Magister Scientiae - MSc / Water resources management practice has undergone changes in management approaches and principles over time. It was previously characterised by what scholars refer to as the hydraulic mission where ‘extreme engineering’ was the order of the day (Allan, 2003). As Radif (1999) argues, water resources managers and policy makers were initially driven to manage and supply water to people for its direct use; these included drinking, growing food, and providing power for domestic and industrial use. This modus operandi continued until the end of the 1970s. Over two decades later, this focus is still prevalent in many countries in southern Africa including Botswana. As Swatuk and Rahm (2004) state, “augmenting supply is a continuing focus of government activity”. The National Water Master Plan (NWMP) is the current policy document guiding water resources management in Botswana and it focuses on supply-side interventions in response to increasing water demand. According to SMEC et al. (1991), the consulting company that conducted the NWMP study, “the investigation and studies... indicated the need for the continuing development of water supplies throughout Botswana over the next 30 years”. Based on these observations, government has developed significant human and technical capacity in exploiting both surface and groundwater resources (Swatuk and Rahm, 2004). / South Africa

Magister Philosophiae (Land and Agrarian Studies) - MPhil(LAS) / This research investigated whether local economic development interventions necessarily improve the livelihoods of poor communities. More specifically, the goal of this thesis was to explore some of the reasons why land-based economic development interventions often struggle to meet their main objective of improving the livelihoods of local poor people. / South Africa

Magister Legum - LLM / The objectives of the research was to critically analyse arguments for and against agricultural trade liberalization and its impact on food security, investigating the nexus between the three pillars of agriculture and food security, considering how the Agreement on Agriculture and the Food Aid Convention addressed the concerns that were raised by the different parties during the negotiation period, and finally it considered how the current multilateral negotiations in agriculture can provide a secure framework within which developing African countries can pursue effective policies to ensure their food security. / South Africa

Magister Artium - MA / This study was aimed at analysing structural relations between the State and the non-governmental organizations (NGO) sector. It focused on the relations between two NGOs, namely the Labour Research Service and the Institute for Democracy in South Africa on the one hand and the National Development Agency on the other. The National Development Agency is a State intermediary structure established to facilitate funding and policy dialogue between the State and the NGO sector. The three institutions have been included in order to analyse the way in which a state-designed institution relates with NGOs and in turn the NGOs responded in general. / South Africa

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / HIV/AIDS is a deadly disease that needs to be addressed with immediate effect before serious damage can occur. Because the government has a responsibility over the health of its citizens, everybody expects the government to take a lead in the fight against this epidemic and from the look of things the government's strategies are not making the desired impact on the epidemic. The author attempted to highlight that the South African government has not played a satisfactory role in the fight against this pandemic, which threatens to alter history to a degree not seen in the world. / South Africa

Magister Artium - MA / The food security crisis which gripped the sub Sahara Africa after the drought in 1999/2000 threatened development initiatives in these countries. Zimbabwe’s situation has since worsened and the country has failed to recuperate from the food problems, even after an improvement in the climatic conditions. International and local food aid activities then became a priority in the fight to sustain the right to food for the affected regions. It is argued in this research that if food aid is distributed on the basis of need it will enable the vulnerable populations recuperate form food insecurity problems. It is also postulated that if well implemented, food aid programmes are also able to play the dual role of averting starvation and leading to long term development. This thesis departs from the allegations of food aid politicisation in Zimbabwe. Using the rational choice and neopatrimonial theories of individual behaviour, this research endeavored to ascertain whether political decisions influenced the government food aid distributions which were conducted through the Grain Marketing Board. In line with these theories, it is argued in this study that politicians behave in a manner that maximizes the fulfillment of their individual needs rather than the needs of the people who vote them in positions of power. A qualitative approach was adopted in this study and data was gathered through household interviews in the Seke and Goromonzi districts of the Mashonaland East province in Zimbabwe. Furthermore, interviews were conducted with food aid experts from the governmental and non governmental organisations dealing with food security issues in Zimbabwe. / South Africa

Magister Artium - MA / In South Africa, poverty engendered by the apartheid regime has long been part of the fabric of the economy. Against this background of social marginalisation, material deprivation and individual vulnerability, tourism has over the years increasingly been mooted as a strategically important and lucrative sector that, if fully explored and exploited, would lead to sustained poverty alleviation in the Republic of South Africa. The central aim of this study was to establish whether tourism as evident in the Spier Tourism model is a sustainable poverty-reduction strategy. The specific objectives of this study were to examine the socio-economic impact of Spier tourism initiatives on its workers (previously disadvantaged individuals) and the local population, to assess the pro-poor tourism practices as implemented by Spier in relation to Rogerson's pro-poor approach, to identify the challenges that Spier is facing in its pro-poor tourism approach with respect to poverty reduction goals, to provide recommendations on how the challenges can be met most effectively and to examine how pro-poor tourism can be promoted and enhanced in South Africa. The study employed both the qualitative and quantitative research designs. Data were collected through different qualitative and quantitative techniques (in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, questionnaire). Summary findings indicate that Spier has positively contributed to the socio-economic improvement in the living standards (contribution to livelihood - increased income, enhanced health and food status), through job creation, improved education/healthcare, empowerment through training and skill development, investment in the corporate social responsibility. However, Spier is still grappling with challenges such as racial disputes, insufficient income of employees and unqualified staff to mention a few. This study makes several recommendations which are based on the findings. / South Africa

