effect.

SPA-II off-farm employment projects will, therefore, be implemented where policy initiatives have improved the terms of trade in favour of rural areas, thus providing a strong stimulus for increasing productivity in the agricultural sector. The Fund also expects, through close collaboration and dialogue with the Bretton Woods institutions (the IMF and the World Bank), to seize the opportunity to introduce small-scale enterprise-related policies into structural adjustment and economic recovery programmes.

To emphasize the demand-side further and to enhance the consumption linkages within rural areas, the non-farm development programme will be launched in parallel and in harmony with on-going and future agricultural development programmes supported by IFAD. Two additional measures will be pursued to generate additional income in the rural areas: the first would be the introduction of labour-intensive public works for the development of rural infrastructures; and the second will include the promotion of the more effective use of common property resources, especially for the poorest rural populations.

Appropriate Supply-side Interventions. While the demand factor is crucial for the creation, survival, or expansion and transformation of enterprises, supply-side measures are needed to enable enterprises to benefit from increased opportunities created under the influence of the demand factor. As in the case of smallholder agriculture, the non-agricultural enterprise sector faces a number of supply constraints. The most common are: limited access to credit and foreign exchange, lack of facilities for training and technology transfer, insufficient or inappropriate research programmes, inadequate infrastructures and difficulties in input supply and marketing. The non-agricultural enterprise sector has not received the same level of support from donors and governments as the agricultural sector. However, a number of programmes launched by various donors have aimed at removing one or more of the constraints mentioned above.

Such programmes range from a minimalist credit approach to an integrated financial/technical assistance, training and infrastructure development one. There is a consensus that the performance of these programmes has not been fully satisfactory, as a result of their heavy reliance on the para-statal banking system and those government specialized agencies assigned to promote small-scale enterprises. In other, extreme cases, complete reliance on NGOs or expatriate technical assistance teams has created similar disappointments. The SPA- II will adopt a more pluralistic approach towards programme design and implementation, involving government agencies, the private sector and NGOs. The essence of the approach would be to build on existing skills, indigenous African capacity and the spontaneous response of the beneficiaries by identifying genuine needs.

Programme Specificity. Improved business conditions in toto would not necessarily increase opportunities for small-scale agriculture-related enterprises. The market imperfections and constraints cited above are formidable barriers to the entry of the majority of the rural population, in particular youth and women, into the sector. Conditions also remain unfavorable for the destitute, rural poor and those with no access to capital and opportunities to enhance their skills. The SPA-II has, therefore, adopted a targeted approach according tot he opportunities afforded by the realities of the rural economy. A number of strategic considerations determine the degree and extent of targeting in a specific country programme. Such considerations include: (i) the need to seek a balance between employment generation and poverty alleviation; (ii) the need to emphasize the promotion of a specific type of enterprise to enhance forward/backward linkages with the smallholders; (ii) the gender consideration; and (iv) the need to assist destitute and vulnerable groups.

The scope and coverage of the training component, the type of intermediary institutions (including the participating NGOs), the method of credit distribution and related financing arrangements, the social mobilization, the organization of the target group and, finally, the agenda for research and technology development will be instruments in effectively targeting programme activities.

One area that would require additional emphasis by the SPA-II is the development of enterprises involved in backward linkages from the small holder sector (i.e., those dealing with input supply and manufacturing or the repair of tools and simple machines). Backward linkages in sub-Saharan Africa are weak. With accelerated agricultural development and a continued process of privatization, these linkages will grown, particularly, in areas with a high population density (e.g., Kenya's western region) and in the vicinity of major irrigation perimeters (e.g., the Senegal River Valley).

The present gender composition of the informal sector and the emerging patterns of the non-farm economy in sub-Saharan Africa require that programmes be attuned to women's needs. For an average 40-50% of rural women, the informal sector constitutes a vital source of additional household income. Manu of the non-farm activities that will grown most rapidly (e.g., food processing and marketing) are female-dominated. The key role of women in the rural economy of sub-Saharan Africa will, therefore, increase. Both demand and supply side interventions should provide a response commensurate to such a role.

PROGRAMME COMPONENTS

No single design mode of assistance to the rural non-farm employment sector under the SPA-II is being contemplated. The diversity of sectors makes the construction of even a "typical" model almost impossible. To give a better idea of the direction in which the resources of the SPA-II would be used, the basic elements of a general framework of intervention are defined below, in the light of which the projects would be formulated and implemented.

