<p>The general objective of the proposed research is to do a needs analysis for the tourism and hospitality industries of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland. This will be followed by an alignment of these industries with the provisions of the General Agreement of Trade in Services, commonly known as GATS, so that a Tourism and Hospitality Services Charter may be moulded that may be used uniformly throughout SACU. The specific objectives of the research are: To analyze impact assessment reports and studies conducted on the Tourism and Hospitality Industries for all five SACU member states with the aim of harmonizing standards, costs and border procedures. To ecognize SACU member states&rsquo / schedule of GATS Commitments, especially in the service sectors being investigated, by improving market access, and to recommend minimal infrastructural development levels to be attained for such sectors&rsquo / support. To make recommendations to harness the challenges faced by the said industries into a working document. To calibrate a uniformity of trade standards in these sectors that shall be used by the SACU membership. To ensure that the template is flexible enough for SACU to easily adopt and use in ongoing bilateral negotiations, for example.</p>

<p>The research paper seeks to investigate the possible ways in which African countries can maximise their benefit from the existing special and differential treatment clauses for trade in agriculture, and, then, make recommendations as to what should be the potential bargaining position of African countries with regard to future trade negotiations on agricultural trade.</p>

No description available.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Background: The global burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is escalating as part of the rapid health transition that developing countries are experiencing. This increase is associated with shifts in demographics and economics, two of the major factors that affect diet and activity. The term social drift phenomenon (SDP) is used to describe the observations that: in the early stages of the epidemiological and nutrition transitions, it is usually the more affluent, higher socio–economic groups that are affected; in the later stages, it is the poor, lower socio–economic groups that display the consequences of these transitions. Therefore, in developing countries at the beginning of the transition, affluent people have higher prevalence of obesity and increased CVD risk. In developed countries, at much later stages of the transition, obesity and increased CVD risk is more prevalent in the lower socio–economic groups. In South Africa, the Transition and Health during Urbanisation of South Africans (THUSA) study which was done in 1996/1998 indicated that at that time, most of the risk factors for CVD were observed in the more urbanised (richer) subjects. It is not known if this pattern changed in any way due to the present rapid urbanisation of South African blacks. Therefore, in this study we explored the associations between socio–economic status (SES) (measured by level of urbanisation, education and employment) and CVD risk factors in an African population undergoing transition in the North–West Province of South Africa, that were prevalent in 2005 when the baseline data for in the Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study were collected. Objectives: The main objective of this dissertation was to examine the SDP in an African population in a nutrition and health transition, by: (i) Reviewing the literature on associations between socio–economic variables and biological health outcomes focusing on CVD risk factors in developed and developing countries; (ii) Analysing the baseline data from the 2005 PURE study to examine the relationships between components of SES, namely level of iii urbanisation, education and occupation, and nutrition–related CVD risk factors in men and women participating in the PURE study; and (iii) Comparing results on these associations between CVD risk factors and SES from the PURE study with those found in the THUSA study, which was conducted almost 10 years earlier, to examine if social drift in these associations has taken place. Study design: The dissertation is based on a comparison of the CVD risk factors and socio–economic status of the THUSA and PURE studies. Secondary analysis of the baseline cross–sectional epidemiological data from the PURE study was executed. The South African PURE study is part of a 12–year Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology study which investigates the health transition in urban and rural subjects in 22 different countries. The main selection criterion was that there should be migration stability within the chosen rural and urban communities. The rural community (A) was identified 450 km west of Potchefstroom on the highway to Botswana. A deep rural community (B), 35 km east from A and only accessible by gravel road, was also included. Both communities are still under tribal law. The urban communities (C and D) were chosen near the University in Potchefstroom. Community C was selected from Ikageng, the established part of the township next to Potchefstroom, and D from the informal settlements surrounding community C. The baseline data for PURE were collected from October to December 2005. A total of 2010 apparently healthy African volunteers (35 years and older), with no reported chronic diseases of lifestyle, tuberculosis (TB) or known human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were recruited from a sample of 6000 randomly selected households. Methods: A variety of quantitative and qualitative research techniques was used by multidisciplinary teams to collect, measure and interpret data generated from biological samples and validated questionnaires. For this study, the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) package (version 17.0, SPSS Inc) was used to analyze the data. Means and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of CVD risk and dietary factors were calculated. Participants of both genders were divided into different groups (according to urbanisation, education and employment levels) and compared. Estimated significant differences between rural and urban participants were determined with analysis of variance using the general linear model (GLM), multivariate procedure. Univariate analysis was used to explore further the influence of education on CVD risk factors and dietary intakes. Employment was used as a proxy for income, and pairwise comparisons using GLM, multivariate procedure were done for comparing the three groups (Not answered, employed and not employed). Tests were considered significant at P<0.05. Results: Comparison of urban with rural subjects participating in the PURE study showed that urban men had significantly higher systolic and diastolic blood pressures and lower fibrinogen levels than rural men. In women, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose and serum triglycerides were significantly higher in urban subjects whereas fibrinogen levels were significantly lower among urban subjects. After examining the relationship between the level of education and CVD risk factors, we observed that men with higher education levels had significantly higher BMI. In women, serum triglycerides and blood pressure were lower and BMI was significantly higher in the educated subjects. Because it was difficult to distinguish between reported household and individual income levels, we compared CVD risk factors of employed and unemployed subjects. Employed men had significantly higher BMI whereas the unemployed men had significantly higher fasting glucose and fibrinogen levels. Although mean blood pressure of employed men was higher than that of unemployed men, the difference did not reach significance. In women, the only significant difference seen was that employed women had lower high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, fasting glucose, triglycerides and fibrinogen levels, but they had a significantly higher BMI. Employed women had significantly higher BMI than unemployed women (27.9 [26.3–29.4] versus 26.5 [26.0–27.0] kg/m2). It seems that most of the nutrition related CVD risk factors were still higher in the higher socio–economic group, a situation similar to that reported in the THUSA study. v Conclusion: The results of this study showed little evidence of a major social drift in CVD risk factors from subjects participating in the 1996/1998 THUSA study to those in the 2005 PURE study. Most cardiovascular disease risk factors are still higher in the higher SES groups. However, there were some indications (increased fibrinogen in both men and women living in rural areas; higher triglyceride and fasting glucose levels in unemployed women; no significant differences in blood pressure and total cholesterol across different SES groups which existed in the THUSA study) that a social drift in CVD risk factors in our African population is on the way. This means that promotion of healthy, prudent diets and lifestyles should be targeted to Africans from all socio–economic levels for the prevention of CVD. / Thesis (M.Sc (Dietetics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Background: The global burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is escalating as part of the rapid health transition that developing countries are experiencing. This increase is associated with shifts in demographics and economics, two of the major factors that affect diet and activity. The term social drift phenomenon (SDP) is used to describe the observations that: in the early stages of the epidemiological and nutrition transitions, it is usually the more affluent, higher socio–economic groups that are affected; in the later stages, it is the poor, lower socio–economic groups that display the consequences of these transitions. Therefore, in developing countries at the beginning of the transition, affluent people have higher prevalence of obesity and increased CVD risk. In developed countries, at much later stages of the transition, obesity and increased CVD risk is more prevalent in the lower socio–economic groups. In South Africa, the Transition and Health during Urbanisation of South Africans (THUSA) study which was done in 1996/1998 indicated that at that time, most of the risk factors for CVD were observed in the more urbanised (richer) subjects. It is not known if this pattern changed in any way due to the present rapid urbanisation of South African blacks. Therefore, in this study we explored the associations between socio–economic status (SES) (measured by level of urbanisation, education and employment) and CVD risk factors in an African population undergoing transition in the North–West Province of South Africa, that were prevalent in 2005 when the baseline data for in the Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study were collected. Objectives: The main objective of this dissertation was to examine the SDP in an African population in a nutrition and health transition, by: (i) Reviewing the literature on associations between socio–economic variables and biological health outcomes focusing on CVD risk factors in developed and developing countries; (ii) Analysing the baseline data from the 2005 PURE study to examine the relationships between components of SES, namely level of iii urbanisation, education and occupation, and nutrition–related CVD risk factors in men and women participating in the PURE study; and (iii) Comparing results on these associations between CVD risk factors and SES from the PURE study with those found in the THUSA study, which was conducted almost 10 years earlier, to examine if social drift in these associations has taken place. Study design: The dissertation is based on a comparison of the CVD risk factors and socio–economic status of the THUSA and PURE studies. Secondary analysis of the baseline cross–sectional epidemiological data from the PURE study was executed. The South African PURE study is part of a 12–year Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology study which investigates the health transition in urban and rural subjects in 22 different countries. The main selection criterion was that there should be migration stability within