Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2016. / The study seeks to establish whether social cohesion is a factor for the success or failure of an LED project. This process is important as there is a need to understand what are some of the factors that are integral to the functioning of LED projects to the extent of them (the LED projects) serving the intended purpose. There seems to be a general understanding that projects would naturally thrive albeit without proper understanding of the reasons thereof. This study seeks to provide for an understanding on the part of participants in projects as well as to the stakeholders that would support such projects of the probable factors that would lead to the success or failure of projects. This is very important as such factors need consistent consideration. The study focussed only on active participants of a LED projects within the geographical area of Polokwane over the period of the study. These projects were supported by the Polokwane Municipality as well as the Limpopo Department of Agriculture. Within this context the researcher argues that social cohesion is imperative for the success or failure of LED projects. It is also further argued that the projects‟ successes or failures are not solely in economic terms but also on the social bonds that hold together communities or members of projects that have a common goal or objective. A quantitative research method was used to gather data. A random sample of 85 respondents was interviewed by the researcher from both successful and failed projects. The data were analysed using the SPSS software with specific focus on Chi-square analysis. The study found that social cohesion is a factor for the success or failure of an LED project. Further it was established that factors such as education of the respondents play a role. It is observed from the findings that these factors are important for social cohesion to be a factor for success of LED projects. Further, it has been also observed there is an opportunity to compare the influence of education separately as a factor for success against the influence of incubation. However such could be an opportunity for further studies. It has been observed that this study contributes to the understanding of the importance of social cohesion in the implementation of LED projects both those that are stakeholder supported and those that are not. There are lessons to be learned about the importance of this factor over and above the economic practices of the LED processes. This study emphasises the importance of the human and societal elements to the implementation of LED projects that may be overlooked and/or assumed to have a role although not clearly defined. The study seeks to make provision for the fact that stakeholders involved in the implementation of LED projects need to incorporate and weigh the importance of social cohesion, education and incubation as integral components for the success of an LED project over and above invested material resources. These lessons may also be transferable to projects other than LEDs that seeks to understand the success or failure in their implementations.

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Media Studies University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg September 2015 / The year 2000 witnessed a significant convergence of global policy positions. These positions range from the neoliberal regime which gained traction in the mid-1990s, participatory development models of the 1980s, and the technocratic approach to development of the late 1990s. Despite their ideological differences, these policy positions found co-existence in the (MDGs) and have framed how poverty is globally understood and how it should be addressed, including the use of communication especially the media to promote or fast track poverty reduction projects. This thesis is a critical analysis of the extent to which the United Nations (UN) Communication for Development strategy of 2007 has been used in Kamaila Village in Zambia and Mwandama Village in Malawi to implement MDG-related projects. The two villages were chosen because they have been exposed to different models of poverty reduction activities. The Mwandama Village project is part of the Millennium Village Project where a holistic approach is applied to address poverty, while the Kamaila Village is a beneficiary of a water project which is considered to be important to kick-start village-driven poverty reduction activities. Even though the two villages have been used as units of analysis, the main goal of this study was to examine the two policy documents as texts – the MDG and the UN Communication for strategy – how the discourse and narratives that inform them and their relationship with power, shape social practices and behaviour at national and village level. The study also sought to establish how language operates within the context of power relations by applying theories of global governance, knowledge and power, hegemony, participatory and media communication. The methodology used to gather data consists of a critical discourse analysis on the policy documents and qualitative interviews with different respondents from the villagers, the UN system, NGOs, media and governments. Through a combination of these theoretical frameworks and methodologies, this study has shown that the narratives and discourses that inform the MDGs are influenced by western actors who use the power of money to pursue their neoliberal interests under the guise of reducing poverty. The link between political power, the poverty reduction ideas and interests of elite actors saturates and remotely controls available policy spaces for participation with external knowledge and rules, starting from the UN system down to the villages thereby enabling neoliberal ideas to control the flow of knowledge and the construction of discourses. Despite attempts to harness local modes of social communication to transmit the neoliberal notions of poverty in the villages, individual villagers have discursively devised ways of maintaining their own ‘traditional’ ways of life. This highlights that poverty reduction discussions must not be too obsessed with controlling or changing people’s minds and behaviour but seek to understand the grassroots’ lifestyles as a baseline for informed intervention. Ignoring this baseline knowledge is one of the many reasons development has failed dismally since the 1950s because it is driven by capital interests from the top to bottom with less or no intentions to address poverty. In addition, the ability of media messages to influence practices and behaviour remains a contested arena. But as this study established, the strength of messages to alter social practices has its limitations because behaviour is a manifestation of several factors such as environment, context, biology, genealogy and culture, some of which are not linked to communication. However, communication within the context of the villagers is part of their way of exchanging or transmitting ideas and knowledge in producing and reproducing their culture and not to eliminate it. This thesis makes scholarly contribution through the use of a critical approach to international policy formulation, and participation within a globalised world. While several studies have analysed the link between communication and poverty reduction privileging the neoliberal construction of these themes, this study has demonstrated that the grassroots are not unthinking; they have a well-being, cultural context and communication ecology which needs to be understood first and respected. These findings expose the tensions between the neoliberal interests-driven elite view of poverty and the local way of viewing well-being.

