Submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements for Masters of Arts in Development Studies by coursework and research report In the Graduate School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2016 / Social cash transfer programmes on the African continent have more than doubled in the last decade, and this signifies a transformation in the perception of social cash transfers as ‘pity handouts’ to how they are seen today, as ‘productive investments’ in human capabilities. Southern Africa has been a pioneer in social protection growth in the last twenty years, but often accounts of these histories focus on pension schemes in places such as South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Lesotho. There is little incorporation of Mozambique’s social protection history, and most histories do not detail that Mozambique ranks fourth chronologically, in introduction of cash transfer programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa. This research puts forth that the Mozambican case of an early adoption of cash transfers in 1990 is a positive and unique example of a state’s active role in social protection despite neoliberal constraints. The state-led adoption of cash transfers in response to rising inequality and economic instability is unexpected at a time when these programmes were unpopular development interventions and when the state was supposedly rolled-back and confined because neoliberalism and the civil war. Tracing the history of Mozambican social cash transfers in the last 25 years illustrates two consistencies of the Mozambican government: 1. A supportive political position towards state involvement in welfare programmes, despite the government’s own political and development sector transformation from Marxist-Leninist orientation to welcoming of privatization; and 2. State financial and political support of social protection throughout a period when cash transfers in Sub-Saharan Africa went from unpopular hand-out interventions during crises, to lobbying for permanent social protection as a mechanism to address chronic poverty. / GR2017

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Dissertation (M Inst Agrar (Agricultural Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted

Wildlife management in Moryambique has had a troubled history. The end of civil war and installment of a democratic Government provided opportunity to redefine policy and implementation of conservation. Weakened by civil strife and with wildlife decimated in many areas, Government sought approaches to conservation that would promote participation by investors and civil society, particularly rural communities. The intention is to acknowledge the rights of rural people to resources and the benefits that can accrue from their use. Partnerships are seen as a way in which Government can bring the required financial and human resources to bear whilst at the same time engendering positive attitudes to conservation in general, and to policy in particular. The purpose of this research is to examine, using two case study conservation areas, the consequences of Government's attempts to implement its policy. The philosophical basis for the research is that policy reform and implementation should be envisaged as a complex system comprising many interactions and that when this complexity is not acknowledged and addressed systemically, it predisposes the process of policy reform and implementation to failure. A principal cause of failure is considered to be that assumptions are not made explicit and this results in development and application of an approach that does not accord with reality. Further, because of the networked nature of the system, failure at one point can be magnified as its consequences are propagated through the system. A conceptual framework for policy reform and implementation is developed. This exposes some critical assumptions about Government's capacity to implement policy and the ways in which implementation is experienced by stakeholders, especially local communities. Context is provided by tracing the evolution of approaches to conservation in Moryambique from the pre-colonial era to the present. The findings are that Government does not have the capacity to implement its conservation policy and this is shown to have serious implications for how local people perceive and respond to Government approaches to conservation. Causal factors are analysed and assessed. It is concluded that the process of policy reform and implementation is complex but that a systems approach provides a simple and easily comprehended way in which this complexity can be interpreted and taken into account with potentially very significant benefits. Perceptions are shown to be a powerful determinant of response to policy reform and implementation. As these are commonly a basis for destructive tensions between parties, it is suggested that research directed at defining the principles that should underpin management of perceptions and tensions should be encouraged. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.