Zimbabwe’s government has, in the past, expressed opposition to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). Since the country’s ratification of the WHO FCTC in 2014, the government has put in place financial incentives to promote tobacco production, contrary to the WHO FCTC. The conflicting signals, coupled with seemingly contradictory actions, have raised doubts about the country’s true intent when it ratified the treaty. This thesis assesses the implementation of Zimbabwe’s current tobacco-control legislation, through a synthesis of information from semi-structured interviews with key informants involved in tobacco control in the country. This is supplemented by a situation analysis examining government efforts to align existing tobacco-control legislation with the WHO FCTC. Results show that Zimbabwe’s existing tobacco-control legislation was biased because of tobacco-industry interference during the early stages of the drafting of the bill. There is currently no prioritisation of tobacco-control efforts by government, even after their ratification of the WHO FCTC. As of February 2019, government actions run counter to the supply-reduction measures and recommendations stipulated in the WHO FCTC and associated policy guidelines. Indications are that the government’s ratification of the treaty does not represent a weakening of the government’s resolve to promote tobacco production and protect the country’s tobacco farmers. Accession to the WHO FCTC appears to have been an opportunity to present the country’s concerns, particularly those relating to the supply-side provisions of the WHO FCTC, and possibly disrupting WHO FCTC efforts to limit tobacco-industry interference and advance global tobacco-control efforts.

The incidence of unemployment falls most harshly on youth, who are generally low skilled and often have no experience of formal sector employment; with just 24.4 percent of young people being active in the labour market. In an attempt to assist this disenfranchised so called ‘lost generation’ there has been a major shift from passive to active labour market programmes in many countries across the world in support of the unemployed, where these programmes often concentrate on the youth. But the results on these active labour market interventions are very mixed, in terms of their effectiveness, with some countries having experienced significant improvements in unemployment levels; and others are yet to bring to fruition the economic benefits the programmes had hoped to achieve. Through the use of a qualitative research method approach, by means of surveys, this paper aims to lend to the lessons around youth labour market interventions by conducting a case study on a particular NGO’s youth intervention program to see if it has had any impact on reducing youth unemployment. What sets the programme apart is that it offered meaningful volunteering as a form of work experience as well as a self-development component which allows the youth to be more self-aware. The study found that overall the time youth spend in unemployment after completing the programme decreased by 6 months and that other unemployment duration determining factors play a key role in determining how long a youth spends in unemployment. The study found that the attitudes of the participants changed to a more positive outlook on their future prospects once they have completed the program; which lends itself to have a positive impact on job search activity.

In order for Rwanda to improve the quality of life for its people, government has prioritized coffee as a key sector to spur the economy. For the past years, while coffee has been an important commodity that brought revenues to the country, its production is still low and the value is not of high quality. The purpose of this study was to assess the possibility of increasing the value of coffee in order to increase the value of exports for the country. The coffee sector is constrained by production of ordinary coffee and the exportation of low quantities of fully washed coffee, specialty and roasted coffee. In addition, some coffee plantations are old, fertilizers are not enough and the coffee farmer is paid little money. In order to increase the value of coffee to subsequently boost exports, it would be very important to increase the price paid to the farmer, finance the coffee sector, organizational capacities of farmers, efficiency of coffee washing stations, quantity of fully washed, specialty and roasted coffee as new international clients are targeted.

The services sector accounts for approximately 70% of South Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) and has emerged as one of South Africa's key exports with regional and global destinations. The sector is also a key provider of employment registering just above 8.5 million jobs in March 2014, according to Statistics South Africa. It is for this reason that the sector has been earmarked to give the required impetus to realise the export driven growth, which underpins the current government strategy for economic development and growth. Using the mining services sector, as a case study, this study highlights the importance of services, as an important input to operating costs in the production and manufacturing sectors. It further highlights the importance of services in determining the competitiveness of the manufacturing and production sectors, through effective sourcing and more importantly availability. This is done in the context of the growing African market, especially the mining sector and the opportunities presented by new mineral discoveries in Africa. This study is presented to support the development of a strategic and comprehensive trade strategy for services. Tracking the development of South Africa's trade policy, the rationale for the different positions that have been taken by government are presented to illustrate how government has used trade policy as a tool to advance its objectives at varying stages of South Africa's economic development. The study thereafter undertakes an analysis of the current trade policy to better understand how government view the role that is to be played by trade policy in supporting economic development. This analysis identifies gaps within the current trade policy in terms of the role that trade policy ought to play.

