DAdmin / Department of Public and Development Administration / This study focussed on the roles of traditional leaders in the promotion of Local Economic Development (LED). This study focused on Limpopo Province but for this study, the research study was conducted in Vhembe District which consists of four (04) local municipalities which are Makhado, Thulamela, Musina and Collins Chabane local municipalities under Limpopo Province. Chiefs as traditional leaders are expected to play an active role in local development, on the day-to-day administration of their areas and the lives of people in their jurisdiction. One of the roles of traditional leaders is to promote socio-economic development and service delivery. The new government is trying to bring economic development to all areas, especially rural areas which were left out in the previous regime. The researcher chose a mixed research method in which both quantitative and qualitative research approaches were used. The reason for using a mixed research method is because it can be integrated in such a way that qualitative and quantitative methods retain their original structures and procedures. A qualitative approach is applicable in this study, because it allows openness to ideas, experiences, opinions, feelings and perceptions expressed by the research participants to the researcher. The researcher also applied a quantitative study for which would enable him to get results from many respondents. The researcher used a field research study as a research design. For this study, the researcher used a non-probability sampling and its subtype purposive sampling method to select the respondents for this study. The researcher chose purposive sampling method which is based entirely on the judgment of the researcher regarding the characteristics of the participants. Two data collection instruments were used, namely; research questionnaire and interview. The reason for selecting structured questionnaire and open-ended interview schedule is because the researcher wants to get relevant information about the study. Two methods of data analysis were used, namely descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. The findings of the research study were:  The study findings revealed that majority of the respondents at 155 (74.3%) agreed that traditional leaders participate in approving Local Economic Development (LED) initiatives/projetcs. The study further affirms that most of the respondents at 178 which constitute 84.8% confirm that traditional leaders influence community members to participate in economic development projects in their communities.  Majority of the respondents at 147 (70.0%) agreed that traditional leaders are effective instruments to initiate LED and the researcher discovered that participation by traditional leaders promotes community development. vi  The findings revealed that there is a lack of co-operation between the traditional leaders and the municipalities. Poor working relationship between traditional leaders and the municipalities was revealed that it hampers the implementation of economic development projects in the municipality.  The study findings revealed that the LED in the municipality fails to create job opportunities and these result to an increase in crime rate. The study findings also revealed that poor planning, communication break-down; lack of common interest; poor management by the municipalities exacerbate the challenges facing traditional leaders in the implementation of local economic development.  The study findings revealed that traditional leaders lack knowledge, skills, capacity and resources in orders to promote LED. The study also discovered that due to the educational level of traditional leaders, it makes it difficult for them to understand the concepts and developmental projects.  The study findings discovered that traditional leaders only get involved in policy-making for IDP programmes wherein community stakeholders participate by providing the development projects that they require in the areas.  The researcher found that the role of traditional leaders in the promotion of LED is minimal because the only role of traditional leaders in the promotion of LED is mainly the allocation of land for LED projects. The recommendations of the research study are:  The researcher recommends that traditional leaders should actively participate in the decision-making to the implementation of LED. There is a greater need to ensure that the traditional leaders are made aware about the concept − LED. Traditional leaders should influence community members to participate in economic development projects. Traditional leaders should encourage community members to actively participate in economic development projects.  The study found that traditional leaders have development skills to benefit the community’s future and the researcher recommends that traditional leaders should be granted an opportunity on LED projects, as they are having development skills that can benefit the community. If traditional leaders are given a chance to participate in decision-making processes regarding issues that relate to and affect them, they will become part of the initiatives and this sense of ownership will encourage them to participate fully in the LED. vii  It is recommended that the culture of consultation and communication between traditional leaders and the municipalities should be promoted to enhance a good working relationship. Good working relationship between the traditional leaders and municipal councillors should be encouraged as it is very critical in enhancing the provision of services in the communities. The municipalities should improve their systems of communication to promote effective involvement of traditional leaders in LED. It is suggested that openness between community structures and the municipality should be encouraged.  The researcher recommends that the municipalities should provide enough budget to improve the implementation of LED in order to bring the communities and the government together in working towards the improvements of the LED projects. The findings suggested that in order for the municipalities to implement LED projects there should have well trained personnel and enough funding and be in a position to attract investors in order to implement the LED projects accordingly.  Supporting traditional leaders with training will enhance good governance, performance and accountability. The institution of traditional leaders should be trained about economic development as most of the respondents asserted that training on economic development is not given to traditional leaders. The researcher recommends that traditional leaders should be trained on economic development activities, as training is one form of communication which promotes the realisation of improved development. The researcher recommends that there should be a school that will educate traditional leaders to gain knowledge and skills which will result in a better community development.  It was stated that the municipality should involve traditional leaders in LED by clearly adding and stipulating out the roles of traditional leaders in the promotion of LED. The researcher recommends that the municipalities should involve the traditional leaders in LED as it encourages community ownership. The researcher recommends that LED meetings should be done regularly to give traditional leaders a better understanding of what is LED and what the municipalities is doing concerning job creation, eradication of poverty and other municipal matters.  The findings suggested that the traditional leader should be part of the LED by playing a meaningful role in the decision-making body (formulation stage) to implementation and have a voice in the LED council. / NRF

