Student Number : 0110471A - MSc research report - School of Civil and Environmental Engineering - Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment / Having followed various different approaches in environmental management capacity building for a number of years, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) achieved various degrees of success. The increased importance of environmental management at local government level required a more consistent approach from the DBSA in order to improve delivery. This necessitated the identification of success criteria that the DBSA could implement to guide this improvement. In order to identify these criteria, the following main aspects were researched: The environmental mandate and capacity of local government in South Africa, the international perspective on capacity building, the DBSA’s mandate on capacity building and lastly the outcomes of four environmental capacity building projects implemented by the DBSA. The criteria identified focussed on two main areas, namely project management and environmental management. Furthermore, various steps were identified that the DBSA needs to take with relation to its own project cycle that might lead to improvements in this regard.

This Thesis presents ethnographic data collected through multi-sector, multi-level purposive sampling in a longitudinal qualitative case study between 2008 and 2010. A pilot study had discovered the changing role of government in building capacity for responses to civil emergencies, against a context of changing risks and resources for UK Emergency Management. The Thesis explored the increasing involvement of non-statutory agencies by focussing on the ‘Third Sector’: voluntary, charitable, faith, or community organisations and communities. The Thesis reports (1) the relationship between multi-organisational arrangements and resilience, (2) the role of Third Sector organisations in implementing resilience, and (3) the role of the Third Sector in community resilience. (1) The data suggested that the process of implementing resilience involved operationalising the resilience concept as a philosophy for Integrated Emergency Management [IEM], and consequent changes to the governance and organisation of Scottish and UK emergency management. The research linked the role of the Third Sector in resilience and community resilience to the dynamic between preparedness and response. It explored (2) the impact of implementing resilience on organising and organisations in the Third Sector, and (3) policy development and capacity-building for an emergent role in community resilience. The Thesis makes a distinctive contribution to the discipline of Public Management. Firstly, the findings represent a novel empirical and theoretical contribution regarding the role of the Third Sector in community resilience and in the resilience paradigm of emergency management. This data is used to extend existing theory about the proactive role of Third Sector organisations in collaborative emergency management. Secondly, the Thesis argues that the meso-level of analysis is neglected in the emerging field of resilience studies. Network and collaboration theory in Public Management are used to make a novel theoretical contribution, describing the relationship between multi-organisational arrangements and the operationalisation of ‘resilient’ emergency management. Thirdly, the Thesis contributes to the study of collaborative emergency management from this longitudinal perspective. This data is used to extend our understanding of (a) the applicability of Public Management theory to this context and (b) the relevance of data from this context to theories of collaborative public management.

Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2014 / Capacity building is a process of building capabilities in individuals, groups, institutions, organisations, and societies at the local, national and international levels, to be more effectively prepared for and respond to public health threats of a crisis in a sustainable manner. This process is designed to reinforce or create strengths upon which communities can mitigate vulnerabilities as a result of emergencies and disasters. The main aim of the study was to assess capacity building in Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP) funded projects in Capricorn District of Limpopo Province. The CASP programme was initiated to provide post-settlement support for farmers who have benefitted from the Land Reform programmes. Since zfthe inception of this programme, there has not been any assessment of capacity building as one of the pillars of CASP. The objective of the study was to assess capacity building on productivity and to determine the impact of capacity building on the CASP funded projects. The study hypothesed that an increase in the level of productivity of CASP funded projects depends on the level of capacity building. The term training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills. In land reform projects, training is provided as the planned and organised activity of a consultant to impart skills, techniques and methodologies to employers and their employees, to assist them in establishing and maintaining employment and a place of employment that is safe and healthy. The Farmer training is offered in two different methods, viz., on-farm and off-farm training. The on-farm training involves a service-provider visiting the farmer and rendering the training at the farm, whereas the off-farm training requires a farmer to go to the planned venue or institution of training to receive the planned training. iv

<p>This thesis explored the empowerment needs of volunteer members of Women for Peace at the Nobantu Centre, Mfuleni in the Western Cape. The volunteer members, the majority of whom are women, come from a previously disadvantaged background created by the Apartheid system used in South Africa from 1948-1994. Apartheid driven education purposefully taught an inferior form of education to the black masses. This case study investigated the needs of the volunteer members, the impact that the four empowerment programmes had on the volunteer members and their future needs after being empowered.</p>

