A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Final Submission June, 2015. / The HIV and AIDS pandemic has increased the numbers of orphans globally. The severity of the problem is greater in developing countries, especially in Sub Saharan Africa. In Malawi, as in many other developing countries, grandparents have stepped in and have embraced the role left by the deceased parents, seeing the orphans through school, providing food, clothing and shelter for them, even where the grandparents themselves have no steady source of income. Despite the heavy burden placed on grandparents as a result of HIV and AIDS, limited attention has been given by governments, scholars and researchers to documenting in detail the challenges faced by the elderly who look after orphaned children. This study examined the challenges faced by elderly people looking after children orphaned by HIV and AIDS in Malawi using the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF). This framework looks at household needs and holistically categorises them in terms of social, financial, physical, natural health, and government policies. Following a qualitative approach, this study used a phenomenology approach in documenting the challenges facing the elderly in Malawi, with a special focus on the Rumphi and Zomba districts. The livelihood approach is part of rural development theories that has moved away from the conventional approaches towards development to holistic understanding of the relationship between poverty and economic development. The study also provided a case study on the role of social pensions in Lesotho. Social protection, which is part of social development, focuses on local community development with the emphasis not only on economic development, but also on improvement of health, education, environment and standard of living as critical contributors to sustainable development. This is seen as a medium that discourages dependency and promotes the participation of people in their own development. The aim was to profile social protection benefits for the elderly in Lesotho as an example so that insights could be drawn from the experience. The study used structured and semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions as tools to elicit information from grandparents, orphans, community leaders, teachers, local leaders and policy makers. The findings of the study indicate that the level of rural poverty in elderly headed households has increased due to the challenges resulting from the HIV and AIDS pandemic. The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach presented in this paper advocates that sustained development is only successful if it is based on evidence and understanding of household or community needs holistically and systematically. This study has highlighted five key elements required to understand the elderly households through the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. Firstly, the evidence from this research challenges the SLF in that it does not take into account all key factors necessary to understanding the elderly households’ needs, As a result, this study proposes other necessary enhancements to the SLF, such as the role of cultural practices as part of social capital in supporting elderly livelihoods, especially where patrilineal and matrilineal family systems exist. Secondly, evidence from this study indicates that the notion of social capital that includes dependency on community networks as key in improving the general livelihood of societies has completely diminished due to community fatigue in relation to offering care and support. The study further reveals enhancements in the forms of social capital like belonging to “secret friendships” or being a member of the village banking scheme. However these social networks have limited elderly membership because of community perceptions that elderly members may not contribute much, be it financially or otherwise, hence the elderly are excluded from social networks. Thirdly, as a result of the many challenges faced by the elderly, this research has highlighted an increase in negative coping strategies in elderly households due to limited support from government and other stakeholders. Negative coping strategies in this regard include engaging in activities like casual labour (ganyu), selling alcohol, school dropouts, selling green maize and begging. The more the elderly adopt negative coping strategies, the more vulnerable they become over time. Fourthly, the livelihoods framework has been used in this study to provide a full understanding of situation of the elderly headed households. This approach provides a new dimension to this body of knowledge as it is used for the first time on elderly households. The research presents a foundation that will require future researchers to look at elderly households holistically and systematically within their context using this research as a guideline or as a point of reference. Finally, this research suggests a possible framework that would address the needs of the elderly, with a combination of the livelihoods framework as the analysis tool and the social pensions as the response mechanism for alleviating the burden on elderly headed households. Social pensions will act as a poverty cushion to the elderly members of the society to meet their needs in raising orphaned children. This research conclusively reinforces the role of social protection for supporting the elderly livelihoods. The researcher’s contribution to theory is embedded in the premises of integration of livelihoods frameworks as an analysis tool that provides an holistic picture of understanding elderly household challenges and needs. Social protection through social pensions can be an intervention for supporting the household challenges of the elderly. The combination of these two frameworks results in an holistic and systematic analysis of elderly livelihoods and subsequent support necessary to respond to their challenges. / MT2016

It is a duty of every person of good will in any given community and society to promote freedom and development that enhances the potential of rural women and women in general. One can only achieve this important task by firstly acknowledging that women are persons fully created in the image of God and that they are part and parcel of God's creation in all what is needed for human beings to value and appreciate healthy livelihood in the world. Once this duty is achieved, we will fully conclude that human beings need each other in all social and economic development that helps to promote the potential that every individual has in order to build sustainable livelihoods in a community. This is a big task. This task could be facilitated if local resources, individual capacities, gifts, skills, talents and dedicated people are available in the community. This study has pursued the sustainable livelihoods of the rural women especially those in Katete aiming at enhancing their potential. The major problem that this study has focused is that the society and church in Katete is patriarchal and has failed to give freedom to women so that they could utilize their capacities to participate in social and economic development that would accord them healthy and sustainable livelihoods. The methodology used in order to achieve these goals out of the women of Katete Catholic Parish was through dialogue between the researcher and the women. Through theological reflections, we discovered that the women of Katete have the potential to contribute into the general livelihoods of the people of the area and the women in general. From what the study gave us, we can freely say that women have natural gifts imparted on them by God. The gifts that the women have can change the church and the society's attitude bounded by patriarchal biases against women, which perceives them as second-class citizens in participating fully in developmental agendas of the society. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

