Non-governmental organizations and natural resource management in Africa : a literature review

This literature review is the first step in a one-year, four-part Africa Bureau activity to analyze the Bureau"s effectiveness in strengthening NGO"s engaged in natural resource management activities in sub-Saharan Africa. As a landmark effort, the review presents abstracts of 150 key publications, drawn from recent literature on this topic (since 1982). The objective is to provide an overview of NGO activities in natural resource management in Africa, their successes and failures, and to highlight those issues that are of critical importance in enhancing the institutional capacities of these organizations. NGO activities in closely related sectors, such as agriculture and rural development, are covered as well. The citations are drawn from various sources, including the USAID library, the International Economic Relations Division of the World Bank, individuals, and PVO"s; the latter two groups helped to tap some of the grey literature, found in the form of workshop summaries, case studies, internal reports, and unpublished papers. The review also presents 135 supplemental references, without annotations. Includes geographical, organizational, and subject indexes.