MAIR / Department of Development Studies / Development Aid has often has been used as a tool and written about where in by developed states dominated African countries during the colonial rule to maximize their countries economy by means of exporting raw materials from Africa to Europe meanwhile the majority of Africans living in poverty. However, the role of USAID towards South Africa’s development has attracted little study so far. Into today’s politics country states interact in a political arena to formulate bilateral relations. Since the adoption of independent in 1994 South Africa is still facing challenges of socio economic development such as lack of health care facilities, poor education, and high rate of unemployment, lack of infrastructures and lack of good governance. This work investigates the role of the USAID towards the development of South African government. Issue to be examined is the bilateral relations of US-SA for SA socio economic development. / NRF

Magister Legum - LLM / A popular difficulty that all SMEs have had to face is limited access to finance. The fact that banks are not prepared to finance small businesses, has exacerbated the existing 'financing gap' in the small and medium-sized business which is already present in the SME industry. In an analysis of small and medium business are faced with a myriad of difficulties often as a result of restrictions in current collateral systems that do not offer a viable degree of risk mitigation due to ineffectual legislation, insufficient enforcement procedures, or an existing legal structure.1 All of these have therefore made factoring a great choice as far as SMEs go in all African countries that want to have access to financial services. Factoring is the service that, in order to provide the underlying credit sales of goods or services (known as a factor), is provided by a third-party.

This diploma thesis deals with the issue of evaluation of economic development in Visegrad group countries compared to Germany in years from 2009 to 2015. The aim of the thesis is to take down and to evaluate economic development in this period based on the analysis of macroeconomic indicators. In the theoretical part, there are several notions explained, such as the definition of GDP, economic growth rate, unemployment rate, balance of payments or economic cycle. In the practical part, there is an analysis carried out which describes the concrete data development of macroeconomic indicators in Visegrad group countries in comparison to Germany. Subsequently, general characteristics of the countries are deduced. At the end of the thesis, the findings are summarized, and further possibilities of elaboration are foreshadowed.

The focus of this research is the cultural assumptions underpinning Africa’s strategies of economic development, taking the Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) as case studies. It considers the issue whether the neglect of Africa’s cultural beliefs and values in African plans and policies of economic development may not lead to a development impasse. Accordingly, three major objectives are pursued. The first objective is to attempt a critical assessment of the two strategies of economic development, LPA and NEPAD, against the background of theories of economic development that informed them respectively and their cultural assumptions. Using both a theoretical reflection and an empirical approach, I argue that LPA and NEPAD relied on theories of economic development whose cultural foundations are not African. Consequently, although they were designed in Africa, their respective philosophical bases are not African. The second objective is to investigate the relationship between African cultural values and economic development and the extent to which the neglect of the African value system in African policymaking and planning could lead to a development impasse. Based on a theoretical reflection as well as empirical research, I argue that in both LPA and NEPAD, the beliefs and values that structure the African value system have been neglected to the extent of being ignored. The major implication of this neglect is that there is insufficient room for people’s participation in the process of their economic development. Participation makes possible the democratisation and the inculturation of economic development, and thus translates the universal conception of economic development to its local, cultural feasibility. The third objective is to propose certain philosophical premises that could guide development planning in Africa. I revisit the African value system and retrieve the Bantu concept of the human person as umuntu-w’-ubuntu / umuntu-mu-bantu in order to ground the future economic development of Africa on the African foundation. Using Sen’s capability approach which defines development in terms of the ability of people to lead the life they value and have reason to value, human agency and the expansion of capabilities (or real freedoms people enjoy), I suggest four philosophical premises which link African economic development to what Africans believe and value. The first premise consists of the shift from extroversion to the freedom of people to lead the lives they value and have reason to value. This premise deals with the spirit of extroversion which prevents Africans from appreciating their beliefs and values in the process of economic development. It emphasises the fact that development is not a project, but rather a process by which people create and recreate themselves and the conditions by which they can flourish fully. The second premise is the human agency. It deals with the shift from the conception of development as an autonomous process to the conception of development as an agency-based process. It emphasises that the development conceived of as an agency-based process, has as its starting-point and end-point the people. The third premise deals with the shift from the conception of development as an end product to development as an expansion of capability or the real freedoms people enjoy. This premise emphasises three major things. The first is that the expansion of people’s capability is both the end and the means of development. People’s capabilities are not only the primary end of development, they are also its principal means. The second is that development conceived of as the expansion of people’s capability is the concern of both the people and their structural institutions. The third is that the interaction between people and their structural institutions makes it possible to transcend the various dualities often observed in certain development approaches such as the bottom-up and topdown development. The fourth and last premise is the principle of baking the cake together. This premise follows from the fact that the capability approach leads to development as a participatory and inclusive process. It expresses the traditional practice of collaboration in the African community. It emphasises that the three major actors in the development process, namely, the state, the people and the market which tend to exclude each other, are all agents and must work together inclusively to achieve a sustainable economic development. These are the premises suggested to lead future economic development in Africa. Each of these assumptions has implications which are unpacked in the conclusion. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Philosophy / unrestricted