Development aid in most of the developing countries can sometimes compromise the principles of public service broadcasting (PSB). This may be true when reflected against the tension between donor financed programmes in Malawi and the mandate of Television Malawi (TVM). Although the donor intentions are noble, the strings attached to the funding are sometimes retrogressive to the role of PSBs. A case in point is how donors dictate terms on the HIV/Aids communication strategies at TVM. Producers receive money from donors with strings attached on how the money should be used and accounted for. If producers deviate they are sanctioned through withholding funding, shifting schedules and reducing the funding frequency. The donors also dictate who to interview on what subject, how to conduct capacity building. Some scholars have researched much on the impact of commercialisation of the media. This study is a departure from these traditional interferences; it interrogates the interest of philanthropy tendencies by international donors in the three chosen HIV/Aids programmes broadcast by TVM. The study investigates the extent of pressure exerted by donors on the producers of HIV/Aids programmes in Malawi. Thus, the study seeks to illicit specifics in the power relationship between the donor and the producer hence the study employs the political economy of development aid as applied to the public service broadcasting and communication for development. The study employed qualitative research methods and techniques (in-depth interviews, case study and document analysis). The study reveals how donor ideologies dominate the Aids messages-content output of the texts constructed. The study argues that cultural alienation of the Malawian audiences retards efforts of donors in combating HIV infection rate.

Participation in development is not a new concept as over the years, facilitators of development have realized that meaningful development can only be achieved when the people concerned take part in decision making and implementation of activities affecting them. This study was done to examine the extent to which child participation is being achieved in a development programme area, facilitated by World Vision Malawi, a Non Governmental Organization. The study was done in Chata Area development programme (ADP) located in T/A Chimutu in Lilongwe district. Children are defined as any person below the age 18. The study used mixed methods approach in which quantitative and qualitative approaches were used. Through random and purposive sampling, 110 children and 105 adults were interviewed using a questionnaire. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were also done to supplement information collected through the questionnaires. Analysis of the quantitative data collected was done using Scientific Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) tool while the qualitative data was analyzed manually using common themes that emerged from the findings. The findings of the study show that despite the many development activities in Chata area participation of children has been limited. Adults look down upon children as a minority group which cannot meaningfully participate in development activities. Furthermore, the study found such factors as cultural and traditional practices, gender, level of education and other household characteristics to be the major barriers to children‟s participating in development activities. Surprisingly, the findings further indicate that much as the programme has been engaged in advocacy activities, these have focused more on creating awareness on child protection only rather than child participation. The study argues that if children will have to sustain the development gains in communities such as Chata, then they equally need to participate in the development process to enhance their future capacities in related development activities. On the overall, therefore, the study recommends that there is a need to create awareness on the adults to change attitude when they look at children and begin to create room for children to participate in the development process in an age appropriate manner. There is a need to create systems and structures that will enable children be included in the decision making process while building their capacity and self esteem. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

Participation in development is not a new concept as over the years, facilitators of development have realized that meaningful development can only be achieved when the people concerned take part in decision making and implementation of activities affecting them. This study was done to examine the extent to which child participation is being achieved in a development programme area, facilitated by World Vision Malawi, a Non Governmental Organization. The study was done in Chata Area development programme (ADP) located in T/A Chimutu in Lilongwe district. Children are defined as any person below the age 18. The study used mixed methods approach in which quantitative and qualitative approaches were used. Through random and purposive sampling, 110 children and 105 adults were interviewed using a questionnaire. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were also done to supplement information collected through the questionnaires. Analysis of the quantitative data collected was done using Scientific Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) tool while the qualitative data was analyzed manually using common themes that emerged from the findings. The findings of the study show that despite the many development activities in Chata area participation of children has been limited. Adults look down upon children as a minority group which cannot meaningfully participate in development activities. Furthermore, the study found such factors as cultural and traditional practices, gender, level of education and other household characteristics to be the major barriers to children‟s participating in development activities. Surprisingly, the findings further indicate that much as the programme has been engaged in advocacy activities, these have focused more on creating awareness on child protection only rather than child participation. The study argues that if children will have to sustain the development gains in communities such as Chata, then they equally need to participate in the development process to enhance their future capacities in related development activities. On the overall, therefore, the study recommends that there is a need to create awareness on the adults to change attitude when they look at children and begin to create room for children to participate in the development process in an age appropriate manner. There is a need to create systems and structures that will enable children be included in the decision making process while building their capacity and self esteem. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

Community-based organizations are considered as one of the major institutions involved in community development apart from the state and non-governmental organizations. The idea of local participation is the one that has resulted into their emergence as participation is considered to be an essential part of human growth. With the advent of democracy in 1994, and the coming in of the HIV and AIDS pandemic in Malawi, there has been a mushrooming of community-based organizations in the country. Now that its over fourteen years since their emergence in Malawi, its high time a study was conducted to establish contributions the community-based organizations are making in the development if the country, identify the challenges they are facing and find possible solutions that can help improve their effectiveness. This thesis presents findings of such a study done in Kasungu district in Malawi. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

Community-based organizations are considered as one of the major institutions involved in community development apart from the state and non-governmental organizations. The idea of local participation is the one that has resulted into their emergence as participation is considered to be an essential part of human growth. With the advent of democracy in 1994, and the coming in of the HIV and AIDS pandemic in Malawi, there has been a mushrooming of community-based organizations in the country. Now that its over fourteen years since their emergence in Malawi, its high time a study was conducted to establish contributions the community-based organizations are making in the development if the country, identify the challenges they are facing and find possible solutions that can help improve their effectiveness. This thesis presents findings of such a study done in Kasungu district in Malawi. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)