Thesis (M.Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2013 / Since the mid-nineties, Local Economic Development (LED) has been the focal point for the South African government led by the African National Congress. The aim of LED is to redress the injustices of the apartheid regime and to enable previously disadvantaged groups to be incorporated into the formal economy and to involve them in poverty alleviation programmes. So far, the government has spent millions of rands in funding LED projects, with the primary goal of ensuring poverty alleviation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the sustainability of LED projects in Kgwale village (Devilliersdale) in the Blouberg Municipality, Limpopo Province, with the main aim being to establish the factors that enhance the sustainability of projects vis-à-vis those factors that hinder the sustainability of projects. A qualitative study was conducted with 18 participants who were members of the three (03) projects and with three LED project managers from the Blouberg Municipality, the Department of Corporate Governance, Human Setttlements and Traditional Affairs and the Department of Health and Social Development. Data was obtained through semi-structured one-to-one interviews, focus group interviews and observations. The findings of the investigation mostly confirm what other researchers have already discovered, such as the role played by the educational level of beneficiaries of these projects in the success of the projects. Only one person who was a manager of the two (02) projects, namely, the Moselatlala/Farming and Moselatlala/Brick-laying projects, had a post-matric qualification. This however was in education, which is not relevant to LED. None of the Sewing Project members had Grade 12. All the three projects did not keep accounting records and did not use the services of the independent auditor to audit their projects. Most members in these projects were women, as in most projects in rural areas. The Sewing Project could not last for one year. This indicates that the members did not xii have interest in sewing, because they did not receive proper training and sufficient support. The researcher sees this as an indication that the members lacked patience and perseverance. In the Moselatlala/Farming and Moselatlala/Brick-laying projects, the members stuck to the projects despite the fact that the projects were not yielding results. They did not see these projects as get-rich-quick schemes where people will easily earn a lot of money without much effort. The members worked tirelessly, hoping that one day they will earn salaries, until they decided to share the resources which they had acquired because they realised that their efforts were meaningless. The researcher suggests that further in-depth research be conducted on the factors that lead to LED projects collapsing instead of sustaining themselves, creating employment and being financially and economically viable.

In their essence Local Economic Development (LED) and Integrated Development Plan (IDP) were designed to policy options for municipalities to meet their constitutional obligations of enhancing socio-economic development of communities. The LED in Mafikeng Local Municipality (MLM) is designed to enhance socio-economic development of the MLM community through focusing on job creation to fight and alleviate poverty in the municipality. This dissertation reviews the LED policy of the MLM and reviews the two projects which are namely the ltlhabolole Waste Management and Vegetable project and Mmabatho Youth Development Cooperative (MYDC) (car wash) project in the context of the LED policy of the MLM. The dissertation critically analyses the strategies and programmes put in place by the MLM to implement these two initiatives projects. Questions on whether the MLM involves other stakeholders in the planning and implementation of LED and what are the challenges encountered by the MLM in the implementation of its LED projects and whether those projects are sustainable or not, are answered in this dissertation. This dissertation discovers that both the ltlhabolole Waste Management and Vegetable project and Mmabatho Youth Development Cooperative (MYDC) have achieved one of the core objectives of LED which is job creation, despite the fact that only an insignificant number of people are employed in these projects.

