Sustainable Land Management

Adi Behnuna - a forgotten village

At the request of the provincial administration, our program decided to compile another community profile in Eritrea's southern highlands. This involved the area of Adi Behnuna, a community that is severely disadvantaged in development terms. The reason for this is its lack of access - Adi Behnuna can only be reached by car via a dangerous dirt track, and even then only during the dry season. The nearest primary school is four hours away, and the nearest clinic is one day's walk away from the community.

The challenges for the Eritrean-Swiss study team in carrying out field studies in this remote and isolated area were correspondingly great. The results are now available, and will shortly be presented to the authorities and the local population so that specific projects can be undertaken.

For the local people, it is clear that the priority is to meet basic needs with regard to the health-care system, water supply, and education (building of a primary school), as well as improving the road conditions. Interestingly, the needs of women and men more or less coincided (see Table below). As experience shows, this can by no means be taken for granted.