In the past decade a rapid increase has been seen in the number of organizations using sport as a development tool in majority world communities. Specifically, Sport for Development programs have been promoted as a means to promote peace, a forum for social mobilization efforts and health initiatives, and a tool for sustainable community development (SDP IWG, 2008; UNIATF, 2003). Often, a fundamental goal of such programs is community capacity building. However, despite this increase in attention, data regarding benefits of these programs remains anecdotal, without a strong body of reliable evidence on the impact of Sport for Development programs on community capacity building. Informed by this context, the purpose of this study was to understand the effectiveness of a Sport for Development program in community capacity building in a refugee camp in Tanzania.<p> The research was accomplished using a qualitative case study approach with 12 key stakeholders involved in the program. The principal method of data collection was a participatory workshop methodology using Laveracks (1999) nine domains to assess community capacity. This qualitative workshop methodology also employed a quantitative tool vis-à-vis Laveracks nine domains which acted as a participatory guide to evaluate the level of community capacity in the program. An initial workshop held with key stakeholders assessed current status, which was followed by the development and implementation of strategic plans for action by stakeholders based on the workshop assessment. A second workshop was held one year later to re-assess community capacity. Additional methods of data collection included individual interviews, observations, and field notes. Member checking, a prolonged time in the field, and triangulation were the primary procedures for verifying the accuracy of the findings.<p> The results showed that community capacity was increased in eight of the nine domains. Specifically, these eight were community participation, local leadership, organizational structures, problem assessment capacities, resource mobilization, ability to ask why, role of outside agents, and program management. The findings from this study demonstrate that a Sport for Development program can be effective in increasing community capacity; this was attributed to the specific participatory methodology used to assess community capacity, structural changes in the program, and a change in approach to programming by project coordinators.

In the past decade a rapid increase has been seen in the number of organizations using sport as a development tool in majority world communities. Specifically, Sport for Development programs have been promoted as a means to promote peace, a forum for social mobilization efforts and health initiatives, and a tool for sustainable community development (SDP IWG, 2008; UNIATF, 2003). Often, a fundamental goal of such programs is community capacity building. However, despite this increase in attention, data regarding benefits of these programs remains anecdotal, without a strong body of reliable evidence on the impact of Sport for Development programs on community capacity building. Informed by this context, the purpose of this study was to understand the effectiveness of a Sport for Development program in community capacity building in a refugee camp in Tanzania.<p> The research was accomplished using a qualitative case study approach with 12 key stakeholders involved in the program. The principal method of data collection was a participatory workshop methodology using Laveracks (1999) nine domains to assess community capacity. This qualitative workshop methodology also employed a quantitative tool vis-à-vis Laveracks nine domains which acted as a participatory guide to evaluate the level of community capacity in the program. An initial workshop held with key stakeholders assessed current status, which was followed by the development and implementation of strategic plans for action by stakeholders based on the workshop assessment. A second workshop was held one year later to re-assess community capacity. Additional methods of data collection included individual interviews, observations, and field notes. Member checking, a prolonged time in the field, and triangulation were the primary procedures for verifying the accuracy of the findings.<p> The results showed that community capacity was increased in eight of the nine domains. Specifically, these eight were community participation, local leadership, organizational structures, problem assessment capacities, resource mobilization, ability to ask why, role of outside agents, and program management. The findings from this study demonstrate that a Sport for Development program can be effective in increasing community capacity; this was attributed to the specific participatory methodology used to assess community capacity, structural changes in the program, and a change in approach to programming by project coordinators.

Social research specifically aimed at evaluating the efficacy of coastal zone management programs at the parish (county) level in building local capacities has been meager in academic literatures and absent from Louisiana Department of Natural Resources evaluative reports. This study addresses this deficiency by examining the effectiveness of Louisiana's Local Coastal Program (LCP) in building local coastal zone management capacity. Using levels of LCP development as a proxy for capacity-building, the study examines the influence of: 1) aggregate level social and demographic characteristics, 2) structural differences, and 3) different types of issue framing (i.e. "regulator" framing versus "regulated" framing). A multiple case design, using survey, interview, observation, and archival methods of data collection, produces two multi-layered data sets - one at the parish level (nineteen Coastal Zone parishes) and the other at the individual level (a target population of parish officials, CZM administrators and advisory panel members). Patterns in findings from quantitative and qualitative analysis are matched to rival theories, namely, resource mobilization theory and social construction theory. The analyses show that parishes with LCPs have a much stronger presence of "regulator" framing than do parishes without LCPs. The "regulator" frame is particularly strong among LCP/CZM advisory panel members, while agreement with regulator frames is lowest among parish council or police jury members. Coastal hazards vulnerability is highly salient to parishes both with and without LCPs, but the translation of hazard impacts to economic vulnerabilities, such as infrastructure damage, property loss and business interruption, is far weaker for non-LCP parishes. Themes prevalent in the data include contentions over wetland mitigation issues, disjunctions between the restorative and regulatory arm of LADNR, and disparate perceptions between non-LCP parishes and LCP parishes concerning the benefits of a parish LCP over developmental and maintenance costs. Overall findings indicate that while resource mobilization is necessary to programmatic participation and the building of capacity, social construction theory can explain the differences between respondent agreement with the regulator frame, and thus the presence of institutional capacity.

