This volume provides for early publication, the full texts of 27 papers presented in fascimile form in the original English or French. These papers are presented in 6 sessions dealing with the themes: 1) research needs and opportunities for resource management progress to arrest land degradation: national and regional perspectives; 2) generic research imperatives:international perspectives; 3) designing an effective research approach: target-oriented project planning; 4) institution building and enhancement of human resource capacity: TOPP; 5) review of objectives, aspects, collaborative linkages, and project formulation; and 6) institutional mechanisms: TOPP (target oriented project planning). The companion volume, combating land degradation in Sub-Sahara Africa, describes the background, organization, and outcomes of the workshop, including summaries of development constraints in desert margin areas of Botswana, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali, Namibia and Nige