Thesis (M. Sc. Agriculture (Agricultural Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / This study investigated the food security indicators in the rural communities of Ba-Phalaborwa Local Municipality of the Limpopo Province. Quantitative data were gathered from five villages in the municipality using the probability proportionate to size. Data were collected from 185 households. The analytical tools that were used in this study include: Descriptive Statistics, Food Security Indicator Measures and the Logistic Regression Model. Food security is a multidimensional concept; thus it is difficult to measure it comprehensively. Hence, three food security indicators measures, namely; the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS), Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) and Coping Strategies Index (CSI) were combined in this study to measure food security in the study. Each indicator measure was used independently. The Logit Regression Model was used to determine the factors affecting the status of household food security. Certain explanatory variables, namely; household size, marital status and receiving government grant, had a negative relationship with the dependent variable. On the other hand, other variables such as educational level, employment status, gender distance to the markets and health status of the household head were positively correlated with the household’s food security status. The study rejected the null hypothesis which stated that socioeconomic factors do not have influence on the households’ food security status in the Ba-Phalaborwa local municipality. Out of the 11 variables, only four variables were significant, with the household size at 10%, educational level at 5%, household monthly food expenditure at 1% and distance to the market at 10%, respectively. Therefore government should direct more focus should on the introduction of feeding schemes in order to reduce the burden on the poor and at the same time, make it easier for young children to attend school to improve their educational statuses. The households in the study area are not food secured because 65.4 % of households could not afford the food that they preferred and were depending on borrowing food from their relatives and creating debts.

[pt] As migrações são movimentos populacionais presentes desde o início da humanidade e foram responsáveis pode moldar a sociedade. Os migrantes precisam e devem ser acolhidos com dignidade, todavia é importante analisar as causas de sua migração como forma de garantir que as pessoas só migrem no exercício de sua livre escolha. Nenhum ser humano deve ser forçado a migrar, a sair do seu país para buscar condições de vida dignas, se expondo aos inúmeros riscos e problemas oriundos desse tipo de migração. A responsabilidade de proteger tem potencial para ser uma ferramenta útil na prevenção de migrações forçadas considerando a segurança humana como uma meta a ser garantida e a soberania como uma responsabilidade e não, um direito absoluto do soberano. Além disso, a segurança humana, através da análise das situações inerentes à sua ausência é um importante sistema de alerta precoce visando a uma atuação com menos efeitos colaterais pela detecção de inseguranças humanas nos estágios iniciais. Embora seja importante a análise ainda que sucinta de alguns casos específicos onde a responsabilidade de proteger tenha sido, ou não, utilizada, o enfoque será prognóstico e focado na potencialidade dos conceitos e princípios, mesmo que nas situações pretéritas eles tenham sido mal utilizados. Como se demonstrará, muitos dos problemas na aplicação da responsabilidade de proteger são oriundos de questões políticas e não, do instituto em si. / [en] Migrations are population movements that exists since the beginning of humanity and were responsible for shaping the society. Migrants need and should be welcomed with dignity, but it is also important to analyze the causes of their migration as a way of ensuring that people only migrate at their free agency. No human being should be forced to migrate, to leave their country in order to seek for a decent living condition, exposing themselves to the numerous risks and problems that this type of migration brings with it. A study of how the responsibility to protect can be an useful tool to prevent forced migrations taking human security as a goal to be guaranteed and sovereignty interpreted as a responsibility, not an absolute right of the sovereign. In addition, human security through the analysis of situations inherent to its absence will be considered as an important early warning system in the search for a way of action with fewer side effects by detecting human insecurities in the early stages. A briefly analyze of some specific cases where the responsibility to protect has been used or not, is important. However, the focus will be prognostic with focus on the potential of the concepts and principles, even if in the past they have been misused. As will be shown, many of the problems in applying the responsibility to protect came from political issues rather than from the concept itself.

