Much debate has been raging in development discourse about the role of the state in development economics. Neo liberal theorists call for the state to remove itself from the process and leave markets to determine the direction of economic development. The challenge to this theory was reinforced by the success of the East Asian counties in encouraging economic development through a process which involved extensive state intervention. The process of globalisation has added a new dimension to this debate where states are increasingly feeling the need to take steps to protect their economies from the negative impacts of globalisation and take other steps so that the positive rewards can be reaped. The debate of this interaction between the state and economic forces is evident on all levels of governance, from the national to the local. Theorists such as Stone, Molotch, Logan and Stoker have researched this question on the local level in cities in the United States. They found that there is extensive interaction between political and economic bodies for the economic development of urban spaces. Specifically, these two major groups are represented by an elite grouping of individuals who play an important role in the planning and implementing of development initiatives. This study attempts to examine this relationship of the economic elite and political elite in the city of Durban. This is particularly relevant in the context of the critical need for economic development in the city and the mandate that the city is given by national legislation to promote such development. The study furthermore examines the extent to which the role players in this interaction are part of the post-Apartheid 'new' elite, or if the interactive process is still dominated by the 'old' white elite. The interactions were found to be limited to a 'project' basis which did not reflect a coalition in terms of the sharing of strategic decision making and planning. Furthermore, this process is dominated by the traditional white, corporate elite, although non-white individuals do have key roles in this process. There is however, a stark absence of a new non-white elite in the city who could emerge as an important force in encouraging development initiatives which will contribute to the economic development of the city. However, projects are been implemented that are being driven by individuals who are members of a economic or political elite grouping. These projects are based on a trickle down approach where the growth is presumed to filter down and positively affect the poorer members of Durban. There is a real possibility however, as various theorist have warned, that such projects currently being implemented by the elite in the city, might have limited positive benefits for the poor in the city , and could in fact have long term detrimental implications. / Thesis (M.Dev. Studies)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

The promotion of Local Economic Development (LED) increasingly involves the allocation of grant finance for project implementation. This finance is often provided on condition that the grant recipient commits a certain level of co-funding to the project. These co-funding requirements are essentially a risk-sharing mechanism used to avert the agency problems, namely adverse selection and moral hazard, which occur in the relationship between the funding programme and the grant beneficiaries. The purpose of this study is to examine whether these requirements are effective at achieving this aim and to determine their impact on the LED outcomes of various types of projects. This is undertaken through the comparative analysis of projects funded through the Gijima KwaZulu-Natal Local Competitiveness Fund Implementation Programme (LCFI), which provided grant funding for projects implemented by the private sector, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and local government. The findings indicate that co-funding has a positive impact on internally co-funded private sector projects and in this scenario is necessary to achieve optimal outcomes. Inversely, co-funding has a detrimental impact on projects implemented by non-profit groups in that it requires the attraction of funding from additional organisations whose finance conditions may not align to those of the principal donor. Finally, co-funding is ineffective when provided by government for the implementation of community projects due to the lack of risk it assumes. These findings have implications for the design of LED grant programmes and support the assertion that grant programme should be designed to efficiently reflect the objectives and risk preferences of the institutions they support. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

