CHANCE, CHANGE AND CHOICE IN AFRICA’S DRYLANDS

Anderson, J. , Bryceson, D. , Campbell, B. , Chitundu, D. , Clarke, J. , Drinkwater, M. , Fakir, S. , Frost, P.G.H. , Gambiza, J. , Grundy, I. , Hagmann, J. , Jones, B. , Jones, G. W. , Kowero, G. , Luckert, M. , Mortimore, M. , Phiri, Aaron D. K. , Potgieter, P. , Shackleton, S. , Williams, T.

CHANCE, CHANGE AND CHOICE IN AFRICA’S DRYLANDS Annotation by Shreya Mehta

The African drylands are home to 268 million people, or 40% of the continent’s population and, excluding deserts, they comprise 43% of the continent’s surface area. The drylands of Sub- Saharan Africa are spatially heterogeneous — overlain on the rainfall gradient are rivers and wetlands within the drylands, a wide variety of soil types, and differences in land use, infrastructure development and market accessibility. Blueprint policies have not worked, primarily because they lack or constrain the flexibility that people need to survive and prosper in such regions. The often low and highly variable rainfall creates risky environments for households, but people have responded with resilience, adaptability and dynamism, taking advantage of transient opportunities, and developing and maintaining strong links between their dryland economies and more humid or urbanised regions. People’s economic activities are characterised by innovation and experimentation, both in the use of natural resources and in exploiting livelihood opportunities elsewhere. Their knowledge forms a valuable resource in managing risky environments, in contrast to the narrower understanding that often underpins introduced technologies, many of which have failed. Past policies on drylands have failed in another respect: they focused primarily on the presumed limitations of the natural resource base rather than on the people, their knowledge, skills and capacity for innovation in overcoming or circumventing environmental constraints. This study provides reasons as to why it is necessary to invest in drylands, what are the incentives that are needed to secure dryland livelihoods and what the new aproaches to policy are. There is high cost in not investing in drylands. For example the lack of investment will erode the productive capacity of dryland households thereby reducing both market and subsistence production. This will also increase vulnerability to drought, climate change, HIV/AIDS and economic and political instability.

Shreya Mehta
USAID
USAID
  • Project overview document/gray literature
  • Evaluation
  • Regional case study
Essay/Booklet
★★★★
  • Africa - Southern
  • Africa - Sahel
  • Africa
  • Africa - West
Kenya, Burkina Faso and Namibia
  • Fodder
  • Livestock
  • Soil Quality
  • Field Crops
  • Forest
  • Soil Erosion
  • Fostered innovation, social learning, and adaptive management - [Critical]
  • Improved information and knowledge management systems - [Critical]
  • Built capacity and invested in human resources - [Critical]
  • Promoted local land use planning and appropriate resource tenure systems - [Critical]
  • Promoted or developed economic strategies for natural resource management - [Critical]
  • Procedural rights for all people, especially vulnerable or marginalized groups - [Critical]
  • Land use planning
  • Governance - [External or structural policies that influenced success or failure]
  • Resources - [External or structural policies that influenced success or failure]
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