Provision of Finance

According to studies of small enterprises in Africa, the initial investment for the majority of rural entrepreneurs comes from personal savings, assistance from friends and relatives and, in particular, remittances from migrant workers. Initial investment capital is provided by banks only for a minimal numbers of enterprises, while the role of money lenders have ben found to be marginal as well. The financial barriers to entering the small enterprise sector may, in most cases, only be overcome by those having savings or access to assistance from friends and relatives. Therefore, people with no personal resources, and those who have no access to remittances, might occupy a disadvantageous position in relation to entry into the sector.

The requirement for working capital is generally a more significant constraint on small-scale entrepreneurs, in particular for those little businesses and crafts heavily reliant on inputs and raw materials. In contrast to start up capital, recourse to informal credit suppliers has tended to be substantially higher for covering working capital requirements.

Because of the limited outreach of the commercial banking system in the rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa and its total lack of knowledge of and capacity to deal with informal sector, the para-statal banking system remains an important option for the provision of credit to rural enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa. The SPA-II will promote measures to assist the formal financing institutions in coping with challenge of credit distribution to the informal sector. For example, provision would be made to assist the banks in establishing outreach programmes. Fostering collaboration with NGOs and promoting group lending are the type of measures with which IFAD has successfully experimented in the smallholder sector and which would be extended to the non-agricultural sector. It is, however, expected that the capacity of formal financing institutions to meet the needs of the informal sector will continue to be limited. Efforts would, therefore, be made to test and introduce creative financing mechanisms suitable for innovative, small-scale and, often, dispersed rural activities. The ultimate objective would be the development of a system which ensures the sustainability of both the financial institutions and the assisted enterprises.

Enhancing rural savings and re-cycling them through various types of self-help associations and savings clubs will constitute an integral part of the envisaged financing arrangements. This would help to remove the present dichotomy of the rural financing scene, in which savings are transferred to urban areas while rural enterprises continue to be starved for funds. To meet the needs of female-entrepreneurs, gender-specific savings/credit associations will be promoted. Working linkages between informal and formal financing institutions would be established.

The possibility for replacing the heavy reliance on debt instruments with the equity and venture capital modes will also be tested. Debt is a risk-neutral mode of financing and works best with entrepreneurs that use proven technologies. In rural areas, business ideas are based primarily on intuition and thus on simple assumptions by small entrepreneurs. SPA-II-related components would, therefore, build on the experience of some NGOs in dealing with risk- finance.

Research and Development

Research activities aimed at promoting and assisting the development of small enterprises in rural areas will be based on a client-oriented approach serving three main purposes: to introduce improvements into production processes; to promote and test new technologies; and to respond to new types of demand. The terms "production processes" and "technologies" must be understood in the wider sense as covering not only manufacturing activities per se but all types of processes and techniques related to other crafts, such as carpentry, blacksmithing, woodworking, transport, energy supply and work organization:

i. Improvements in production processes. Methods and techniques used by rural artisans and other small-scale entrepreneurs are, on the whole, traditional and, in many cases, inefficient. Abrupt modernization would, as a rule, be difficult for financial, economic, technical and social reasons. Frequently, however, significant increases in efficiency and productivity can be realized through small adaptations, the introduction of simple but more appropriate equipment and the reorganization of the production process. The need for such improvements as well as adequate solutions have to be identified by close cooperation between the small entrepreneurs and the research system;

ii. Promotion and testing of new technologies. Rural economies, especially in the poor IFAD target areas, are characterized by enclaves that are not only physically remote by isolated by a dearth of information and a lack of technical and managerial contracts. IN this regard, the research system has an important role to play in transmitting information and introducing innovations to existing and potential small rural entrepreneurs and to assisting in the testing of such new processes, techniques or products within the context of a specific rural area;

iii. Response to new types of demand. In order to be successful, small entrepreneurs need to have sufficient technical and financial flexibility to respond quickly to the changes in demand expressed by their clients, who themselves work in a constantly evolving environment. in the rural areas this refers above all to changes in the agricultural production process and the related upstream and downstream activities. Thus, the adoption of new cultivation practices may suddenly increase the demand for rotary hoes or animal-drawn equipment; the promotion of farm-level processing may lead to a strong demand for the construction of cemented drying slabs, etc. In such cases, the research system will have to supply small entrepreneurs willing to respond to this demand with the necessary technical know- how and assistance in testing and adapting it to specific requirements.

