3 Endsleigh Street, London WC1H 0DD, UK
Tel: +44.207.388.2117 fax +44.207.388.2826
email: drylands@iied.org
website: www.iied.org/drylands

The International Institute for Environment and Development is an independent policy research organisation based in the UK, which aims to promote sustainable and equitable management of resources in the developing world through a range of policy research, collaborative action, training, advocacy and communication activities.
The Drylands Programme, established in 1987, has a particular focus on the arid and semi-arid lands of Africa. Here the programme has carried out many activities in collaboration with African and European partner organisations to examine the dynamics of institutions governing access to land, management of common property resources, sustainable soils management, and ways to promote rural livelihoods more generally.
The Drylands Programme has been joint manager (with GRET, France) of the Franco-British programme on Learning lessons from best practice: Land tenure and resource access in West Africa, aimed at promoting research and dialogue between English and French speaking countries in the West African region on changing patterns of access to land, impacts on different groups, and implications for policy debates.
Drylands has supported the UK government's reflections on land tenure in Africa, including DFID's conference on land rights and sustainable development in Africa, at Sunningdale February 1999 and the establishment of Landnet Africa which resulted from this conference. This network of African research and civil society organisations aims to provide inputs and generate dialogue on policy options for tenure reform in their different countries. IIED has been coordinator of several STD3 and INCO funded projects.


An economist by training, Camilla Toulmin is Director of the Drylands Programme and has worked mainly in Sahelian West Africa on field level and policy-oriented research relating to agricultural development and natural resource management. This has involved working with people at many different levels from farmers and researchers, to national governments, NGOs and donor agencies.
She will undertake the main coordination and leadership tasks within the research consortium as a whole and will take the lead in the activities outlined in WP 4. She will provide support and guidance for the research activities in all four WPs and in particular those activities in Mali.
Recent publications include:
Toulmin C and Quan J (eds) (2000) Evolving land rights, policy and tenure in Africa DFID Issues Series, IIED/NRI, London (including: Chapter 1 - with Quan J "Evolving land rights, policy and tenure in sub-Saharan Africa: An Introduction"; Chapter 11 - with Quan, J "Registering customary rights"; and Chapter 12 - "Decentralisation and land tenure")
Toulmin, C et al (2000) Diversification of Livelihoods: Evidence from Mali and Ethiopia, IIED/IDS, Edinburgh
Toulmin, C et al (2000) Mali Poverty profile, IIED/SIDA, Edinburgh
Toulmin, C and Leonard, R (1999) Desk Study of Donor Assistance to the Sahel Region in the Natural Resources Sector: Mali and Burkina Faso, IIED / SIDA, Edinburgh.
Toulmin, C, Lavigne Delville, P and Traore S (eds) (forthcoming) Dynamics of resource tenure in West Africa. James Currey, London.


Trained in farming systems research, Thea Hilhorst has worked in Honduras, the Netherlands and Mali on farmers' organisations and gender issues, savings and credit mechanisms, farmer's participation in agricultural research and natural resource management.
As a research associate in the Drylands Programme she is working on the dynamics of soil fertility management, co-management mechanisms for natural resource management and institutionalisation of participatory research.
She will be involved in supporting research activities in all four Work packages and will support research in Mali in particular. Recent publications include:
Hilhorst, T and Muchena, F M (eds) (2000) Nutrients on the move -Soil fertility dynamics in African farming systems, IIED, London · Hilhorst, T (2000) Women's Land Rights: Current Developments in Sub-Saharan Africa. In: Toulmin, C and Quan, J (eds) Evolving Land Rights, Policy and Tenure in Africa, IIED/NRI, London
Hilhorst, T and Aarnink, N (1999) Co-managing the Commons: Setting the stage in Mali and Zambia, KIT, Amsterdam
Hilhorst T and Coulibaly, A (1998) Creating opportunities for village-level management of woodlands in Southern Mali, Drylands Issue Paper no. 78. IIED