Resource Alienation Militarisation and Development case Studies from East African Drylands

The East African, Drylands Research Programme is a collaborative venture between the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), University of Bergen,Norway, and the Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The programme involves researchers from Ethiopia, Norway, Sudan Tanzania and Uganda. Its major objective is to produce development-relevant information on East African drylands. Taking a broad view rather concentrating on the issue of crisis management, the programme focuses on the spatial and temporal dimensions of resource management. A number of workshops has been held dealing with the issue of human adaptation in East African drylands. This is the third of the proceedings published within the East African Drylands programme. The first one, Managing Scarcity: Human adaptation in East African Drylands (edited by Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed and Hassan A. Abdel Ati) was based on a workshop in Addis Ababa (24-26 August 1995), and was published in Greater Horn of Africa (edited by Leif Manager and Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed )was based on two workshops, one in Addis Ababa(10-14 November 1997), and another one in Jinja, Uganda (8-10 March 1998). In the intervening period, we have had two workshops, one in Khartoum (8-9 December 1998), and another one in Addis Ababa (9-11 March 2000). The papers presented in the proceedings have all been read and discussed in one of those two last workshops. Many of the authors have contributed papers in all the workshops, each paper, therefore, represents a step forward based on earlier papers and leading to the next one . However, each paper also deals with a particular issue, and should be read and discussed in one of those two last workshops. Many of the authors have contributed papers in all the workshops ;each paper, therefore, represents a step forward based on earlier papers and leading to the next one. However, each paper also deals with a particular issue, and should be read as an independent contribution. Hence, although it is important to be aware of the internal dynamics of the drylands programme workshops as a context for generating themes, we also hope that the papers in themselves reflect significant progress in our understanding of the dynamics of human adaptations in East African drylands.