OVERVIEW

Reduction of forms of desertification arising from patterns of human use,and the reduction of vulnerability to drought, both require a major expansion of the scope of actio from material works on the land. As was indicated in the presentation on Integrated Community Driven Approaches: Participation In Decision-Making, Freedom Of Information, Education And Awareness, Role Of NGOs, Women And Other Major Groups, it requires the development of community participation rooted in responsiveness to user economic concerns and forms of resource management. It also requires looking beyond agriculture to the entire economic system that resource users base their livelihoods upon. Pressures upon natural resources are, in part, reflections of the very limited incomes derived from other sources and it is difficult in many cases to conceive of users being able to adopt a longer term perspective on resource management until those pressures have been mitigated.

A very typical response to these pressures has been migration of all or part of the rural household. It is likely that this will continue to be an important element of the response of the rural poor to both desertification and drought, although there is scope for improvement of its mechanics through, for example, better preparation of the rural population for integration into the rural labour market, better market information on demand for labour and wage rates, and better mechanisms for transmission of remittances from urban to rural areas. Nonetheless, migration is not in any way a comprehensive answer to resource use degradation. On the one hand, the absorptive capacity of many urban areas is very limited. On the other hand, it does not address the increasingly severe problems (and unsustainable resource use) of the growing number of those in the process of sliding from rural economic viability to forced "exit" through a transitional stage of resource "stripping".

There is, therefore, a good rationale for strengthening local alternatives for income generation, alternatives placing much lower demands on local natural resources subject to stress. These already exist to some extent, and elements of the macro-economic environment are changing to favour their expansion. However, exploitation of these opportunities will require assistance. At the local level this involves financial and technical support sensitive to local skills, the possibilities of the poor, and the integration of new with existing activities. At the national level, it requires a better macroeconomic and policy framework as well as facilitating investments, particularly in transport linkages and, possibly, energy supplies. Programmes such as IFAD's Special Programme for Sub-Saharan African Countries Affected by Drought and Desertification have already acquired substantial experience in this area not only in project design, but also in actual implementation.

A comprehensive response to the widespread problems of desertification and drought through alternative livelihood development will require, however, a consistent and major commitment at the national policy level, as well as a specific earmarking of assistance resources to support change. In this regard, while economic adjustment at the national level may provide greater opportunities, the ability of the poor in marginal areas to grasp them will require complementary activity at the meso- and micro-levels which must be both sectorally and locally targeted.

APPENDIX 1

BIODIVERSITY IN DRYLAND AREAS

The potential for management of wildlife, for tourism and as a food source, is covered in the main body of the report. This appendix will focus on the other main part of dryland biodiversity , that is plant genetic resources of actual or potential value for food and agriculture.

Drylands, including many areas subject to drought and desertification, are particularly important regions for plant genetic resources. As shown below six of the ten classical centres of diversity of the major food crops are in such areas. These include the centres of diversity for many of the major food crops including wheat, barley, maize, sorghum, millet, peas and several types of bean. Other areas, including large parts of Africa south of the Sahara, are also important as secondary centres of diversity of major food crops. Since genetic resources obtained from the centres of diversity, whether directly or via ex situ genebanks, are indispensable inputs for the breeding of modern crop varieties, this part of dryland biodiversity has a major global significance.

Centre of Diversity : Major Crops
Mediterranean : Oats, Rapeseed
West Asian : Rye, Barley, Wheat, Peas
Central Asian : Wheat
Abyssinian : Barley, Sorghum Millets
Meso-American : Maize, Common Bean
Andean : Lima Bean, Groundnut

Besides the major food crops, drylands are important areas for "minor" food plants; medicinal plants; trees, and under-utilized plants of potential economic importance

Genetic erosion - the loss of genetic diversity - is a major global concern. It can also have important negative impacts on the rural poor. The main processes which lead to the loss of dryland biodiversity are :

i. land degradation per se: as lands become eroded, deforested or salinized, dryland habitats and the biodiversity they support are destroyed. Climate change per se may pose an additional threat;

ii. the breakdown of traditional systems of natural resource management with the parallel loss of local plant varieties, and associated cultural knowledge;

iii. components of agricultural development polices, including the displacement of traditional plant varieties by improved ones.

