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The problem of poverty in Africa was often discussed in terms of the agro-ecological specifics and the internal social relations of societies, production systems and economies. It appeared necessary, therefore, for states and international organizations to intervene. Because poverty was identified with production constraints, such interventions took the form of technological transfer in agriculture. Later, as agro-ecological constraints became more widely perceived, and supposedly "fragile" ecosystems were believed to be under threat from population growth and other factors, emphasis shifted to "environmental sustainability". As with the new technologies, so with sustainable natural resource management, it was often assumed that the new knowledge must come from outside, or from "science", and must be promoted against the natural "conservatism" of smallholders by whatever means necessary--from coercion at one extreme to "participation" at the other. Recently there has been much movement away from such stereotypical positions towards more subtle and varied statements of the problem. However, I believe there is still a lacuna with respect to the autonomy of the smallholder in the "fight against poverty". Intervention is still the name of the game, and receives far more attention than the resources or achievements of poor people themselves. Analyses of long-term trends in the management of resources at the village, regional and national levels in dryland Africa suggest that African farmers have made considerable achievements in the face of a trying environment. An understanding of this long-term trend may provide a better framework for the diagnosis of current problems and the formulation of future policy on poverty and livelihoods in the drylands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this millennium, global drylands face a myriad of problems that present tough research, management, and policy challenges. Recent advances in dryland development, however, togethe with the integrative approaches of global change and sustainability science, suggest that concerns, about land degradation, poverty, safeguarding biodiversity, and protecting the culture of 2.5 billion people can be confronted with renewed optimism. We review recent lessons about the functioning of dryland ecosystems and the livelihood systems of their human residents and introduce a new synthetic framework, the Drylands Development Paradigm (DDP). The DDP, supported by a growing and well-documented set of tools for policy and management action, helps navigate the inherent complexity of desertification and dryland development, identifying and synthesizing those factors important to research, management, and policy communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]