Securitisation is the process by which an issue is framed in terms of security to justify the implementation of urgent policy measures. It is often used by states to manage their territorial borders and to portray migrants as a threat to national security. However, securitisation theory also expands the concept of security to include the protection of human life and dignity, leading to the involvement of NGOs as securitising actors in their efforts to protect victims of crises and conflicts. Although NGOs are considered ‘allies’ to refugees in their mission to help refugees, recent evidence has shown how NGOs also risk contributing to the mainstream framing of refugees as a threat. This thesis takes off in this puzzle and argues that securitisation theory might help us better understand this discrepancy. This study investigates how NGOs in Sweden may reproduce securitising narratives, and whether this has changed between 2010 and 2022. Using critical discourse analysis, the study analyses 18 documents and 166 images from these organisations. The results show that the NGOs primarily reproduced a narrative of human security that portrays refugees, particularly women, children, and families as vulnerable and in need of protection. These findings align with previous research on the subject, which has suggested that human security perspectives may not be inherently beneficial for refugees. The study also shows that the NGOs to some extent reproduce state security narratives by portraying refugees as undifferentiated groups and emphasizing a perspective of security emergency rather than a humanitarian emergency. However, this study finds less evidence of state security perspectives in the Swedish context than previous research has indicated.

No / Nowhere in the world is the demand for peace more prominent and challenging than in Africa. From state collapse and anarchy in Somalia to protracted wars and rampant corruption in the Congo; from bloody civil wars and extreme poverty in Sierra Leone to humanitarian crisis and authoritarianism in Sudan, the continent is the focus of growing political and media attention. This book presents the first comprehensive overview of conflict and peace across the continent. Bringing together a range of leading academics from Africa and beyond, "Peace and Conflict in Africa" is an ideal introduction to key themes of conflict resolution, peacebuilding, security and development. The book's stress on the importance of indigenous Africa approaches to creating peace makes it an innovative and exciting intervention in the field.

No description available.

The “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) doctrine was created with the purpose of providing an implementation mechanism for the international community to halt and prevent mass atrocity conflicts, however, it is not a legally binding framework, and requires the UNSC’s engagement for its successful implementation. Whilst R2P is a rhetorically compelling international norm, it falls apart in practice. The lack of consistency in its implementation and the UNSC’s inaction to various cases of mass atrocity, which are, in principle, applicable to the doctrine, has sparked controversy. This thesis examines conflicts in which R2P has been utilized and one conflict of similar dimensions in which the principle wasn’t applied, discussing the factors that could explain the question ‘why has the application of R2P been inconsistent at halting atrocity conflicts?’. By juxtaposing two theoretical lenses, Realism and English School, and applying a comparative analysis to these three cases, the thesis establishes that state behavior is driven by preserving power and resources, when it converges with upholding international norms and values. Thus, the thesis concludes that members of the Security Council will support R2P implementation and uphold shared norms and values, only when it serves their national interests.

No / The Versatile and Ubiquitous Secret Sharing System, a cloud data repository secure access and a web based authentication scheme. It is designed to implement the sharing, distribution and reconstruction of sensitive secret data that could compromise the functioning of an organisation, if leaked to unauthorised persons. This is carried out in a secure web environment, globally. It is a threshold secret sharing scheme, designed to extend the human trust security perimeter. The system could be adapted to serve as a cloud data repository and secure data communication scheme. A secret sharing scheme is a method by which a dealer distributes shares of a secret data to trustees, such that only authorised subsets of the trustees can reconstruct the secret. This paper gives a brief summary of the layout and functions of a 15-page secure server-based website prototype; the main focus of a PhD research effort titled ‘Cryptography and Computer Communications Security: Extending the Human Security Perimeter through a Web of Trust’. The prototype, which has been successfully tested, has globalised the distribution and reconstruction processes. / Petroleum Technology Development Fund

This thesis examines the violence in Colombia caused by the drug trade and the state’s responses to it. Colombia’s transformative “Política Nacional de Drogas 2023-2033” (PND) (National Drug Policy 2023-2033) was subjected to a poststructural discourse analysis, the “What’s the Problem Represented to be?” approach. The policy bases its approach on the Human Security concept, placing the focus on the underlying structural causes of the drug trade. Lack of peace and environmental degradation were identified as the policy’s principal problem representations. The PND is informed by the presuppositions that social vulnerabilities drive the Colombian drug trade and that a narrative change concerning drugs is imperative. Large discursive gaps were identified relating to the feasibility of the proposed paradigm shift and the state’s ability to accomplish the transition from illicit to licit crop cultivation. The problem representations produce potentially harmful effects on vulnerable communities, and they gained dominance through a history of failed anti-drug policies. This research contributes to the literature on drug policies by providing insights into implicit narratives and power relations shaping Colombia’s current drug policy.