Biodiversity is an integral component of the traditional livelihood strategies of dryland populations. It is estimated that about 60% of the world' agricultural land is still farmed by predominately traditional or subsistence methods. With some exceptions such as Kenya and Zimbabwe, African farmers south of the Sahara use mainly own saved seed; for the most important food crops of this region - sorghum and millet - the area under introduced varieties is only 6%. Particularly in marginal areas, plant genetic diversity play an important part by contributing to stability of yield, adaptation to local environments, and meeting the multiple needs of local communities for a range of plant-derived food and other products. The number of species used in traditional farming systems, and the diversity within them is usually much greater than is the case with commercialized agriculture.

Notwithstanding the importance of dryland biodiversity in traditional agricultural systems as a source of genetic resources for modern agriculture, few recent advances have been made in the use of biodiversity to improve the livelihoods of dryland populations. There are a number of reasons for this which need to be overcome if the rural poor of dryland areas are to benefit from dryland biodiversity:

i. research and institutional biases against minor plants - the major emphasis on plant research during the last 100 years has been directed at the dozen or so primary food crops - to the exclusion of almost everything else;

ii. failure to integrate dvelopment and conservation polices - natural resource conservation programmes have often focused on wildlife or plant protection with little or no regard for human use patterns or how income generated could be used to improve the living standards of associated human populations;

iii. lack of mechanisms to return the benefits derived from genetic resources through intellectual property rights.

POSSIBILITIES FOR ENHANCED CONSERVATION AND USE OF DRYLAND BIODIVERSITY

In this section a number of approaches are given which could be developed to enhance the contribution of biodiversity to the livelihoods of rural people in dryland areas.

Realizing the Value of Genetic Diversity

As noted above, large economic benefits are derived from plant genetic resources from dryland areas. These benefits are realized most directly by the developers of biodiversity based products such as plant breeders, biotechnology enterprises and pharmaceutical companies, especially where products are protectec by patents or by other forms of intellectual property rights such as plant breeders's rights. The rural poor of dryland areas, while they often contribute to the development of these products by making available genetic resources and associated knowledge, rarely benefit from their availability since they usually do not meet their needs.

The Convention on Biological Diversity makes provision for the sharing of benefits derived from biodiversity with those providing it. Similarly, the FAO recognizes that farmers should be compensated for developing and making available plant genetic resources. Howwever, mechanisms for returning a share of the benefits to the host country are still being explored. Even if this is achieved, it is not clear how dryland farmers will receive their share. Some experts have advocated introducing a system of private of community rights over plant genetic resources, to parallel the system of intellectual property rights of the formal sector.

In the absence of feasible direct mechanisms for returning a share of the benefits to the developers of plant genetic diversity, indirect measures might be developed through bilateral or multilateral channels to supply financial and technical assistance to dryland populationsin order to improve the benefit which they derive directly from biodiversity either through increased productivity or by increased value-added.

On-Farm Conservation of Genetic Diversity

One approach which is receiving more attention is that of on-farm conservation of genetic diversity in which farmers act as custodians of landraces which they grow as part of their traditional farming systems, together with the wild and weedy relatives of the landraces. The Ethiopian Centre for Plant Genetic Resources promotes on-farm conservation of landraces as part of its wider approach of biodiversityh conservation and utilization. It pays to farmers a subsidy to reflect the difference in yield between local varieties and improved varieties. However, there are few other documented cases of this approach and it is unlikely that it could support a sustainable livelihood in any but very special circumstances. For a sustainable approach, it is clear that plant genetic resources must generate economic returns to the farmers concerned by integrating conservation and use.

Enhancing the Utilization of Genetic Diversity

In order to capitalize on greater genetic diversity projects or project components which make use of wider genetic diversity could be developed. These might include :

i. enhancing the performance of existing landraces;

ii. the direct use of landraces where they meet farmers needs;

iii. making available to farmers improved or enhanced germplasm for experimentation and further improvement in their farming systems;

iv. providing farmers with greater choice of varieties, including the provision of varieties which can be used in mixtures.