Recent research examining collective efficacy beliefs has generated a plethora of promising findings about their impact on group functioning. However, questions regarding the nature of collective efficacy beliefs across diverse educational organizations and theoretical constructs are understudied in this area of research. Therefore, the current study examines the relationship between collective efficacy beliefs and building group capacity. Self-reported data were collected from participants involved in a 10-month collaborative effort to enhance their proficiency in giving more effective presentations in order to strengthen their divisions’ capacity to improve educational achievement in schools. This top-down approach to building capacity is common, yet challenging to develop and evaluate, especially for organizations consisting of multiple infrastructures. Research findings using separate simple linear regression analyses suggest that perceived collective efficacy highly predicts group capacity, as it accounted for nearly 76% of the variance in self-reported group capacity. In addition, vicarious experience was shown to highly predict collective efficacy beliefs and group capacity. Likewise, perceived autonomy support strongly predicted group capacity, however did not significantly predict collective efficacy beliefs, which has been implied in the recent literature (Goddard, Hoy & Woolfolk Hoy, 2004; Brinson & Steiner, 2007). These findings provide a foundation for future collective efficacy belief research and capacity building efforts in the nonprofit education sector. / text

The origin of this study is due to research Botma (1999) undertook among Free State farmers in order to determine what the global level of perceived stress was, but also to determine which specific stressors they experienced and what its intensity was. With this study Botma (1999) found that the stressors by which the farmers are confronted, hold negative implications for their quality of life. The purpose of the current study namely to develop a capacity building programme by means of which quality of life can be facilitated, resulted therefore from the abovementioned research. The capacity building programme entailed the following components: stress, psychological well-being, quality of life and subjective well-being. The capacity building programme was also subjected to evaluation in order to determine its effect on the participants. In order to achieve this objective, the following scales were used in the empirical study: Quality of Lie Questionnaire (Evans & Cope, 1989), Sense of Coherence Scale (Antonovsky, 1993), Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Larsen & Griffen, 1985), Affectometer 2 (Kamman & Flett, 1983), COPE (Carver, Scheier & Weintraub, 1989) and the Spiritual Well- Being Scale (Ellison & Smith, 1991). All these scales showed satisfactory reliability indices. A sample of 60 participants from three districts in the Free State was used. As far as the qualitative component of this research was concerned, focus groups were led with 10 participants, and in-depth interviews were conducted with four respondents. The empirical part of this study indicated that there was no difference between the experimental and control group before the intervention had VII taken place. On conclusion of the program, clear differences could be detected within the experimental group as well as between the experimental and control group. The experimental group showed an improvement in spirituality, subjective well-being and quality of life. These results were also reflected by the focus groups and by the in-depth interviews. It is however interesting to note that the above-mentioned changes that had taken place in the participants are mainly concerned with their affect and not with their behaviour as such. The reason being the fact that the focus of the programme is spiritual and mainly emphasises the improvement of the affective quality of life of the participants. The results of the in-depth interviews indicate the fact that the capacity building programme still has a long-term effect on the participants. Recommendations are made with regard to the capacity building programme in terms of changes to for example the inclusion of behavioural change. This research contributed to the understanding of spirituality, psychological well-being, subjective well-being and quality of life as well as to its application in a capacity building programme for farmers. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

<p>This thesis explored the empowerment needs of volunteer members of Women for Peace at the Nobantu Centre, Mfuleni in the Western Cape. The volunteer members, the majority of whom are women, come from a previously disadvantaged background created by the Apartheid system used in South Africa from 1948-1994. Apartheid driven education purposefully taught an inferior form of education to the black masses. This case study investigated the needs of the volunteer members, the impact that the four empowerment programmes had on the volunteer members and their future needs after being empowered.</p>