the chosen rural and urban communities. The rural community (A) was identified 450 km west of Potchefstroom on the highway to Botswana. A deep rural community (B), 35 km east from A and only accessible by gravel road, was also included. Both communities are still under tribal law. The urban communities (C and D) were chosen near the University in Potchefstroom. Community C was selected from Ikageng, the established part of the township next to Potchefstroom, and D from the informal settlements surrounding community C. The baseline data for PURE were collected from October to December 2005. A total of 2010 apparently healthy African volunteers (35 years and older), with no reported chronic diseases of lifestyle, tuberculosis (TB) or known human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were recruited from a sample of 6000 randomly selected households. Methods: A variety of quantitative and qualitative research techniques was used by multidisciplinary teams to collect, measure and interpret data generated from biological samples and validated questionnaires. For this study, the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) package (version 17.0, SPSS Inc) was used to analyze the data. Means and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of CVD risk and dietary factors were calculated. Participants of both genders were divided into different groups (according to urbanisation, education and employment levels) and compared. Estimated significant differences between rural and urban participants were determined with analysis of variance using the general linear model (GLM), multivariate procedure. Univariate analysis was used to explore further the influence of education on CVD risk factors and dietary intakes. Employment was used as a proxy for income, and pairwise comparisons using GLM, multivariate procedure were done for comparing the three groups (Not answered, employed and not employed). Tests were considered significant at P<0.05. Results: Comparison of urban with rural subjects participating in the PURE study showed that urban men had significantly higher systolic and diastolic blood pressures and lower fibrinogen levels than rural men. In women, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose and serum triglycerides were significantly higher in urban subjects whereas fibrinogen levels were significantly lower among urban subjects. After examining the relationship between the level of education and CVD risk factors, we observed that men with higher education levels had significantly higher BMI. In women, serum triglycerides and blood pressure were lower and BMI was significantly higher in the educated subjects. Because it was difficult to distinguish between reported household and individual income levels, we compared CVD risk factors of employed and unemployed subjects. Employed men had significantly higher BMI whereas the unemployed men had significantly higher fasting glucose and fibrinogen levels. Although mean blood pressure of employed men was higher than that of unemployed men, the difference did not reach significance. In women, the only significant difference seen was that employed women had lower high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, fasting glucose, triglycerides and fibrinogen levels, but they had a significantly higher BMI. Employed women had significantly higher BMI than unemployed women (27.9 [26.3–29.4] versus 26.5 [26.0–27.0] kg/m2). It seems that most of the nutrition related CVD risk factors were still higher in the higher socio–economic group, a situation similar to that reported in the THUSA study. v Conclusion: The results of this study showed little evidence of a major social drift in CVD risk factors from subjects participating in the 1996/1998 THUSA study to those in the 2005 PURE study. Most cardiovascular disease risk factors are still higher in the higher SES groups. However, there were some indications (increased fibrinogen in both men and women living in rural areas; higher triglyceride and fasting glucose levels in unemployed women; no significant differences in blood pressure and total cholesterol across different SES groups which existed in the THUSA study) that a social drift in CVD risk factors in our African population is on the way. This means that promotion of healthy, prudent diets and lifestyles should be targeted to Africans from all socio–economic levels for the prevention of CVD. / Thesis (M.Sc (Dietetics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Cointegration has important implications for portfolio diversification. One of these is that in order to spread risk it is advisable to invest in markets that are not cointegrated. Over the last several decades communication technology has made the world a smaller place and hence cointegration in equity markets has become more prevalent. The bulk of research into cointegration focuses on developed and Asian markets, with little research been done on African markets. This study compares the Engle-Granger and Johansen tests for cointegration and uses them to calculate the level of cointegration between South African and other global equity markets. Each market is compared pair-wise with South Africa and the results have been that in general South Africa is cointegrated with other emerging markets but not really with African nor developed markets. Short-run analysis with the error correction was carried out and showed that in general markets respond slowly to any disequilibrium. Innovation accounting methods showed that the country placed first in Cholesky ordering dominates the other one. Multivariate cointegration was carried out using three selections of 4, 6 and 8 market portfolios. One of the markets was SA and the others were all chosen based on the criteria that they are not pair-wise cointegrated with SA. The level of cointegration varied depending on the portfolios, as did the error correction rates, impulse responses and variance decomposition. The one constant was that the USA dominated any portfolio where it was introduced. Recommendations were finally made about which market portfolio an investor should consider as most favourable.