These approaches will require a reorientation of priorities in agricultural research, and greater investment in participatory methods of research and extension.

Recognizing the Value of "Minor" Food Plants

Thousands of potentially useful species could broaden and balance the demand for food and wood in Africa. Research in the past paid little attention to indigenous species. Millets and sorghum were neglected in west Africa, in central and east Africa, there has been much research on the white potato, bit very little on the sweet which is better adapted to local conditions and yields more. Local genetables have been particularly neglected although these compare well in yield and nutrition with introduced temperate material. For example, the introduction of spinach has led to the neglect of Amaranthus, which is promising as a cash crop (see below).

Greater attention needs to be given to the value of "minor" food crops in the farm budget, in particularly their importance in nutrition. Research directed at increasing the value added for such crops through processing and marketing is also required, along with necessary policy and institutional changes. Since up to 85% of traditional medicines are derived from plants and the potential also exists to improve the marketing of plant-based medicines.

Development of Alternative Cash Crops

A number of plant species have a potential for commercialization and might provide an income to farmers as cash crops. Some examples are given here.

Amaranths are broad-leafed plants which produce edible cereal-like gain which is rich in protein and has high lysine levels. They grow vigorously, resist drought, heat and pests, and adapt readily to new environments, including some which are inhospitable to conventional cereal crops. During the last century. Amaranthus hypochondriacus has become an increasingly popular food among hill people in India, Nepal, Tibet and China. Besides seed, the amarantgh provides leaves which are rich in protein, vitamins and minerals. In some African societies amaranth leaves provide as much as 25% of the daily protein intake during its harvest season. A great number of species of amaranth are cultivated or gathered in many parts of the world, with many locally adapted varieties. Seeds can be used in many foods: breakfast cereals, confections, biscuits, cakes and other baked goods. Leaves can be eaten as a spinach-like vegetable or used as herbs in stews and sauces, or as an accompaniment, it is a promising crop for many parts of the world, including marginal areas.

Tef (Eragrostis tef) is a cereal of the highland tropics which is particularly drought and disease resistant. It is currently the main crop in Ethiopia. Besides being a staple food for the densely populated highlands of Ethiopia and for urban centres, the straw is used as a feed for oxen and for reinforcing mud-plaster walls. In highland areas it yields higher than wheat and also commands a higher price. It should therefore have a potential in other areas. Its value in income generating also derives from the potential backward linkages (to blacksmiths and other artisans for the manufacture of implements) and forward linkages (as a feed for plough oxen).

Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) is a long-lived drought resistant desert shrub. Its potential in generating income liest in the high value of its seed oil and the potential for forward linkages to oil processing and possible manufacturing. The oil is used as a cooking oil, in cosmetics, medicines and as a wax, its most valuable use is a substitute for sperm whale oil. Current demand is met by existing plantations in Australia, Mexico and the US. Since labour costs are lower in dryland areas of most developing countries, these areas have a potential compete in the world market provided other obstacles are overcome. These include the necessity to develop adapted higher yielding varieties.

In order to develop these potential cash crops investments in processing and marketing improvements will be required. Often structural barriers such as poorly developed markets will have to be overcome.

Development of Agroforestry

Trees have complex and diverse roles in agriculture and livestock development in that they yield direct produce, create employment opportunities for rural people and sustain the production capacity and protect the environment. Rural people have traditionally managed many trees and shrubs, but very few have been researched to determine their potential for generating employment and income. Most woody species have multiple uses and different parts of the trees are used by different people according to local needs and preferences.

Agroforestry creates significant employment opportunities for rural people, not only in a direct tree production related activities (seedling production, planting, tending and harvesting), but also in complementary activitgies such as processing and selling wood and other tree parts (Timber, poles, fodder, fruit, nuts, resins etc). These activities in turn stimulate the development of active service-orientated sectors, such as transportation, maintenance and trade in durable goods. In addition, many small enterprises use wood in the preparation of other products, as in using fuelwood for curing tobacco and tea, the fabrication of bricks and pottery, and for baking and brewing beer. Thus the integration of trees on to the farm and increasing the production of various tree products has repercussions throughout the economy and contributes significantly to the creating of employment and additional income-earning opportunities.