This paper hopes to serve as a primer, firstly for this Author, regarding the concept of Institutional Economics; a foundation and an enabling environment, which allows economics to function and to be free. Firstly, we focus on the topic of institutions within the scope of economic development, and ask the simple question, “Why some countries are poor, and why some countries are rich?” In terms of set up, this paper is guided by Dani Rodrik & Arvind Subramanian’s 2003 article, “The Primacy of Institutions (and what this does and does not mean).” I looked at how institutions, market openness and geography effect economic development. Both an OLS and pooled OLS model are employed, with the results showing that, institutions account for the largest variation in income. The data is sourced from the Heritage Foundation, 2019 Index of Economic Freedom. Secondly, a discussion of Brunei Darussalam, my home country is presented, trying to link ideas of institutional economics, economic freedom, entrepreneurship and economic development.

Includes bibliographical references / Ethiopia is one of the few countries in Africa to implement large-scale land titling programmes aiming to improve land related-investments. Since 1995, Ethiopia also has partially liberalised rural land rental markets with the aim of improving the functioning of these markets. Evidence on whether these reforms resulted in improved land access by the poor and increased land-related investments though are scarce and inconclusive. This thesis investigates empirically the relationship between land tenure issues on one hand, and land-related investments and the functioning of rural land and labour markets on the other. It also analyses the relationship between participation in land rental markets and household welfare. Detailed descriptive data analysis and various econometric models were used to examine these issues. The data source for the study is the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey (ERHS), which consists of a panel of 1477 sample households covering four regions in the country. Findings from the study show that factor, input, and financial markets are poorly developed in rural Ethiopia. In addition, land title ownership does not give farmers additional rights other than the rights provided in the federal and regional legislation. This has particular ramifications. For instance, despite having a land title, farmers in Ethiopia are not allowed by law to sell or use their land as collateral in credit markets. There are also various limitations on land rental transactions. These findings suggest that the preconditions for economic effectiveness of land titling are not satisfied in the case of Ethiopia. Furthermore, in contrast to earlier studies, this study finds no significant link between farmers' perceptions of tenure insecurity and their land-related investment and factor market participation decisions. Instead, it establishes that poverty in faming resources and market failures in the credit and factor markets are the major binding constraints that adversely affect farmers' land-related investment and factor market participation decisions in rural Ethiopia. The results reveal that asset rich households were more likely to get access to more land and labour through factor markets, and they were also more likely to invest on their land, while female-headed and/or asset poor households were more likely to lease out their land and remain poor. The findings of this study do not necessarily suggest that the existing land tenure system in Ethiopia is satisfactory for farmers' intensification efforts. It is widely argued that past and current land polices in the country have led to reduced and fragmented land size holdings in rural areas. As a result, there is limited room for farm intensification. For instance, data from this study show that among sample households who did not grow tree crops on their land, 40% of them reported that land shortage is the first major problem. In this regard, the existing land tenure system can be equally restrictive for most farmers. Therefore, the results of the study suggest that, without reforming the existing land policy and addressing problems in factor and credit markets, land titling is expected to play a very limited role in improving tenure security, investment, and land access for the rural poor.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Town and Regional Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, October 2019 / Mainstream debates show the continued marginalisation of traditional urban agriculture (UA) by conventional land use planning despite its food security, nutrition, environmental and social benefits globally. Instigated by observed tensions (and resultant vicious cycle) between UA and land use planning in Johannesburg, this study poses innovation as a means for UA to navigate the city’s neoliberal market-driven logic and land use planning. The study argues for the need for innovation by both sectors but takes a step further by drawing on the innovation networks theory to argue the case for a collaborative ecosystem of actors. Literature shows that improving products, services and organisational practices by UA is not sufficient to secure land access in cities. The study uses the market logic within the neoliberal environment, juxtaposing international case studies to explore UA’s place in contemporary Johannesburg. The study used the extended case study approach to gather experiences from UA entities, City of Johannesburg and collaborating partners. The method regards participants as shaping and simultaneously being shaped by the external forces; and thus innovation networks between UA and land use planning practices are mirrored within the broader national neoliberal planning policy. Similar to Almere, Berlin, Detroit, Havana and Portland, the key study findings are that applying the principles of innovating networks to Johannesburg creates a collaborations ecosystem between UA and land use planning actors that attract investment and enhances value addition which in turn leads to formalisation of the sector (thus translating to a virtuous cycle). However, despite these collaboration platforms, neoliberal planning pressures have reversed UA formalisation in the cities of Berlin and Portland as urban farms are converted to real estate. With the exception of Almere, experiences in Havana and Detroit shows the success of innovation networks in permanently zoning UA outside the neoliberal planning pressures. Regrettably, the neoliberal planning paradigm focuses on the economic viability of UA and discounts its social, health, environmental and food security benefits to the local economy. / PH2020