O presente trabalho trata do sistema internacional de proteção ao investimento estrangeiro direto e do atual papel desempenhado pelos países emergentes em sua sistematização. Para tanto, faz uma abordagem histórica do tema da proteção ao investimento estrangeiro desde a década de quarenta até os dias atuais. Ressaltam-se as divergências históricas de entendimento mantidas entre países desenvolvidos (usualmente exportadores de capital) e países em desenvolvimento (historicamente importadores de capital) no que pertine ao nível de proteção que deve ser garantido ao investidor estrangeiro. Após, faz uma análise dos instrumentos internacionais de proteção ao investimento estrangeiro construídos especialmente durante as décadas de setenta e noventa e demonstra que o conteúdo desses instrumentos baseou-se na supremacia do entendimento dos países desenvolvidos. Em momento posterior, analisa o surgimento dos países emergentes como nações exportadoras de capital a partir da década de noventa e como esses países estão conciliando, por meio da assinatura de tratados bilaterais de investimento, a intenção de manter a soberania sobre seus assuntos internos e o interesse de proteger seus investidores no exterior. Por fim, retrata a tradicional posição brasileira com relação ao investimento estrangeiro direto e apresenta alguns contributos para futuras reflexões, baseados especialmente na atual postura adotada por outros países emergentes no que diz respeito à assinatura de tratados bilaterais de investimento. / This paper deals with the international law on foreign direct investment and the current role played by emerging market countries on this matter. In this sense, it presents a historical approach on the protection of foreign investment from the 1940’s onwards. It focuses on the historical disagreements between developed countries (usually capital-exporting countries) and developing countries (historically capitalimporting countries) in what regards the level of protection that must be accorded to a foreign investor. Moreover, it discusses the international instruments for the protection of foreign investment designed between the 1970s and the 1990s and demonstrates that the content of such instruments is based primarily on the developed countries’ understanding of the issue. Furthermore, it analyses the rise of emerging market countries as capital exporting countries since the 1990s and how they are reconciling the will to keep their sovereignty over internal affairs and the willingness to protect their investors abroad through bilateral investment treaties. Finally, it discusses the traditional view held by Brazil on the protection of foreign direct investment and presents some contributions for further research on this issue, with an emphasis on other emerging market countries current attitude towards the signing of bilateral investment treaties.

Submitted by Marco Bril (marcobril@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-02-19T14:07:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Mestrado Marco Bril.pdf: 1223942 bytes, checksum: e8c41cd4b4f9345cbe52d71959bebbd2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by GILSON ROCHA MIRANDA (gilson.miranda@fgv.br) on 2016-02-22T14:03:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Mestrado Marco Bril.pdf: 1223942 bytes, checksum: e8c41cd4b4f9345cbe52d71959bebbd2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Almeida (maria.socorro@fgv.br) on 2016-02-25T13:08:48Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Mestrado Marco Bril.pdf: 1223942 bytes, checksum: e8c41cd4b4f9345cbe52d71959bebbd2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-02-25T13:08:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Mestrado Marco Bril.pdf: 1223942 bytes, checksum: e8c41cd4b4f9345cbe52d71959bebbd2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-05-24 / This dissertation compares the behavior of the Brazilian economy to emerging and developing markets through principal component analysis. There were used variables of economic growth, as PMI; and macroeconomic variables, such as inflation, stock exchange, currency and interest rates. To achieve more consistent results, there were done two different analyses. The first one has compared these variables from different countries to the Brazilian PMI; whereas the second one has separated the later analysis in different time periods, in order to differentiate the period before and after the 2009 crisis. / A proposta desta dissertação é analisar o comportamento econômico brasileiro em relação às demais economias de países emergentes e desenvolvidos, utilizando-se como metodologia a análise de componentes principais com variáveis de crescimento econômico e macroeconômicas como inflação, bolsa, moeda e juros. Visando obter uma robustez maior nos resultados foram realizados dois exercícios, primeiro buscou-se comparar o resultado obtido para o Brasil com outros países. No segundo exercício a comparação foi realizada para diferentes períodos de tempo, de maneira de separar o período em pré e pós-crise de 2009.