|
 |
Women
at a well, Senegal
© Danielle
Baron/CCP, Courtesy of Photoshare, a service of The INFO Project
|
Promoting
better and more sustainable livelihoods for people in Africa’s drylands
We work at multiple levels and in partnership with others, carrying out research with African and European partners
on policy issues of direct concern to poor people living in Africa,
building the capacities of these and other groups to act on the results
of this knowledge in an informed and equitable manner. We complement
the ongoing work of partners in Africa - such as civil society, development
agencies, research institutions, local and national governments - by disseminating
research findings, brokering meetings, facilitating dialogue, organising
training, and lobbying activities.
Our
strategic priorities are:
- To strengthen the
capacity of local communities and institutions to manage
their resources in a sustainable and equitable way.
- To promote national
and regional policy and institutional environments that enable
equitable participation and local-level decision-making, and that promote
development, poverty reduction, democracy and environmental sustainability.
- To influence global
policies and institutions better to support the development
needs and priorities of dryland peoples.
Where
we work
 Our work focuses
on the dryland belt of Africa south of the Sahara, particularly the Sahel
(Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Senegal), several coastal countries in
West Africa (Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Nigeria), East Africa
(Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) and the Horn (Ethiopia). We choose to
focus on these areas for two main reasons: first, they include some of
the poorest countries in the world; secondly, despite the differences
across countries and sub-regions, the drylands present important commonalities
in the challenges they face, and taking such a “geographical” focus enables mutual learning and cross-fertilisation. We also
promote exchanges between these and other regions, particularly Southern
Africa.
Our
work covers the following main fields:
The
principles underlying our way of working are:
- Mobilising knowledge to support informed policy debates in
African countries and within the international development community. In partnership with others, we carry out research on issues of
direct concern to the livelihoods of the poor, and disseminate this
knowledge to policy makers, development practitioners and civil society
through publications, regional and national meetings and events, and
community-level discussions.
- Strengthening the capacities of African partners both
to represent their constituents and to engage effectively in policy
debate, formulation and implementation. We focus particularly
on weaker and more marginalised civil society groups like pastoral associations,
for instance by supporting the development of training modules, rural
radio emissions, and other capacity building tools.
- Fostering
long-term partnerships with
diverse partners in dryland African countries, in order to help them
better engage with national, regional and global policy processes. We greatly value the network of partnerships that we have built over
time in the countries where we work, and we continuously seek to create
new partnerships and alliances with others. Such partnerships are crucial
for mutual learning and capacity building, and are key for our promoting
informed policy debates.
- Building
links between different levels ,
by promoting mechanisms to ensure that field experience feeds into policy-making
at local, national and global levels on the one hand, and that national
and international dynamics are understood, monitored and discussed at
the local level on the other.
- Facilitating exchange of ideas and sharing of experience ,
to enable cross-fertilisation and to promote the dissemination and further
development of new ideas and innovative methods. We support networks
of experts and practitioners across countries and regions in Africa,
and we promote dialogue and exchange between the North and the South.
Our bulletin, “Haramata”, disseminates information
and ideas on, from and for dryland peoples, policies and programmes.
We seek to bridge language divides between Anglophone and Francophone
countries in Africa by brokering meetings and supporting networks, and
all our publications are bilingual.
Our donors
Our
projects are funded by a range of donors, particularly government development
agencies from Europe and elsewhere. Among these, major contributors
are DFID, DANIDA, Sida, SDC, NORAD and the EC.
Contact
us
On
our webpages, you will find details of the projects
and activities carried out by the Drylands programme, information
about our staff, our publications,
our partners and a page of useful links.
The Drylands Programme operates from two offices located in Edinburgh
and London. We can be contacted by email at drylands@iied.org or at the
following addresses:
4
Hanover Street, Edinburgh EH2 2EN, UK (Tel: +44 131 226 7040, Fax: +44
131 624 7050)
3
Endsleigh Street, London WC1H 0DD, UK (Tel: +44 20 7388 2117, Fax: +44
20 7388 2826)
Copyright © 2005 International Institute for Environment and Development.
All rights reserved.
3 Endsleigh Street, London WC1H 0DD, email: info@iied.org.
tel: +44 (0) 20 7388 2117, fax: +44 (0) 20 7388 2826.
UK Registered charity no. 800066.
Contact
the Web Developer | Legal
Notice
|
|
International Institute for Environment and Development
