Background and history

How did the TFT begin? To explain - and understand - this, is tantamount to presenting not just necessary background but also (some of) the history of TFT. This page presents key phases and elements in the identification and preparation of TFT, up to Spring 2004.

The beginning

The TFT is the brainchild of two former World Bank staff members, Lars T. Soeftestad and Hans-Werner Wabnitz. Around 2001-02 they began discussing informally, and in their private capacities, the content and scope of an applied activity.

Hans, trained as a lawyer, and with years of experience as an operational lawyer in West Africa, nurtured some ideas on how to study and reform legal systems as regards their importance for local natural resource management. Lars, as an anthropologist, had worked on natural resource management in South Asia and later on in West Africa, and was very interested in understanding how traditional and modern institutions - and especially the interactions and synergies between them - shape and change the natural resource management sectors in developing countries and countries in transition.

Thus, from different points of departure they gradually came to understand that their interests and goals had strong common features, and that the possibilities for realizing them would benefit strongly from collaboration.

Planning

Mauritania was an obvious choice of locality from the beginning, and for a number of reasons: we had broad knowledge of the situation with regards to the legal systems in that country, it was a country in which we foresaw that the kind of activity we had in mind would have a chance of succeeding, and a specific area in the southeastern corner of the country appeared to be ideal (see location on this map) - partly because of the situation with regards to traditional resource rights, partly because of ongoing and fast social change, and partly because of ongoing and related projects by the World Bank and GTZ.

Ours was a concern and a vision that did not fit neatly into the standard World Bank project format. It was too complex, too vague, presented too many uncertain factors, it was located at an intersection of the traditional academic and professional functional units of the World, and it did not fit any of the standard project/sector categories. There were also formal obstacles, especially that a traditional project could not be located in the Legal Dept. of the World Bank's Africa Region, which we would prefer given the heavy emphasis on legal reform. As we were not interested in pursuing our ideas along a traditional project route, a lot of this his was okay with us. We began talking about the TFT as an «initiative» and not a project.

For similar reasons it was difficult to locate a counterpart in Mauritania. (A dedicated and responsible counterpart has still not been appointed, and as implementation proceeds this is likely to become more of an issue.)

Our idea was to focus on a specific concern and set of issues in a specific setting, marry research and action, that is, use the insight and knowledge in concerted participatory activities involving all relevant stakeholders from the local to the national level. Thus, TFT is at times referred to as a «research-cum-action» project, and rightly so.

Networking, preparation and funding

During operational travels to Mauritania and the identified future project area (see location on this map), Hans discussed the idea with Mauritanian and local expatriate project staff. Early on it became evident that we should create a partnership between GTZ and the World Bank (see Page Partners). We began discussing the idea with colleagues and units in the World Bank, internationally, and, crucially, among relevant stakeholders in Nouakchott, including the public/political/aid sectors and the donor community (see Pages Collaborators and Supporters). In this way we gradually solicited advice and support from various quarters (for details on these activities, including documents and presentations made, see Section Activities and Section Resources).

In early 2001 we prepared a Concept Note. Given the project's concept, locating funding was not going to be easy, that much was clear. We decided on trying one of the several trust funds that the World Bank manages on behalf of some of the member countries. Luck had it that, given that one of us is a Norwegian citizen, we were eligible to apply to a Norwegian Trust Fund. The first time around, in 2001, we were not successful, but in 2002, after rewriting the Concept Note, the TFT did receive funding. It is a great testimony to the progressive philosophy and orientation of the Norwegian Trust Fund administration that this project was selected (for details, see Page Funding).

For more details on how the TFT is conceptualized see Section Overview, as well as several TFT documents available in Section Resources.

A period of little operational activity followed

From the time when funds were awarded in July 2002 and until early 2004 there was little operational activity, due to various reasons. In general, implementing the project turned out to be more complicated than we had thought. Specifically, the TFT is located in the Legal Department of the World Bank's Africa region, and this turned out to be a major obstacle as the Legal Dept. is not an operational unit.

Some supporting activities were however undertaken in this period (for details, including documents and presentations made, see Sections Activities and Resources).

Implementation begins!

In the Spring of 2004 activities in the field finally begun in earnest, with a long mission in April and May 2004 by Hans and Lars. This mission had several goals, including reconnaissance and introducing Lars to relevant stakeholders at the national and local levels. Regarding the project area, a final area consisting of three specific ephemeral wetlands were selected. Arrangements for office and living quarters were made, and two local persons were recruited as key project staff (for details see Sections Activities and Resources).

Hans left in April 2004 and Lars continued the work through May 2004. He surveyed the project area, set up a large-scale socio-economic and livelihoods survey, hired enumerators and trained both them and the regular staff, and supervised the beginning of the survey.

For more on the implementation, see Sections Activities, Methodology and Output, and also Page News.