Most present uses, practices and yields are based on people's knowledge and long term esxperimentation. Although research by the formal sector is also warranted, major investments in research on specific uses or species which are very sit-specific many not be justified. Policy incentives for farmers are therefore important for the further development of tree resources.

Some of the promising tree species for dryland environments are given below.

Gum Arabic, Accacia senegal and Accacia seyal, are the most important species for gum production, grown together with crops and livestock. At present most gum production is still largely a peasant occupation and most gum is collected from wild trees. Other uses of A. senegal include erosion control, animal fodder, wood for poles and implements, fuelwood and seeds for human consumption.

Shea nuts, Butryospermum paradoxum, is primarily known for the production of shea butter from nuts. The butter is used for cooking, medicinal purposes, cosmetic ointments, soap making and the waterproofing of adobe houses. Commercially it is used in Europe as baking fat and margarine, in cosmetics and pharmacentical preparations and for candle and soap making. In the absence of trade restrictions, there would be a large demand for shea butter in developed countries. The tree can also be used for timber and as fuelwood.

African locust bean, Patria biglobosa, is a famine food. As the fruits nature in the dry season, and a reliable crop is produced even in a drought year, they provide a useful emergency food. The seeds are fermented to yield a tasty protein-rich food. The leaves and pods can be used as fodder, and the wood as timber and for making creates and barrels, how handles, carvings etc.

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES FOR DRYLAND AREAS: AGROFORESTRY, IMPORVED STOVES, SOLAR AND WIND POWER

Presented by : Mr. Masse Lo, Environnement et Developpement du Tiers Monde (ENDA)

INTRODUCTION

In recent decades, the ecosystems of dryland zones experienced increased stress. Desertification provoked, besides expansion of poverty, accentuation of structural disequilibria in the ecological, economic, political, social and other spheres. In many places, this generated situations of insecurity and instability for rural populations, many of whom consequently moved to cities. It also translated into strong pressure on scarce natural resources such as biomass, water, and land.

The living conditions of the majority of populations become more and more precarious as the development prospects of these regions deteriorated. Among the numerous difficulties experienced by dryland countries, energy requirements are among the most crucial, not only because of the importance of energy in satisfying fundamental human needs (for example, water, food, health, and education) but also because of its role in social and economic development and its significance in combatting desertification.

Among people's major concerns, reliable water supply for various uses and fuel for cooking stand out. These two concerns are at the heart of dryland energy problems and constitute determining factors in strategies to combat desertification. In addition, two fundamental dimensions of Third World energy problems are most evident in dryland areas (P. Granary, 1991), namely:

i. First, the unusual variety of landscapes in developing countries, because of the exceptionally heterogeneous nature of their economies, cultures and societies as a result of natural diversity and very uneven human modification, is reflected in the nature and level of energy requirements and in local capacity to satisfy such requirements.

ii. Second, fundamental and multiple interactions between energy situations themselves and physical, economic and social realities are complex and particularly constraining in the Third World, making it impossible to understand the energy crisis without placing it in the general framework of underdevelopment in countries experiencing it.

Schematically, most dryland regions seriously affected by desertification, particularly in Africa, experience the same energy problems in relation to environment and development. Consumption of fuelwood uniformly accounts for more than 60 percent of total energy consumption and hydrocarbon supplies must generally be imported.

The consequences are simple and well-known: constant and continuous pressure on the environment resulting not only in deforestation and desertification but also in balance-of- payments imbalances and increasing external debt, both major brakes on development.

Energy policies in dryland developing countries emphasize deforestation and the removal of external constraints but clearly until now, concrete actions taken did not produce tangible results because these policies mirrored those in industrialized countries in their fixation on energy supplies.

To satisfy cooking needs, populations of arid zones, like those of other poor regions of the world, depend almost exclusively on biomass (fuelwood, vegetable wastes, and the like). This situation provokes increasingly important levies on wood resources, which contributes to the acceleration of deforestation and desertification processes.

Regarding water supply, extraction techniques used often do not insure reliable and regular service. Agriculture and animal husbandry both experience serious shortages which notably generate different conflict situations.

