Women participation in rural development

India"s export problems

Commercial agriculture in South Africa has been subject to accelerated regulatory and economic change in the time since the country’s democratization. This dissertation focusses on some of the interactions of these changes with the prospects of low-income farmworkers and farm dwellers through exploring two interlinked questions. The first of these asks whether consolidation in the industry has extended to growing firm size and in-turn, whether farmworkers in larger firms earn higher wages than those in small firms. An analysis of the firm-size earnings relationship using long run labour survey data is discussed in the context of current debates on agrarian policy. The second question relates to the process of rural-urban migration off commercial farms and into urban areas in the post-apartheid period. Using a panel of individuals and in so doing, controlling for unobserved individual heterogeneity and initial household fixed effects, a difference in differences approach is used to estimate the impacts of migration on various measures of individual living standards. Together these two questions attempt to characterise aspects of the changing nature of life on farms. The results suggest that there exists a significant firm-size earnings premium for farmworkers and that this may be increasing over time. In addition the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) data suggests that migration off farms has mixed implications for living standards, but is associated with significant gains in per-capita income, electricity and sanitation access.

University graduation rates have become increasingly important for institutions and policymakers alike. Academic exclusion, or other forms of withdrawal from university, represents a substantial loss to the individual, the institution and broader society. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of graduation and academic exclusion in UCT's Commerce, Engineering and Built Environment and Science faculties using survival analysis. The data consisted of 11 959 students who registered for a degree in one of the three faculties between 2006 and 2013. The results suggest that there are large differences in graduation and academic exclusion rates between different groups of students. Factors which increased the likelihood of graduating were being female, white, ineligible for financial aid, proficient in English, attending a Quintile 5 or independent school and obtained good high school grades. On the other hand, males who are on financial aid, non English-speaking, attend poorly resourced schools and achieved low school grades are more likely to be academically excluded. Further findings indicate that, relative to the Commerce faculty, the Science and EBE faculties exclude a substantially greater proportion of poorly performing students in the first and second years. The Commerce Faculty excludes relatively few poorly performing students in the first two years, but the exclusion rate increases sharply in the third and subsequent years. The main policy implication of these results is that the secondary schooling system needs to improve greatly in order for a larger proportion of students to graduate at university.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-70). / This study examines the influence of socio-economic inequalities on the probability of conflict in Kenya and aims to synthesise various causal hypotheses in the literature. This research extends to a regional analysis of a cross-national sample to understand the extent to which structural cleavages account for a cause of potential conflict in Kenya. The post-election violence that emerged in 2008 shed light on the urgency for policy reforms to address the root causes of what was viewed as an imminent outbreak of violence. Various analysts trace the origin of conflict to nepotism, ethnic stratification, historical injustices, poor governance and disparities in resource allocation. Given these sources of dissent, this study proposes that the most fundamental factors that considerably influence the probability of conflict in Kenya are pervasive poverty and extreme inequality, intensified by ethnic divisions. Based on Kuznets theory, we argue that the booms of economic growth experienced from 2003 perpetuated the stark economic and social inequalities prevalent in Kenya. As a result, there is strong evidence that suggests that these sharp inequalities fuelled the post-election violence and deeply influence the probability of conflict in Kenyan society. Another key contribution from the study is the conclusion that the existence of sharp horizontal inequalities result in a bias towards ethnic conflict. It is imperative to identify the underlying causes of conflict so as to neutralise polarisation which exacerbates tension and breeds further conflict. In light of this view, the probability of conflict in Kenya can be minimised effectively and such mitigation can be used as a mechanism for future growth and economic development in Kenya.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / The paper investigates whether the spatial distribution of economic activity in South Africa is static or evolving. Testing Gibrat’s Law to determine this, results suggest growth patterns in South Africa have been divergent over the period 1996-2010. The share of population, employment and GVA in the largest municipalities has been increasing relative to the shares in smaller municipalities.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / This study was designed to assess the potential role of PCT, and to better understand the public's response to mitigation policy, within the context of South Africa. An experiment was conducted that simulated a personal emissions trading scheme.

