This study examined the impact of fiscal decentralization on quality financial reporting at the local government level in Ghana. The study is important because it provides development partners with the assurance that Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) funds are used for their intended purposes. The study was based on the theory of local public expenditures, which posits that fiscal decentralization may enhance local capacities for service delivery. The key research question examined the extent to which fiscal decentralization has influenced quality financial reporting at the local level. The research design was quantitative, randomly sampling stakeholders in the local government structures including traditional rulers, assembly members, principal spending officers, budget officers, auditors, and accountants (n = 65). Descriptive plots, Pearson chi-square, and multiple regression analysis were used to examine the relationship between the dependent variable of quality financial reporting and the independent variables of expenditure responsibilities, taxation powers, intergovernmental fiscal transfers, and borrowing powers. The results of the analysis revealed taxation powers to be the most significant contributor to quality financial reporting. Quality financial reporting improved internally-generated resources, reduced audit queries, and served as a basis for granting funds to MMDAs. The study recommends that MMDAs be given taxation powers to enable local assemblies to generate more revenue so as to minimize the need for the transfer of funds from development partners and central government. The significant social change implication of this study lies in giving MMDAs control of service delivery at the local level.

This study is premised on the assumption that women’s right to political participation in Africa is vital, especially as women constitute half of the population in African states. Since the 1990s, much attention has been focussed on the role of women in African politics. Consequently, women’s inclusion, especially in legislatures and in the executive arm of government, has increased during this period. International and national law, combined with political will, have been relied upon to ensure that women are included in key decisionmaking positions in national government. However, women’s political participation in local government has received less attention, despite the fact that local government may be the level of government best suited to positively impact on women’s daily lives. Four of the leading African states in respect of women’s political participation in local government are Lesotho, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda. The study focuses on these states with a view to establishing the extent to which they have domesticated international norms that advance women’s political participation in local government. Surveying relevant international instruments at the global and Africa regional level, the study establishes that generally, international law recognises women’s right to participate in politics. Local government was, in particular, not even mentioned and participation in local government could be inferred from the wider right to political participation. However, recent developments in international law are increasingly paying attention to local government. In addition, attention is increasingly being paid to ensuring that women enjoy the right to political participation on the basis of equality with men. Consequently, parity in representation is being promoted and states are expected to domesticate the international norms to which they are parties in order to realise the goal of equality in political participation. States have made efforts to domesticate international norms by including them in their constitutions or legislation. In addition, states have put in place temporary special measures focussing on the area of local government. These measures are to be utilised by states, to ensure that women participate more fully in local government. vi With respect to the four states under investigation, it is observed that there is a limited application of temporary special measures that can be used to promote women’s political participation in local government. In terms of the actual extent of women’s participation, the limited available data illustrates a relatively high percentage of women in local government, especially at the level of councillors where all the four states reviewed are performing reasonably well. None of the four states has attained gender parity among directly elected councillors even though the number of women councillors is fairly high in some of the states. Among other senior local government positions, the rate of including women is inconsistent. In some cases women are included in substantial numbers but there are also cases were the inclusion of women is disconcertingly low. States are also failing to provide detailed information on women’s political participation across all portfolios in local government. The implication of such shortcomings is that the actual levels of women’s inclusion remain largely unknown and therefore efforts to address women’s marginalisation are undermined. In order to ensure increased political participation of women at the local government level, a number of measures must be taken. First, efforts should be made at the international level to further elaborate the right to political participation with particular reference to local government, especially in so far as indirectly elected or appointed office is concerned. These are areas of local government where the current norms do not sufficiently advance women’s inclusion and as a result inclusion of women is inconsistent. Second, human rights treaty bodies should pay greater attention to questioning states on their performance in including women in local government. Questioning state performance will create greater awareness and increase the attention that states pay to women’s political participation in local government. Third, concerted efforts should be made to streamline legislation on local government in the four states under review with a view to making it simpler, clearer and consistent. The current proliferation of laws can create challenges in understanding the extent to which the law promotes women’s political participation in local government. Finally, the four states should display greater transparency with regard to providing data on women’s political participation in local government. Providing sufficient data would enable proper scrutiny and provide a diachronic picture of developments as far as women and men’s political participation in local government is concerned. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Centre for Human Rights / Unrestricted

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of a degree of Masters of Arts in Community Work in the Department of Social Work, at the University of Zululand, 2010. / South Africa has one of the most progressive legislative and policy frameworks for water and sanitation services in the world, which includes a constitutional right to water and a national free basic water policy. However, when it comes to the local government level (municipalities) who arestipulated with the duty to provide water and sanitation services not only in informal settlements, the reality is quite different.In many municipalities, water and sanitation services programs are still run according to long established routine and customs which have never been examined for their effectiveness or appropriateness to current conditions of the areas (informal settlements) where services are driven to. Nevertheless, the intention of this study was to evaluate municipality programs in addressing water and sanitation services in informal settlements. To produce data for thestudy, the questionnaires, interviews schedule and document review or analysiswas utilised.A sample of 10respondents was drawn from three Umhlathuze municipalities, namely: Richards Bay, Empangeni and Esikhawini municipalities. The findings from the study indicated that Umhlathuze municipality programs in addressing water and sanitation services in informal settlements is a failure, the municipality have a sour working relationship with the community, the criteria used to choose the strategy to the provision of the services does notencourage community participation, and finally, the municipalities are still using a bit of the past supply driven approach and the new approach; demand responsive approach simultaneously. The set objectives for the study were achieved, andmost importantly, it is recommended that fullcommunity participation at different levels and stages of water supply and sanitation service planning and implementation should be encouraged.

This study investigated the effectiveness of environmental education (EE) initiatives of selected government departments in South Africa, namely the Department of Basic Education, the Department of Water Affairs, the Department of Environmental Affairs and the City of Tshwane municipality. The literature review formed the framework within which the qualitative study was conducted. Considerable research emphasises that teachers are implementers of EE initiatives. However, these implementers are not trained in EE and on how to infuse environmental content in teaching and learning. In addition, the study investigated the factors that lead to partial or total failure of EE initiatives by the selected government departments and the City of Tshwane municipality. Fundamentally, EE initiatives are not effective and/or sustainable due to the lack of effective training of implementers, particularly teachers and subject advisors. The lack of relevant resources, coordination, and monitoring and support contributes greatly to ineffectiveness and the lack of sustainability of the initiatives. The lack of monitoring and support results in unsustainable initiatives because the teachers lose courage. The research findings revealed that the approach of having one champion in schools during the implementation of EE initiatives by partners poses some challenges, especially after the partners had left. The champion might be promoted to another school or may even be promoted in the same school. Once the champion is promoted, the responsibilities increases and the teacher then stop championing the EE programme or project. The factors mentioned above are aggravated by the lack of knowledge and skills to infuse EE initiatives because teachers regard EE initiatives as an add-on. In addition, schools lack finances to sustain EE activities and these results in schools not continuing with these activities. This study advocates that teachers and subject advisors should be effectively trained in EE to enable them to effectively infuse environmental concepts and topics in teaching and learning and make it more practical rather than theoretical. Relevant resources should be made available to teachers and monitoring and support should be considered. Effective coordination and collaboration should be taken into account to ensure sustainability of the EE initiatives. In addition, the study provides guidelines that would improve the effective implementation of EE initiatives by both implementers and partners. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Didactics)