18 REPORTS AND COMMENT

tightly packed with presentations and discussions on a wide range of topics which included the issues of: Conference Report: Arid

lan&: Prospects and problems in the Sahel,

- desertification and rural change; - clonal forestry; - water storing polymers;

- field surveys and biomass sampling;

- satellite remote sensing;

- automatic climate monitoring; - social forestry projects in Sudan;

27th-29th May 1986”

Susan York - socio-economic process of drought and famine.

Relief and Development Institute 1, Ferdinand Place London NW1 8EE, U.K.

The recent famine in the Sahel region of Africa and Sudan has highlighted once again the wide-ranging ecological and socio-economic problems facing the countries of this region. The conference “Arid Lands: Prospects and Problems in the Sahel” made an ambitious attempt to bring together environmental/biological scientists, social scientists, management specialists and agency personnel to discuss what the scope of the problem is in the Sahelian countries; what has been learnt by these different interest groups; what research relating to environmental problems is taking place; what priorities and problems exist for the implementation of such research; and what major gaps there are in research.

The Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE) is one of the fifteen Institutes which comprise the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The NERC was formed in 1973 from the research stations of the former Nature Conser- vancy. The Merlewood Research Station is one of the six research establishments of the ITE. Its research interests include the ecological basis of land-use planning, production forestry, plant productivity and soil biology. Since 1983 it has been involved in joint environmental research with the Institute of Environmental Studies, University of Khar- toum, Sudan. This has involved a brief assessment of biomass resources in the Sudan and more extensive on-going research into the use of polymers in seedling cultivation in the Kordofan region.

The conference brought together more than sixty participants coming mainly from U.K. universities and research establishments. Over half came from environ- mental/ biological backgrounds, the rest represented the social and managerial sciences, aid agencies and govern- ment organizations. The two days of the conference were

’The Conference took place at the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, Merlewood Research Station, Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria, U.K.

- administrative and managerial constraints to rural development;

- monitoring and predicting rainfall;

The broad-based group of participants and the range of topics presented for discussion provided an opportunity for participants to learn about the research activities and concerns of colleagues from disciplines other’than their own and laid the foundation for stimulating discussions on the issues facing the arid land regions of Africa. It would have been very easy for the participants of such a broad-based conference to divide themselves into two camps - i.e. the technical scientists versus the social/ managerial scientists. However, it was most encouraging to see the potential divisions disappear as the conference proceeded. Such a process was facilitated by the fact that the presenters of technical papers invariably set the results of their research in their socio-economic context and were as much, if not more, interested in discussing problems of implementation and relevance to the countries and regions to which they were aimed as in the purely technical aspects of their research. The resulting discussion periods were consequent- ly always lively and because of the full agenda inevitably left the participants wanting more opportunity for discussion of points raised.

The conference was divided into four sessions, each session consisting of four papers. The first session introduced four different approaches to the conference theme and opened up channels of communication between the technical specialists and the social scientists. The opening paper by Dr. Davies of the Geography Department, University College, Swansea University, entitled “Desert- ification and Rural Change in .Western Sudan” admirably set the tone of the conference. With examples from Kordofan region of Sudan the paper aimed to show that the problem of rural development in semi-arid regions of Sudan is extremely complex. It is not purely environmental, i.e. relating to the problem of rainfall fluctuation and desert encroachment. However, it is as much a sociological problem of understanding the different perceptions of what development is from the points of view of both the managers of development and the “recipients”/ participants.

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The second presentation provided a technical discussion on “Monitoring and Predicting Sahelian Rainfall: A review of progress and assessment of data needs” by Dr. Hulme of the Geography Department, Salford University. This was particularly useful for those social scientists and agency personnel interested in the current debates on setting-up early warning systems for drought/ famine-prone regions of the world. The paper pointed out however that predictions of annual or decadal Sahelian rainfall remain distant. The paper also pointed out the serious problem presented for predicting rainfall trends created by the recent and continuing decline in the number of functioning surface climatic monitoring stations within countries in this region. This raised the problem local institutions have in financing their own research and maintainance of the stations. There are often insufficient funds in developing countries for engaging observers, replacing gauging materials and developing the necessary management systems for such networks to operate efficiently. It was felt to be important that the advent of satellite data should not lead to the running down of traditional systems. Another issue to be raised in discussion was the question of how agencies and governments would have acted if the network had been able to provide a warning of the impending drought that event- ually resulted in the past three years crisis in Africa. The general feeling expressed was one of pessimism, that there were still many administrative and logistical constraints to responding to climatically based warnings and also that the scale of the forecast would often be too localized to allow for the present administrative set-ups to respond.

