This document is designed to facilitate the exchange of information and experience related to Soil resources, their use and management. The document provides a framework for international soil classification and an agreed common scientific language to enhance communication across disciplines using soil information. It contains definitions and diagnostic criteria to recognise soil horizons, properties and materials and gives rules and guidelines for classifying and subdividing soil reference groups.

In late 1997, southern and central Somalia were hit by unprecedented floods affecting the lives and livelihoods of an estimated one million people. This Evaluation reviews Phase I of the international response to the floods - the Somalia Inter-Agency Flood Response Operation - between November and 3 1st December 1997. The Inter-Agency Flood Response Operation was a complex and expensive logistics operation to distribute emergency assistance to scattered and isolated flood affected populations. It was also a test of the international humanitarian system's capacity to respond to an acute emergency in a country which has been without a government for six years.br Overall, Phase I of the Somalia Inter-Agency Flood Response Operation is evaluated as a success. Humanitarian agencies in Somalia demonstrated their capacity and capability to respond to short term humanitarian needs. While the initial objective of the operation to 'rescue' flood affected populations was not fulfilled, the objectives to ameliorate the immediate humanitarian effects of the floods and avert a nutritional and health crisis in the worst affected areas were, by and large, achieved. The opportunity was taken to apply past lessons learned from working in Somalia, and innovative programming was apparent in several areas. The inter-agency character of the operation was commendable and the level of codment and collaboration that was achieved establishes an important precedent for future humanitarian operations in Somalia. This report seeks to record these achievements, as well as identify areas where the humanitarian system in Somalia could be strengthened.

Land is the basis of human society because it provides food, water, energy, clothing and shelter. Land resources, however, are finite and becoming scarce in Africa and elsewhere. Problems of inappropriate land uses, population growth, over-exploitation of natural assets and environmental degradation are complex and long-term. They are exacerbated by their linkage with poverty, inequality and social conflicts because many people have inadequate access to land or to the benefits from its use. It is commonly agreed that tenure of land - and land policy in a broader context - is a fundamental variable in agrarian and rural development. Land tenure insecurity, associated with local political conflicts and gender inequality, for example can be a key factor in land degradation (The World Bank, Agenda 21,FAO).

This CD-ROM contains geographic maps of the horn of Africa prepared by Mr. Achille Dardano - Italian Cartographic Service - in 1925. The maps are property of Ministero delle Colonie, Rome Printed by Ist. Italiano d'Arti Grafiche, Bergamo The files are scanned images of the original hard copy maps. Geographic coordinates of the GeoTiff images are in Geographic Projection, Adindan Datum Mean Solution (Ethiopia and Sudan), Clarke 1880 Reference Ellipsoid The georeferenced images can be read using a Geographic Information System (GIS) package.

Integrated land-use planning (ILUP) is a prerequisite for the sustainable management and development of land resources. This approach seeks to meet this objective by a better balancing of all relevant aspects (biophysical, technical, socio-economic, legal, institutional and social) in land-use planning. In particular, it stresses the importance of engaging the stakeholders and recognizing their different objectives through a platform for negotiationoutlining the characteristics of an enabling institutional and policy environment at local, sub-national, and national levelsensuring an accessible knowledge baseand providing a set of planning procedures. The guidelines which were the topic of this workshop are intended to be used by professional and technical practitioners of land-use planning and land resource management at national, subnational and village levels.