It is widely agreed globally that innovation, knowledge and learning is a vital part of economic development. It creates and promotes competitiveness at the firm level, national and regional levels. Furthermore, innovation processes are dependent on relationships and the interaction of various actors thus, it is necessary for policy makers to strengthen the innovative environment so that collaboration is encouraged and facilitated. However, in order to develop relevant policies, the innovation system in question needs to be reviewed; in this case, Zambia's national system of innovation (NSI). Science, technology and innovation (STI) in Zambia is described as relatively underdeveloped. The country gained independence in 1964 and only after 32 years of independence (1996) did it draft its first STI policy document. Sound economic policy accompanied by efficient institutions plays a key role in shaping a country's economic development. Therefore, it is believed that a timely national STI policy and mobilization of supporting institutions in Zambia could have helped the country exploit its abundant natural resources, to drive sustainable economic development. This study, which is the first of its kind, provides a review of the performance of Zambia's NSI during the period 2001 to 2010. The study starts by examining comprehensive literature on STI and NSI, particularly in relation to developing countries such as Zambia. Thereafter, key concepts from the literature are applied to the Zambian case to formulate a framework for analyzing the country's NSI. The framework involved organizing the NSI into three hierarchal levels namely; micro, meso and macro. Under these levels, system functions were selected namely; knowledge development at the micro level, business, industrial and entrepreneur activities at the meso level and resource mobilization at the macro level. Thereafter, indicators were selected to measure the performance of each system function. Subsequently, trend analysis was conducted on the set of indicators. The results of the analysis suggest that during the period 2001 to 2010, there has been significant increase in innovation input (government funding of R&D activities) and a significant growth in output (scientific research publications) at the micro level. The rise in the ratio of input to output suggests a level of efficiency in knowledge development, because the output indicator was increasing more rapidly than the increases in the input indicator. On the contrary results at the meso level, particularly with regards to exports of goods and services, revealed comparative advantage of merchandise exports, manufactured exports and high-technology exports, suggest that knowledge and innovation is not being exploited efficiently and effectively for commercial purposes. These results imply that there are some significant constraints and factors in scarce supply. In addition, the policy environment may not be favourable. Finally despite significant growth in government funding at the macro level, the results of this study show that it is still limited. The National Science and Technology Policy initially proposed that government allocates 3% of GDP annually as funding for science, technology and innovation activities. However, this has not been the case. The study indicates that an average of only 0.04% was annually allocated during the period under analysis.

The purpose of this dissertation was to study the institutional transmission mechanism of the limited-access social order in Kenya. This was motivated by the theory of new institutional economics, which views differences in institutions as fundamental in explaining differences in the level of economic development across countries. However, this theory often faces criticism in as far as it provides weak or no evidence pertaining to the direction of causality between institutions and economic development. This is because the theory tends to neglect the problems of political instability and the process state formation. In the social order framework, the problems of violence and instability underpin state formation and consequently institutional development. The limited access theory suggests that openness to the political and economic spheres of influence at early stages of development serves to increase instability and the level of violence in a society, and this may lead to a deteriorating quality of institutions, hence further economic stagnation. Using the theoretical framework of social orders and public choice theory a Vector Autoregressive Model was applied in order to evaluate this prediction of the limited access order theory. The results indicate that in inheriting colonial institutions and using them to bolster their elite networks through patronage, African leaders invariably inherited the contradictions embodying colonial rule, whereby open access to customary economic rights is disruptive to elite capital accumulation, thereby leading to political instability. Additionally, while the literature on postcolonial African states suggests that colonial institutions have been persistent, the results indicate that postcolonial Kenya has better institutions than colonial Kenya, in terms of economic and political rights. Moreover while the theory mainly attributes violence to elite competition, the findings highlight the importance the increase in political consciousness in the postcolonial state in explaining the evolution of institutions.

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Economics, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universisty of Chicago, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 322-348).

Thesis (M. Env. St.)--University of Adelaide, Mawson Graduate Centre for Environmental Studies, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [111-113]).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Delaware, 2008. / Principal faculty advisor: Titus O. Awokuse, Dept. of Food & Resource Economics. Includes bibliographical references.