The third presentation “Administrative and Managerial Constraints to Rural Development” by Dr. Reilly of Department of Administrative Studies, University of Manchester raised yet another area of concern: That of the key managerial constraints that need to be overcome for rural development to be effective in the Sahel. The example ofthe Gambia was taken to examine the effects of technical inputs into rural development programmes over a thirty year period. Despite many technical inputs over this period there appeared to be little evidence of improvement in the life of rural people. The paper identified five managerial constraints: “the self interest of the ruling elite and some of those involved in the aid business; the remoteness of top decision makers from the problems of the rural poor: the gulf between development personnel and the supposed beneficiaries; the lack of managerial capability in running rural projects; and poor management, organization and financial control throughout the public administrative system.” These areas were highlighted to demonstrate that obvious constraints to the success of inputs were most often ignored.

The final presentation of the session presented a personal view of aid intervention by Dr. Williams of the Land Resources Development Centre, Overseas Development Administration. This presentation strongly stressed the need to rethink the role of the whole range of multi-lateral, bi-lateral and non-governmental intervention into develop- ing countries. I t was necessary to stand back and examine

what the development process meant to the various actors involved. In particular it pointed out that the technical specialist coming from outside the agencies involved in development has an important role to play. However, such technicians must be clear and accurate in any criticism of any development input made by the myriad of agencies involved in development project. The technical specialists and resear- chers must make a concerted effort to understand the way organizations work if they wish to influence them effectively.

The second and third sessions led us into the technical fields of clonal forestry; water storing polymers; field surveys and biomass sampling in arid regions of the Sahel and Sudan; rangeland monitoring using satellite remote sensing; vegetation monitoring using remote sensing and automatic weather stations. These sessions, although highly technical in parts, provided a useful insight for social scientists and agency managers into the state of the art of many of these technical developments. It was particularly gratifying that almost all of the presenters began their presentations with the qualification that a technologikal solution was not the end of the matter. Although many interesting technological advances have been made most are still at an experimental stage and are being tested in the field for their local usefulness, the training needs for their implementation and their cost-effectiveness particularly in relation to rural farmers’ needs and budget.

The third session provided an opportunity for a non- governmental organization, SOS Sahel, to present a report on its programme of social forestry projects in the Nile Province of Sudan. The current work of the project was presented in the light of the fact that although much has been written about social forestry, in the Sahel little has been achieved. SOS Sahel put the problems of implement- ing social forestry into the socio-economic context of the region and stressed the need to involve the whole community, men, women and children in social forestry activities, training and community education programmes.

The final session took us back to the socio-economic context of drought/famine and assessed the types of research so far undertaken. Dr. Gibbons of the School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, in particular, pointed to the past emphasis of research on short-term problem solving by technical specialists often in isolation to the local community. He called for a different approach to research in order to achieve “long-term regenerative systems of resources.” This would involve “the active participation of farmers, extension agents, research- ers and planners,” and would involve the “radical rethinking of training programmes at all levels.”

In summing-up the wide-ranging and often passionate discussions the following areas for urgent consideration were identified:

(a) there is a need for researchers to be able to communicate clearly and informatively with managers, planners, politicians and funders of rural development.

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20 REPORTS AND COMMENT

(b) there is a need for a reassessment of the management skills needed for implementing development projects and the development of training at all levels of staffing in development programmes.

(d) there is a need for the lessons from the recent crisis in Africa to be learnt by all parties involved in the relief and development process.

(e) there is an urgent need for research groups and voluntary agencies to consider how they can tackle the pressures brought to bear on them and their activities by larger political and economic bodies, who often have very different priorities.

The Institute of Terrestrial Ecology will be publishing the

(c ) there is a need to develop the ability to pre-empt future catastrophes of the scale recently affecting the Sahel through the utilization and development of the monitoring techniques both traditional and satellite- based which have been developed and researched. papers and discussions as an ITE symposium volume.

Disasters/ 11/1/1987