A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in Development Studies by coursework and research report to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2018 / Nigerian charismatic Pentecostalism has become a permanent feature of South African urban society. This Pentecostalism has had considerable influence on local churches in South Africa. Nigerian Pentecostal churches have also greatly influenced how other churches in South Africa respond to the HIV and AIDS epidemic. This study sought to understand how these South African churches that are linked to Nigerian Pentecostalism are responding to the HIV and AIDS epidemic. To achieve this objective, the researcher conducted an ethnographic study at the Church for Christ Ministries (CFC) based in Johannesburg. This church has strong connections to the famous Nigerian charismatic leader TB Joshua. Results from this study show that, the use of media technology has become an integral part of the CFC’s efforts against the HIV and AIDS epidemic. The CFC combined together their doctrinal teachings and HIV and AIDS programmes with the use of media technology, to address the HIV and AIDS epidemic in Johannesburg. These doctrinal teachings and programmes have been merged with the use of video-media technologies to come up with a formidable response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic in Johannesburg. The study combined together Michel Foucault’s concept of biopower and Erving Goffman’s concepts of stigma and the dramaturgical perspectives, to come up with a framework that can be used to understand the impact of merging video media technology to existing church strategies against the HIV and AIDS epidemic. This study made use of a qualitative research design. Data was collected using interviews, participant observations, document analysis, reviewing of video footage and review of the church’s Facebook page. Snowball, purposive sampling and Facebook sampling were utilized as sampling techniques by the researcher. Finally, the study made use of thematic content analysis as a way of analysing data. / TL (2019)

The role of foreign aid in promoting economic growth and improving the social welfare of people has been the subject of much debate among development specialists, researchers, aid donors as well as recipients in general and Cameroon in particular. In spite of this, there are only few empirical studies that investigate the contributions of foreign aid to economic growth and development in Cameroon. This study explores the impact of foreign aid to economic growth and development in Cameroon using descriptive statistics for data that spans from 1997 to 2006. The results show that foreign aid significantly contributes to the current level of economic growth but has no significant contribution to economic development. The findings imply that Cameroon could enhance its economic development by effectively managing funds from aid and by strategically strengthening anti-corruption measures. The rest of the work is organized as follows: Chapter one consist of an introduction, chapter two is the literature review, chapter three constitute the research methodology, chapter four is the data presentation and analyses, chapter five summary of findings and recommendations and lastly chapter six conclusions,