The restoration of livelihoods in the event of involuntary resettlement is commonly based on providing compensation to those who are displaced. The outcomes of these resettlements have been well documented around the world and provide a serial of recurring horror stories. For this reason, it is proposed that a new foundation for conducting involuntary resettlement is needed. Academics profess that by conducting resettlement as a development project in its own right, the performance of resettlements can be improved and the benefits will accrue to the local population. This concept is called Resettlement with Development (RwD). To this end, China was the first country to include RwD in its National policies on involuntary resettlement. However, it was not until the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River that the policy was translated into practice. / This research is an attempt to determine whether RwD is a suitable model for livelihood restoration and improvement. In exploring the primary research aim, a year was spent in the resettlement region of the Three Gorges Dam, visiting resettlers and undertaking questionnaires, interviews and policy analysis. Two counties in Hubei province were chosen for comparison - Badong county and Zigui county. The application of RwD in these two locales was variable, with an uneven level of development intervention. The investment environment and county policy of Zigui attracted a greater degree of investment and related development than that of Badong. The capacity of these development initiatives to generate sustainable livelihood outcomes for the resettlers was central to this research. / Through questionnaires, interviews and policy analysis, this research finds that although the RwD methods are applied more intensely in Zigui they do not necessarily translate into better outcomes for the resettlers at this locale. The data suggests that: (i) there is no difference in the degree of relative poverty in Zigui and Badong; (ii) Zigui is experiencing more relative poverty than Badong; (iii) there is no difference in vulnerability and resilience; (iv) the natural resource base is comparable in both counties; and (v) Badong and Zigui are both at risk of food insecurity. However, whilst the majority of households in all sites at Badong are experiencing declining incomes, there is no significant decline in incomes at Zigui. Although employment levels have declined at both Badong and Zigui, the decline is not so severe at Zigui. Finally, infrastructure in Zigui has improved in comparison to Badong after resettlement. Hence, although the RwD initiatives have not dramatically improved the situation for resettlers in Zigui, they have lessened the impoverishment effects that are synonymous with involuntary resettlement. Moreover, further analysis suggests that the outcomes seen in the TGP resettlement are not a consequence of the inadequacy of the RwD model. Instead, the RwD model is found to be only partially applied in the TGRA. Future attempts at RwD must endeavour to apply the RwD model more completely.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Linguistics & Psychology, Department of Linguistics, 2005. / Bibliography: p. 329-355. / Preamble -- Research objectives and methodology -- Theoretical and epistemological frameworks -- Culture, identity and power -- Meetings -- "The clearing of the sky" -- Project reform. / The data for this research thesis derives from a development project in Samoa. Through the study of key project events and their associated discourses the study identifies and interprets cultural and professional resources that the project team draws on as they negotiate their way through the project; in particular the 'resources' (including communication resources) that participants bring to project interactions. The thesis explores how participants used these resources and what consequences resulted (for them and for others) from such use. -- This study takes a critical and ideological stance, underpinned by a belief in the value and possibility of social action. While not primarily a call to action, the thesis presents its interpretations in the context of larger ethical and political challenges, with a view to informing change, specifically what deliberate action might be taken to improve processes and practices in future projects. The project is explored as a 'soft' system of social interactions and processes; and as a 'Third Space' (Bhabha 1990, 1994) where traditional boundaries of sociocultural organisation, or of professions, are destabilised and where newlyconstructed practices, orders of discourse, identities and representations are required. -- The study is evaluation and policy oriented. It explicitly addresses the implications of knowledge gained from the research for future project design and implementation. In making recommendations for project change, the study argues for the inclusion of local research as a legitimate project task, to inform evaluative processes and create a framework for ongoing modification to project design and implementation. The recommendations for change made in this study are concerned with determining principles and codes of practice for: - identifying and developing intercultural competence in project situations ; - project training (for intercultural project work, including ongoing participant research) ; - improving project systems ; - using relevant approaches/techniques in organisational change management. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / 397 p

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Australian National University, 2003.

This study evaluates the impact of Third Sector- supported rural development projects in three rural communities of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It focusses on how interventions driven by this sector – denoted by, among others, local and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) - impact the lives and livelihoods of the rural poor. This is against the background of an established discourse that views NGOs as effective agents in the alleviation of poverty. The thesis contends that praise for the Third Sector is driven mostly by advocacy than based on systematic scientific evidence of the real impact of NGO-sponsored rural development interventions. Rural agricultural development projects supported by two Eastern Cape-based NGOs (the one a local NGO, and the other international) were selected for the study. A mini survey was conducted in the communities where the projects are located. Survey data were complemented by qualitative data obtained through focus groups, semi-structured and in-depth interviews as well as key informant interviews. The study found that whereas the projects had been established by the state later went moribund, they were resuscitated by the NGOs through a largely ‘bottom-up’ model of rural development intermediation. In other words, the interventions were resuscitated through a relatively robust prior engagement with project beneficiaries. As a result, while originally lacking a meaningful sense of local empowerment, ownership, and commitment, the projects had become revived and now played an important role in the livelihoods of some community members – even though social grants remained the primary and main source of income for those community members. Even so, the narratives of community members revealed what may be termed a ‘transformation paradox’ in the way the projects were implemented. The NGOs seemed to have replaced one kind of lop-sidedness in rural development (the exclusion of women) with another (the exclusion of men), by focussing on community projects that were ‘culturally’ deemed as ’women jobs’. In this way, the interventions appeared like a systematic attempt to do away with the ‘feminisation of rural poverty’ and entrench the ‘feminisation of rural development interventions’. The study concludes from these and other findings, that the key to understanding the significance and impact of Third Sector-supported development interventions in the rural arena – especially in the Eastern Cape context – is to go beyond the proliferation of NGOs and NGO-supported projects – and the broad sweep of advocacy that underpins it – and pay equally robust attention to systematically studying how these projects resonate at the grassroots, especially from a beneficiary perspective.