Until now, in response to this situation and despite efforts in the last two decades, traditional/classic solutions have proved insufficient or ill-adapted to the specific problems of arid zones. This is why it is necessary to develop and to promote appropriate new solutions of an integrated nature. Energy development policies should give an important role to alternative sources of energy, such as solar and/or wind energy, and promote the rational utilization of woody fuels, a strategic approach which may not be sufficient but is fully justified. Such policies are particularly timely in arid zones because of the following considerations:

i. the lack of resources to create dense, linked energy systems;

ii. the low number of consumption units and the low monetary income levels of the majority of populations;

iii. the dispersion, the very irregular distribution and the nature of energy needs to satisfy;

iv. the key role of fuelwood and the depletion of forest capital in many dryland countries; and

v. the absence or the lack of implementation of national energy planning needed at least to exploit better available energy sources.

DEVELOPMENT OF WIND AND SOLAR ENERGY IN DRYLAND ZONES

Dryland areas, given their geographical situation, have a very important potential for solar energy and, where favorable conditions exist on-site, for the development of wind energy. In addition,among other factors, the dispersion of rural communities and the recent development of alternative energy source technologies point to their decentralized exploitation. A policy for development of alternative energy sources , more particularly wind and solar energy, can contribute to improvement of the living conditions of dryland populations, to the energy autonomy of these regions and to greater efficiency in combatting desertification.

One observes today with considerable satisfaction and hope the spectacular technical development of solar energy utilisation, as well as the diversity of solar energy applications. Many experiments have been conducted to adapt these techniques to the socio-economic conditions of regions where solar energy can be captured and distributed. Among proven techniques, photovoltaic systems have advantages over other solar energy systems. They are particularly suited to arid regions, where solar energy potential is significant, and can be configured according to demand. Also, the absence of moving parts in photovoltaic systems facilitates equipment maintenance while giving them great durability. Considering the even distribution of solar radiation in dryland regions, compared to traditional sources, photovoltaic systems give various services an equal opportunity to utilise energy supplies, limiting the handicaps of marginal areas.

Very often, for many reasons, with classic methods, the extension of the electric grid to rural and isolated regions is not possible in the foreseeable future. In such a context, decentralized energy production will play a decisive role in the development of these areas. Where local demand is weak (less than 20 kW) photovoltaic systems are, for example, not only less costly than diesel generators but also work better in important rural applications of dryland regions, such as village pumping systems, small perimeter irrigation for truck-farming and rural electrification for uses by clinics, telecommunication systems and schools.

Although much less adapted than solar energy to a diversity of sites and conditions of utilisation, wind energy, when site conditions are favorable to its exploitation, can significantly contribute to meeting local energy needs, particularly in supplying water for households, agriculture and cattle. Wind technologies producing mechanical energy have the advantage of being simple and easily controllable. Electricity production using windmills has many of the same advantages as photovoltaic power. Expected technical progress could give wind energy an important role in electricity production, but only in certain regions.

In dryland areas throughout the world, many successful progrmmes attest to the diversity and reliability of solar and wind energy applications. A good examples is the CILSS regional programme, which installed 1300 photovoltaic pumps in the Sahel, brought wind pumping to Cape Verde, developed photovoltaic lighting systems for more than 60 000 households, and experimented with solar television sets in Niger.

Despite the advantages of alternative energy sources and the role they could play in combatting desertification, their exploitation still remains limited. In practice, they suffer from lack of continuous, sustained attention. In addition, the multiplicity of initiatives and decision- making points in the exploitation of alternative energy sources in small, dispersed projects does not favor the development of coherent policies focusing on these technologies. They are still perceived as experimental sources of energy in many poor regions. In the implementation of most projects, technical factors are usually considered as determining.

Beyond the preceding arguments, two constraints and major obstacles stand in the way of greater exploitation of alternative energy sources in dryland zones. In the first place, given present financing arrangements, there are still relatively high installation costs. Second, there is no operative framework for the development of alternative energy sources well adapted to the social, economic and political context.

