Includes bibliographical references. / Science is unequivocal in its support for the importance of early childhood development. Calls for increased investment in young children cite neuroscience, developmental psychology and health. It is hazardous, however, to make a direct leap from neuroscience to policy recommendations. Simply because early childhood provides opportunities for more economically efficient interventions which have dramatic impact on inequality, this does not mean that the ECD policies actually implemented by communities, provinces, or national government are worthy investments. Firstly, it is difficult to design programmes that improve children's cognitive or behavioural development. Secondly, the costs of even effective programmes might outweigh the benefits they generate for children, their families, and taxpayers. And finally, programmes in early childhood require upfront and politically brave investments that may take decades to pay off.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / Growing consumer awareness of animal welfare has co-evolved with increases in intensive farming, particularly of battery chickens. This rise in consumer awareness recently saw bans on battery farming in parts of Europe. This thesis addresses the difficulties that would follow any similar attempt to curtail battery farming in South Africa. It examines the literature on animal rights and the welfare issues generated by intensive animal farming, particularly of battery chickens. Thereafter it summarises the findings of surveys into local consumer preferences and retail strategies regarding chicken products.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-77). / The South African Government's anti-poverty strategy has been largely dominated by unconditional cash transfers. A growing body of literature examines the impacts of these transfers on a range of socio-economic outcomes; however there is little discussion of why such impacts are important. Without an explicit conceptual framework within which to examine these effects, evaluating their likely long term poverty impacts remains problematic. The focus of this research is to distil the current thinking on poverty and social protection to establish an appropriate theoretical framework within which to appraise anti-poverty measures. 'An Assets-Augmented' Capabilities Framework is proposed with a focus on asset-building as the primary means of poverty reduction. Focusing on the Child Support Grant (CSG), empirical analysis is then applied to examine whether the underlying causes of poverty are being addressed. Using the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) Wave 1 Dataset, the effects of the CSG on households' expenditure patterns are examined to assess the extent to which CSG-recipients invest in asset-building. A propensity score matching method is employed to construct an appropriate counterfactual. Households receiving the CSG are not found to exhibit significantly different expenditure patterns compared to a control group and cannot therefore be argued to invest differently in assets. This key finding provides evidence that the CSG primarily addresses the symptoms of poverty and cannot be expected to generate sustainable poverty reduction. A linking approach is thus proposed to combine the cash transfer element of the grant with more explicitly promotional measures in order to seek greater asset effects. A key recommendation is to ensure that the CSG acts as a gateway to other complementary services and benefits in order to increase the value of the grant with relatively little additional effort or cost.

Für komplexe Entwicklungsaufgaben von Großserienanwendungen mit hohem Reifegrad haben sich standardisierte Entwicklungsprozesse erfolgreich etabliert. Existieren diese für eine Aufgabenstellung nicht, kann bei überschaubarem Projektumfang gepaart mit hohem Neuheitsgrad ein Generalist den gesamten Entwicklungsprozess mit hoher Dynamik situativ und iterativ ohne Vorgegebene Ablaufstruktur erfolgreich leiten. Zur raschen und ganzheitlichen Erfassung von unbekanntem oder nicht hinreichend erfasstem (Teil-)Systemverhalten sowie der relevanten Interdependenzen und Einflussgrößen kann die menschliche Wahrnehmung bei der Testung von Spielmodellen und Prototypen einen wertvollen Beitrag leisten. Zur allgemeinen Nutzung des so erworbenen Wissens ist jedoch deren explizite Darstellung von zentraler Bedeutung. Anhand von zwei ausgewählten Praxisbeispielen wird dies verdeutlicht.

Text in English / The role that locally relevant services and content can play in the development of societies cannot be underestimated. The proliferation of mobile phones in Africa’s developing countries is a significant enabler, which provides access to such locally relevant services and content. Mobile applications have the potential to support the development of the African continent through bolstering the main mechanisms of innovation, inclusion and efficiency. This has been demonstrated by instances of increased literacy, improved access to health care, banking, crowd sourcing and provision of farming and/or agricultural assistance. Successful cases of such mobile-based services include Kenya’s M-Pesa, which has allowed millions of rural people, who do not have access to traditional banking facilities, to send and receive money as well as pay utility bills and school fees. The development of similar innovative and locally relevant mobile-based solutions, which is currently considered to be in its infancy, is key to improving the lives of people in developing countries. This study identifies the essential components of an innovation ecosystem, for the development and presentation of a Mobile Applications Innovation Ecosystem Framework for Botswana. An innovation ecosystem enables effective interaction amongst entrepreneurs, companies, universities, research organisations, investors and government agencies towards maximising economic impact and potential. To gain a practical understanding of the context in which locally relevant mobile-based services can be developed, the study adopted a pragmatic research approach. Through combining the 4Cs Framework for ICT and the systems theory’s Triple Helix Model of Innovation, the study proceeded to develop the framework using a Design Science Research (DSR) methodology. DSR guided the identification of the components, which make up the mobile applications innovation ecosystem within government, industry and higher education sectors, as extracted from the literature review. This process facilitated initial framework designs, which were demonstrated to and evaluated by conveniently sampled stakeholders from relevant helices. Thereafter a synthesised framework was presented for evaluation by knowledgeable professionals from the mobile applications innovation ecosystem. The study contributes to the theoretical knowledgebase by presenting a theoretical framework for understanding ICT4D innovation frameworks and mobile applications / School of Computing / Ph. D. (Information Systems)