This study investigates the relationship between human security, gender, and the activities of the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children, an NGO serving women who have experienced gender-based violence. Gender-based violence is studied within the specific context of South Africa, with special attention given to the history, culture and socio-economic conditions. The study uses the concepts of human security and gender to construct a framework for examining gender-based violence. This theoretical approach fosters interdisciplinary collaboration and includes marginalised populations. This is a qualitative case study comprising of in-depth interviews with both clients and staff at the Saartjie Baartman Centre in Cape Town and it provides rich detail of personal experiences of both clients and employees of the centre. The themes of organisational challenges, socio-economic, and cultural issues are discussed and analysed. The intention of the study is to bring attention to the issue of gender violence in South Africa, investigate the occurrence of this violence in Manenberg, and put forth recommendations to further the fight against it. This will be done through an exploration of the activities of the Saartjie Baartman Centre and the implications of these activities. The study concludes that given the existing statistics of gender-based violence continually rising, current efforts are either not working or not having a large enough impact. Therefore, something different needs to be done in order for sustainable change to take place. / M. Dev. Studies. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2013.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The trafficking of children, with the purpose of sexual exploitation, has attained significant attention in the international realm. At present, children‟s human rights are protected by a number of international treaties adopted by the United Nations, which are also ratified by many states. These treaties have a norm setting function which influences domestic laws in the countries that have ratified them. The „1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child‟, the „Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime‟ together with the „2002 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography‟ are important treaties with norm setting functions. These treaties influence international attitudes and policy measures concerning child trafficking. South Africa, the focus of this study, is in the process of creating a comprehensive legislative framework with the aim to protect children and combat child trafficking. Thus, this thesis examines how international treaties have impacted on South Africa‟s domestic legislation with regards to child trafficking. The influence of international treaties and norms on domestic policy and norms regarding child trafficking is illuminated in this study. This analysis builds on a model put forward by Sikkink and Finnemore (1998) of how norms are created by norm entrepreneurs. The assumption is that norms develop in phases through different platforms of organizations and states and these norms eventually become the status quo. This study provides an overview of international and domestic law pertaining to child trafficking as well as a theoretical discussion on the evolution of these norms. A theoretical framework of constructivism and to a lesser extent institutionalism is applied as an analytical tool in order to critically analyse the influence of international treaties on domestic policies in South Africa. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Handel in kinders, met die doel van seksuele uitbuiting, het aansienlike aandag gekry in die internasionale arena. Op die oomblik word die menseregte van kinders beskerm deur 'n aantal internasionale ooreenkomste wat deur die Verenigde Nasies gesluit is, wat ook deur baie state bekragtig is. Hierdie verdrae het 'n standaard normstelllingsfunksie wat binnelandse wette beïnvloed in die lande wat hierdie verdrae bekragtig. Die "1989 Konvensie van die Regte van die Kind", Die Protokol ter Voorkoming, Onderdrukking en Straf van Mensehandel, veral Vroue en Kinders, ter aanvulling van die Verenigde Nasies se Konvensie teen Transnasionale Georganiseerde Misdaad saam met die 2002 Opsionele Protokol tot die Konvensie van die Regte van die Kind op die Verkoop van Kinders, Kinderprostitusie en Kinderpornografie is belangrike verdrae met standaard normstellingsfunksies. Hierdie internasionale verdrae beïnvloed houdings en beleidsmaatreëls oor kinderhandel. Suid Suid-Afrika die fokus van hierdie studie, is in die proses om van 'n omvattende wetgewende raamwerk te ontwikkel wat daarop gemik is om kinders te beskerm en kinderhandel te bestry. Hierdie verhandeling ondersoek die impak van internasionale verdrae op die Suid-Afrika se plaaslike wetgewing met betrekking tot kinderhandel. Die invloed van internasionale verdrae en normes op binnelandse beleid en normes ten opsigte van kinderhandel word in hierdie studie ondersoek. Hierdie ontleding is gebaseer op 'n model van Sikkink en Finnemore (1998) oor hoe norme deur norm-entrepreneurs geskep word. Die aanname is dat normes in fases ontwikkel deur middel van verskillende platforms van organisasies en state en dat hierdie norme uiteindelik die status quo word. Hierdie studie gee 'n oorsig van internasionale en plaaslike wetgewing met betrekking tot kinderhandel, sowel as 'n teoretiese ontleding van die evolusie van hierdie standaarde. 'n Teoretiese raamwerk van konstruktivisme en tot 'n mindere mate institutionalisme word toegepas as 'n analitiese instrument om die invloed van internasionale verdrae op die binnelandse beleid van Suid-Afrika krities te analiseer. Sleutelterme: kinderhandel, internasionale reg, norme, konstruktivisme, beleid, Suid-Afrika.