1. BACKGROUND 1.1 The key aspects on which the Committee was charged to advise the Deputy President on were: • the appropriate and functional relationships that could be evolved between government and organs of civil society with respect to the provision of capacity for the implementation of the RDP; • the feasibility of an appropriate funding mechanism that would enable a co-ordinated approach to the funding of civil society organisations, the relationships of such a mechanism with current development funding players and other transitional mechanisms; • a mechanism to promote a sustainable partnership between these organisations with government. KEY FINDINGS OF THE COMMITTEE After careful consideration of all pertinent factors, the Committee established that: 2. 1 In spite of broad support for the RDP, there is no coordinated approach to tackling poverty. Government has been able to attract aid and has not found it easy to use such large funding owing to processes of change management and the processes of setting up local government infrastructures. Concomitant with these issues is the lack of management skills at the Government levels. 2. 2 Organs of civil society involved in development work in South Africa remain a rich inheritance for the Government of National Unity. These institutions, generally referred to as Community Based Organisations (CBOs) or Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) span a wide variety of the development landscape. These organs of Civil Society seek to fuel the development agenda of South Africa through participation in the RDP, but have often found themselves frustrated by the lack of clear policy and connecting points with Government in general. 2. 3 Experience from other countries show that the role of CSOs in development and the sustenance of democracy is a key feature of advanced democracies. Foreign research proved that cooperation between CSOs and various tiers government has often produced positive results. Owing to their affinity, empathy and proximity to the broader populace CSOs have always proved to be effective in meeting the basic needs of the population they serve. 2. 4 The initial energizing force for development which broadly funded the CSO sector has transformed. Local development funding institutions have developed a new focus and business approach. The Kagiso Trust and the IDT are gearing themselves to operate as development implementation institutions as against solely the funding of development and the facilitation of funding for development initiatives. 2. 5 Foreign aid funding, money which was historically marked for CSOs, is largely being directly channeled to Government. This source of funding has progressively declined since the 1994 elections. Indications are that this pattern is likely to continue as erstwhile traditional International Aid donors prefer bilateral funding arrangements with government. Corporate grant funding which in any case has always been limited to the CSO sector will continue to flow to corporate programmes and will remain a significant factor to this sector. 2. 6 Development CSOs operate within a restrictive environment in respect of taxation and registration. 2.7 There is broad and significant support for a positive structural relationship and a coordinated funding mechanism between CSOs and Government to promote the objectives and principles of the RDP. 2.8 The need to establish a channel of communication between CSOs and government. Through this mechanism, government and CSOs would be able to agree on RDP and development. / Prepared for the Deputy President the Honorable Mr Thabo Mbeki

Many billions of dollars each year are spent in pursuit of economic and social development goals. The field of program evaluation aims to measure the efficacy of these programs and allocate funds to achieve optimal results. However, current research on program design and evaluation tends to focus on determining causality through complex statistical methods, neglecting intermediate measures of data, such as network metrics. Similarly, research in computational social science has focused on generating hypotheses and validating theory rather than economic development applications. This thesis develops a novel technique for using computational social science to design and evaluate social and economic programs. A framework for program design and evaluation using network metrics is presented, along with two case studies that illustrate the use of this technique. In the first, we consider Start-Up Chile, an economic development program whose goal is to foster networks between Chileans and international entrepreneurs, using network metrics to evaluate its ability to facilitate connection between Chilean and non- Chilean entrepreneurs. Second, an agent-based model for designing entrepreneurial incubators is developed, with novel conclusions for more efficient design of economic development programs.

M.A. / The aim of this study was to explore and describe participation in community development projects and the factors that affect participation. Projects experience problems with regard to participation which in turn has an impact on the success and sustainability of these projects. Projects in the far North region, Northern Province were targeted as the population and 30 respondents were interviewed from 3 sampled projects. Purposive sampling, which is a non-probability sampling method, was utilised to select sample. Interview schedule was utilised to collect data from respondents to measure 3 elements, i.e. demographic data, project formulation and role performance, and project management with specific reference to participation. The researcher discovered that participation in development projects is influenced by the level of involvement by project members in decision making and project management and their involvement in project roles and responsibilities. Availability of financial resources and the project's ability to meet abstract and material needs of members also influence participation in projects.