The study was conducted in Soweto, South Africa. The objective of the study was to determine the development and challenges of women entrepreneurs in Soweto, South Africa and to identify possible opportunities and improvement of women's businesses. In this study, the variables that were looked at were the motivational factors that influence women entrepreneurs to establish their own ventures, the contribution of women in the economic force of the country, the challenges that women entrepreneurs are facing in businesses, the support and developmental needs; and the possible opportunities for improvement. The key findings indicate that women were motivated by pull and push factors to start up a business. The need for flexible schedules appeared to be the factors to start up a business, followed by need for independence. The other factor is that these women had a desire for wealth. Annual turnover was also a factor, whilst difficult to ascertain with accuracy, provided a useful alternative indicator of business size and sophistication, and possibly of potential for growth. The challenges facing women in South Africa have been identified in this research as limited access to obtain funding; high corruption in procurement offices; high interest rates from banks, insufficient education and training, and difficulty to access market as well as cash flow problem. The above-mentioned challenges have priority over the women's businesses. The developmental needs and support for women entrepreneurs were found to be clear policies, organizations established in assisting women in businesses and the training needs that are supporting women entrepreneurship. Early payments by customers including Government should be facilitated and proper plans for enhancing entrepreneurial women together with education and training should be continuous. / Thesis (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2010

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Aboriginal Economic Development Corporations (AEDCs) have changed the approach to First Nations economic development. These agencies are set up and owned by Aboriginal governments to create economic opportunity for their communities. AEDCs enhance the economic and political capital in First Nation communities, acting as representatives for the people they serve, as Wilson and Alcantara (2012) have argued. The governance of these organizations has been a source for much debate with the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development calling for a separation of business and political institutions. This thesis will engage these ideas and explore the questions of how political and economic institutions interact in the context of First Nation economic development. Research for this thesis has demonstrated that Aboriginal economic development in Canada is an inherently political process that requires political and business leaders in AEDCs to ensure the interests of their communities are represented in the public and private sectors. This argument will be demonstrated in the context of three components of the thesis: an exploratory analysis of AEDCs, outlining their general governance structures, impact on local economies, and opportunities for public policy; discussion of the policy environment surrounding AEDCs; and discussion of the governance of AEDCs and other relevant themes in the Aboriginal economic development literature. The concluding recommendations in the final chapter of the thesis suggest that national and sub-national governments create a greater enabling atmosphere for AEDCs, local governments implement mechanisms that produce good decisions, and governments across Canada work together to create stronger relations and opportunities.

This thesis examines the process of urbanization in Malawi, with special reference to the new capital city, Lilongwe. At independence Malawi inherited an extremely underdeveloped urban system. It is argued that colonial Nyasaland's involvement in the migrant labour system and its reluctant membership of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland were contributory factors, both of which related to Nyasaland's economically and politically subordinate position in Southern Africa. Analysis of the static and dynamic nature of independent Malawi's urban system shows it to be very simplistic. It is emphasized that the growth of the truly 'urban' population in most of the small centres in the urban hierarchy has been slow, and that institutional hindrances and government perceptions of the urban process may dissipate the impact of policies designed to promote their development. The major aspect of urban policy since 1964 has been the development of Lilongwe, which the government emphasized had two objectives: to create a new capital replacing the colonial creation of Zomba, and to develop a growth centre to promote greater regional equality and act as a counterattraction to the commercial 'capital' of Blantyre. President Banda's key role in the: instigation of this project is empahasized, and it is suggested that the second objective was rhetorically promoted as a justificatory expedient. The results of original research on urban policy implementation and private sector investment in Blantyre and Lilongwe support the contention that government commitment to Lilongwe as a growth centre is weak, and also draws attention to problems inherent in applying such strategies in small, underdeveloped economies such as Malawi's. Lilongwe's economic development has not been in theoretical accordance with that of a growth centre. Nevertheless although it is proposed that a new capital programme per se cannot be used as a surrogate for a regional development policy, major infrastructural developments in Lilongwe have allowed it to provide a degree of economic competition to Blantyre. These are argued to be mainly associated with government commitment to its development as the capital city rather than its weakly developed growth centre role.

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