In considering the development of alternative energy sources and enhancement of their role in meeting basic energy needs, particularly to combat desertification, it is necessary to reconsider fundamentally the energy policies of countries seriously affected by aridity and desertification. New policies should incorporate the following:

i. systematic study of exploiting alternative energy sources in national infrastructure programs, covering areas such as village hydrology, health and irrigation;

ii. redefinition of norms used for analyzing demand, production and distribution of energy, which is particularly important for rural electrification and the commitment to alternative energy sources of national energy producers and distributors;

iii. more flexibility in fiscal and taxation systems covering products and services linked to exploitation of alternative energy sources, so as to provide appropriate incentives;

iv. greater cooperation in implementing regional programmes at all levels of development in various fields through research, pilot projects and dissemination of knowledge;

v. financial arrangements allowing local entities, associations and individuals to obtain medium-term loans for basic equipment; and

vi. intensification of local adoption of alternative energy sources as they develop, which means that:

- on the theoretical side, national and regional research centers should take account of traditional knowledge and lay the basis for utilisation of indigenous technology;

- on the technical side, private initiative should be encouraged to manufacture and provide maintenance services locally through research on niches for products well suited to local demand and therefore less threatened by imported products; and

- on the commercial side, it is necessary to open overly narrow national markets by making regional cooperation more dynamic.

RATIONAL UTILIZATION OF FUELWOOD IN DRYLANDS

At the beginning of the 1980s, the international community identified rational utilization of firewood and biomass for cooking and heating as a major concern of the energy sector. Clearly, in many places, forest resources have suffered excessive exploitation, with ominous environmental implications, which has produced a serious shortage of firewood. This contributed to serious problems of erosion, siltation and desertification in semi-arid regions. FAO estimates that if major efforts are not made from now until the end the century, more than 2 billion persons, a third of the humanity, will lack firewood within fifteen years. In this time frame, more and more people will, for various reasons, depend on fuelwood fuels for basic needs. Moreover, traditional equipment most used for cooking needs is not very elaborate and consequently has an overly weak output.

Some measures have been taken toward the rational utilization of biomass resources, notably: increased productivity of current firewood resources, creation of new forest resources, preliminary processing of fuels, organised firewood distribution, development and adaptation of improved woodstoves and substitution alternatives.

Relatively important methods have been developed by different groups and concerned organisations for implementing these measures. Until now, despite the absence of a precise evaluation of each action undertaken, it is clear that, in spite efforts made, the same problems persist. Under current conditions, it is illusory to recommend the pursuit of the same measures, with the same intensity, in order to benefit the greatest number of persons, particularly disadvantaged people. On the other hand, it is realistic to visualise the possibility of distributing more improved woodstoves.

Improved woodstove technology and its diffusion are not at all novel. Programs to distribute improved stoves have been underway for a half century (since 1940 in Asia) with notable efforts along these lines in the course of the last thirty years. Their objectives include improvement in the comfort of life in a period of "appropriate technologies" as one of the axes of energy and environmental policies.

All these joint efforts have been, over time, characterised by experimentation, delays, revisions of technical options, and changes in targeted populations. They have weathered many failures, especially in rural distribution programmes, because of wood-collection realities. Also, wood shortage are not felt to the same extent as a collective or global problem as opposed to an individual problem. On the other hand, underlying conditions in urban areas favor large-scale distribution of improved woodstoves since traditional energy comes in the form of commercial products weighing heavily in household budgets. Urban consumers enthusiastically welcome less costly energy equipment that fits traditional behavior patterns.

Theoretically, investment amortisation periods are relatively short but in practice, improved woodstove distribution, except in some countries, falls short of expectations. The primary explanation is that actual yields on site are generally well below these observed in the laboratory. Many studies show outputs often less than 20% which means that improved stoves are hardly more attractive than traditional ones.

Despite technological simplicity, low costs, and homogeneous behavior patterns, these efforts have failed; twenty years after they were launched foreign technical assistance, either bilateral or multilateral, is always required to sustain them. Some gains have been made from such program and many projects have been financed by bilateral or multilateral assistance institutions. But when external financial and technical assistance ceases the projects often stop or freeze where they are.

From this somber landscape, some hopeful successes and lessons can be gleaned. The Kenyan case is one the best known with more than 500,000 furnaces distributed over a relatively short period. In practice, diffusion of an innovation is a slow process that demands sustained attention.

Regardless of its nature and objectives, distribution of improved woodstoves falls in the category of "no regret" solutions because it achieves several complementary goals including: reduction of pollution, decreased collection of wood, improved comfort, job creation, increased income, energy security and protection of the environment.

There exists no sing strategy for distribution of improved stoves. Each situation deserves to be dealt with case by case and sustained by action at the local level.

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