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Dissertation (M Inst Agrar (Agricultural Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted

The present study examines social, demographic and behavioural factors that influence contraceptive use and method choice among young Namibian women. The study also explores ways to improve the accessibility of health facilities and family planning services for young women. The research is based on both quantitative and qualitative data provided by the 2000 Namibian Demographic and Health Survey and focus group discussions with young women (15-24 years) respectively. The data have been used to analyse the factors affecting contraceptive use and method choice among young women in Namibia. The logistic regression method has been applied to examine the determinants of contraceptive use and method choice. The study examines knowledge of contraceptive methods and sources of supply, decisions leading to contraceptive use and views about service delivery and the availability of contraceptive methods. The study reveals that whilst there is provision, the accessibility of existing reproductive health services for young women is poor in rural areas. There is a lack of support from parents, nurses, and the broader community. Part of the problem here is that older people are not fully aware of the sexual rights of young women, which leads to misunderstandings with regard to sexual and reproductive health issues. Nurses, especially in rural areas, are deemed to be judgmental and reluctant to provide contraceptives to young female scholars. Health facilities are also ranked by young women as user-unfriendly as most of them, as public spaces, lack confidentiality and privacy. These negative experiences of young women impact on their utilization of reproductive and health services and their use of contraceptives. Levels of contraceptive use among all age groups, including young women, in Namibia are still low. The choice of contraceptive method is restricted to injectables and to some extent, condoms. Uninformed and unsupportive parents are identified as major barriers to young women’s sexual health and their ability to use contraception consistently. Apart from this, individual use of contraception is greatly influenced by individual and community characteristics. The education level, marital status, number of children and work status are important individual factors affecting whether and what kind of contraception young women will use. Other issues related to the individual women concern whether she discusses family planning with her partner or parent, and whether she has access to the media and to health facilities. For example, findings from the multivariate analysis showed that increased education was significantly associated with a greater likelihood of using contraception. Unmarried young women were more likely to use condoms than married women. Higher condom use was also reported among young women of 15-19 years old than among 20-24 year olds. Furthermore, young women in urban areas had more positive attitudes towards using contraceptives, as well as more forthcoming friends and parents than those in the rural areas. The findings thus suggest that government strategies, which aim to increase the use of contraceptives amongst young women in Namibia, ought to enhance and improve parent-child communication, engage young women’s social networks, and seek to counteract negative assumptions of service providers who could potentially cater for a growing number of young women users and also make a range of choices available. / Thesis (DPhil(Sociology))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Sociology / DPhil / unrestricted

The need for increased national cyber security situational awareness is evident from the growing number of published national cyber security strategies. Governments are progressively seen as responsible for cyber security, but at the same time increasingly constrained by legal, privacy and resource considerations. Infrastructure and services that form part of the national cyber domain are often not under the control of government, necessitating the need for information sharing between governments and commercial partners. While sharing of security information is necessary, it typically requires considerable time to be implemented effectively. In an effort to decrease the time and effort required for cyber security situational awareness, this study considered commercially available data sources relating to a national cyber domain. Open source information is typically used by attackers to gather information with great success. An understanding of the data provided by these sources can also afford decision makers the opportunity to set priorities more effectively. Through the use of an adapted Joint Directors of Laboratories (JDL) fusion model, an experimental system was implemented that visualized the potential that open source intelligence could have on cyber situational awareness. Datasets used in the validation of the model contained information obtained from eight different data sources over a two year period with a focus on the South African .co.za sub domain. Over a million infrastructure devices were examined in this study along with information pertaining to a potential 88 million vulnerabilities on these devices. During the examination of data sources, a severe lack of information regarding the human aspect in cyber security was identified that led to the creation of a novel Personally Identifiable Information detection sensor (PII). The resultant two million records pertaining to PII in the South African domain were incorporated into the data fusion experiment for processing. The results of this processing are discussed in the three case studies. The results offered in this study aim to highlight how data fusion and effective visualization can serve to move national cyber security from a primarily reactive undertaking to a more pro-active model.