Acknowledging the limited opportunities for South African teachers to acquire specialized knowledge in teaching reading, particularly in African Languages, the Non-Governmental Organisation Funda Wande is providing an integrated package of support to train Foundation Phase literacy teachers in how to teach reading for meaning in African languages. The pilot intervention evaluated here takes place in three urban schooling districts in South Africa's Eastern Cape province. The intervention is implemented in partnership with the Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDoE). The Funda Wande in-service training model builds on international best practice and lessons learnt from domestic iterations of integrated teacher training and support models, prominently amongst which are the Department of Basic Education (DBE)-led Early Grade Reading (EGRS) studies Funda Wande provides a bouquet of home language print resources to learners and classrooms. Teachers also receive an integrated package of curriculum aligned lesson plans, assessment booklets and online pedagogic resources. In-classroom teacher coaching provides support, monitoring and feedback for teachers on how to implement new teaching techniques and make use of materials. The Funda Wande course trains teachers and their Heads of Department (HODs) on how to teach reading for meaning in African languages. The course content provides teachers with knowledge on the morphology of African languages and how learners learn to read in them, whilst supporting materials and in-person coaching equips teachers to implement the instructional techniques in practice. The primary aim of the evaluation is to assess whether the Funda Wande intervention is effective in changing teacher's instructional behaviour and improving early reading outcomes. More specifically, the programme's is evaluated with reference to its self-stated goal: that all learners should be able to read for meaning in their home language by the end of Grade 3. The specific reading outcomes assessed are grade relevant foundational reading and reading comprehension skills. A randomized control trial (RCT) is used to estimate the causal impact of the programme on early literacy outcomes with schools randomized into one of two arms – Funda Wande and control – in three urban and peri-urban education districts. All schools in the evaluation are no fee public schools with an isiXhosa language of learning and teaching. After one year of programme exposure, the intervention impact on the treated group of Grade 1 and 2 learners' reading proficiency is 0.17 standard deviations. Translated into the amount of learning that took place in comparison schools, or ‘business as usual' learning environments, this effect equals between 20 to 27 percent of a year's worth of learning for Grade 2 learners and 33 to 58 percent of a year's learning for Grade 1 learners. Dependent on the outcome measure used, the programme impacts therefore range roughly between one and two terms of learning in comparison status quo classrooms. The programme effects are positive across all the sub-domains of reading proficiency that could be measured reliably. For Grade 1 learners, intervention impacts were the largest on foundational decoding skills - correctly identifying letter sounds and being able to manipulate phonemes. At this early stage of Grade 1 leaners' development trajectories, these are the skills that are required to decode words, read more fluently and eventually progress to reading for meaning. The impacts on downstream higher order reading comprehension skills are only detectable for Grade 2 learners. Consistent with other results from the recent literature, these findings support the idea that learners require a range of foundational literacy abilities before they can read with some level of fluency. In turn, learners need to read with a certain minimum level of speed and accuracy in order to comprehend what they are reading. A particularly encouraging finding from a policy perspective is that the intervention has fairly consistent positive impacts for learners across the distribution of baseline reading proficiency. Programme impacts also do not vary with of learners' relative rank for reading proficiency within their classrooms. Previous research suggests that improving reading outcomes for learners with the lowest levels of foundational reading skills in an absolute sense is particularly challenging. A related finding is suggestive evidence that the programme helps boys in treatment schools catch up with their generally more proficient girl counterparts, but only in Grade 2 and with the extent of catch-up contingent on the boys' baseline levels of reading proficiency. At this stage only suggestive results are presented for the potential mechanisms at play. Evidence across more than one indicator suggests that teachers in intervention schools are more likely to a) be more attuned to the actual reading proficiency levels of the learners in their class (both in terms of whether learners are at the top or the bottom of the distribution and how the class performs overall); b) to make use of graded readers - which were provided equivalently to both treatment and control schools - more frequently; and (c) to use instructional techniques that have previously shown to facilitate more individualised forms of learner reading practice and -teacher feedback. Future rounds of assessments and in-depth qualitative classroom observations will delve deeper into both the potential mechanisms at play, as well as the potential characteristics of the Funda Wande intervention that result in it being effective in shifting learning outcomes for leaners across the distribution of reading proficiency levels (and for learners with the lowest levels of reading proficiency in particular). Other unanswered question at this stage relate to the details that would allow one to compare the absolute- and cost-effectiveness of the programme to similar interventions in the literature. The results here add to the growing body of evidence that makes a strong case for the crucial complementary role of high-quality teacher coaching and continuous follow-up support in programmes that focus on shifting teachers' instructional practice. Consistent with the results from similar interventions in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa, the Funda Wande intervention improves learning outcomes through combining material provision, a structured sequence of lessons, alignment around some central curriculum, and supporting teachers in “learning by doing” through teacher professional development support.

Kenya is now at advanced stages of introducing a derivatives market. Its aim is to enhance Kenya’s medium-term growth prospects as outlined in the capital markets master plan 2014- 2023. This study interrogates the effect of derivatives on economic growth and growth volatility, learning from the South African experience. The study also identifies some of the factors that drove South Africa’s implementation of derivatives as a development tool - Some countries have enacted legislation for it yet have never transitioned to successful operations. The study paints a picture of the current global and regional view of derivatives and examines empirical evidence from previous studies. Using a GMM approach, the study finds no significant relationship between trading derivatives and economic growth in South Africa. Thereafter, economic growth volatility is modelled using the GARCH method and the effects of derivatives on that volatility are tested. No effect is found. The study finds that the derivative market in South Africa is not yet sufficiently developed to benefit the economy. Finally, the relationship between economic development and derivatives is appraised using a Granger causality test: this suggests that development tends to engender the evolution of derivatives in the long run.

The intergenerational transmission of inequality causes individuals to receive unearned advantages and disadvantages in society. Understanding how the transmission of unearned material status affects social interactions will help to illuminate how the relationship between material status and social connections affects an individual’s overall welfare. The behavioural responses to intergenerational inequality have proven difficult to isolate in observational data. In a series of laboratory experiments, an inherited inequality framing was shown to cause significantly different public good game contribution behaviour for various types of individual. While inheritance status improved cooperation among those who inherited a high status in groups with only others who inherited high endowments, the inheritance frame is associated with reduced cooperation in unequal groups and in groups comprised of exclusively inheritors of low material status. The inheritance frame established a powerful historical context for participants, the reduction in cooperation caused by inherited inequality persisted even after redistribution interventions which eliminated the material inequality.