Magister Legum - LLM / This study examined economic and government policies of South Africa on the one hand and that of Cameroon on the other hand. The focus was on specific periods after democratisation of both countries. For South Africa from 1994-2004 and for Cameroon from 1992-2004. Their comparatives economic strength in the face of foreign direct investment flow and the impact of government in attracting foreign direct investment was measured. / South Africa

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / Empowerment is a catchword that has recently entered current development debate. Development is largely perceived as a process of building capacities hence empowering people to be able to handle their affairs. As such it is a concept highly espoused by prominent development actors and mainly Non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The study attempted to examine the theoretical and empirical aspects of community empowerment from a critical perspective by surveying activities of three NGOs in Ethiopia. A recent framework developed by a working group of the World Bank for measuring and structuring analysis was used for analyzing findings. Conceptualization and practices of empowerment seem to be at a nascent stage and tools for measuring it as well; that is what the findings of the study indicate. Despite the rhetoric surrounding the concept, the experience of surveyed NGOs also shows disparities between theory and practice. / South Africa

Magister Legum - LLM / Ethiopia is a federal state located in the horn of Africa. The Constitution has assignedlegislative, executive and judicial powers to the federal and regional Governments.1The main objective of this study is, therefore, to find out whether the decentralization of governmental powers between the national and the state governments of Ethiopia is also reflected in the decentralization of functional competences concerning environment related matters. In other words, this study attempts to determine whether Ethiopia is environmentally federal state, the extent and the possible shortcomings of the environmental federal structure. With this basic aim or objective in mind, in the study attempts will be made to see how the Constitution allocates the powers regarding environment among the federal, state, and local governments. To that effect, the role of the federal, the State and the local governments regarding the setting of environmental standards, pollution control and EIA will critically be analyzed. The match or the mismatch of the role of the federal as well as the state governments with their capacity will be investigated. Comparisons with selected legal systems will also be made for the purpose of identifying the practice of other systems in specific environmental matters selected for comparisons.

Magister Educationis - MEd / This research explores the learning journey that was traveled by the two administrators who joined a non-governmental organisation as novices over ten years ago almost fresh from school and are now regarded as experts in their respective positions. The research attempts to describe the nature of their learning and analyse how they became the knowledgeable in their respective posts.The research is a qualitative study that analyses data obtained through interviewing the key subjects (the administrators) and the chief executive officer (CEO) of the organisation as well as the self narrative as compiled by the administrators.This research questions formalised learning as the only form of acquiring knowledge and accordingly adopted workplace learning as a theoretical framework for the study. Workplace learning stresses that knowledge is not limited to formalised settings such as schools, colleges and universities. Rather, knowledge is also constructed in informal and non-formal settings such as work-places and in families.The study found that the administrators drew on many learning strategies to acquire their knowledge and skills related to administration which includes learning through:·The teachings and support of their supervisors and peers;·Collaboration with peers and working as a team;·Seeking advice from their mentors, coaches and peers; ·Modeling ·Workplace affordances.The study concluded that indeed formalised learning has not been the only form of acquiring knowledge for the subjects but workplace learning has played a vital role in their career development.

Background: Since 2008, more than half of the world's population now live an urban area. The consequences of this are strains on existing resources such as access to healthcare, housing and infrastructure. Therefore, access to data at the urban level is important for those involved in policy making in order to assess and address these issues. This is especially important for developing countries where resources are already limited without the added strain of urbanisation. This PhD study is nested within the EURO-URHIS 2 project, a DG Research, FP7 Programme project which is collecting data on a series of indicators deemed to be important to urban health. The first part of this PhD study investigates whether the EURO-URHIS 2 data collection tools designed for use in Europe can be replicated in Vietnam. During a preliminary fieldwork trip to Vietnam it was found that it would not be possible to obtain permission to interview policy makers or the urban population of Ho Chi Minh City within the study time frame. Therefore, the second part of this PhD study is to explore the use of existing data sources, functions and activities of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Vietnam. Methods: The EURO-URHIS 2 existing data survey was used to collect country and urban area level data from Vietnam. The data for the NGO study was collected using an online questionnaire hosted on a server by the University of Manchester. Results: The study found that it was possible to use the EURO-URHIS 2 existing data tool to collect a range of health indicator data at the country and urban level in Vietnam. The online study determined the role of international NGOs working in Vietnam and barriers to using existing sources of information. The study also found low levels of NGO engagement with other NGOs, policy makers, local authorities and Vietnamese government organisations. Conclusions: The successful implementation of EURO-URHIS 2 existing data survey allowed the examination of the potential health implications of urbanisation in Vietnam. The NGO study identified key areas where international NGOs in Vietnam were active, barriers to using existing sources of data and NGO relationships with other actors. The study also suggested opportunities for further NGO engagement.

In recent decades, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have increasingly taken on development and political roles in Africa. This has partly been attributed to the New Policy Agenda (NPA) mounted by the international donors. The NPA is predicated on neo-liberal thinking advocating for an enlarged development role for the private sector and a minimalist state. This relatively new shift in development thought has been motivated by the declining capacity of the African state to deliver development and guarantee a liberal political system. This study, therefore, set out to empirically examine whether NGOs are capable of effectively playing their new-found development and political roles. The study was based on Kenya with the Western Province constituting the core research area. The fact that the Kenyan state has been gradually disengaging from the development process has created a vacuum of which the NGOs have attempted to fill. Equally important has been the observation that, for the greater part of the post-colonial period, the state has been largely authoritarian and therefore prompting a segment of civil society to take on political roles in an effort to force it to liberalize and democratize. Urban NGOs in particular, have been the most confrontational to the state with some remarkable success. Unlike their urban counterparts, rural-based NGOs have tended to be more developmental and play a politics of collaboration with the state. Many of the latter NGOs, although playing a significant role in rural development, have been co-opted into patron-client networks. Factors that influence NGOs= posture towards the state include the nature of their leadership, the extent of their nternational connections, and the level of resources at their disposal. The study=s principal conclusion, is that, in as much as NGOs and overall civil society have provided a basis for development and opposition to the state, there is an urgent and growing need for them to shift from a position of dependency, whether domestic or international, to relative autonomy. Only then, will their contributions be sustainable in society.

This study is an interpretive analysis of the roles of NGOs in the social policy process, using the case of postcolonial Zimbabwe. Assessing the period between 2000 and 2010 and the prevailing unique socio-economic and geopolitical crisis, the study engages the major contextual factors influencing evolution of NGOs and their engagement in the policy process. It focuses on the conceptual and state – civil society contestations on the legitimacy of NGO’s as well as an assessment of their impact on the social policy process. NGOs in Zimbabwe have played two major and two minor roles in the social policy process as identified in the study in terms of their prominence and impact on the policy process. That is: policy implementer role complementing state social policy provision, democratisation to pluralism the social policy arena as the major roles; educational role to developing interventions for better social policy and watchdog role monitoring government and other state institutions in meeting the social policy needs of citizens. The thesis argues that analysis of NGOs is embedded in understanding the role of the state and dialectical relationship between state and civil society. Using a neo-Marxist perspective and social democratic approach to the role of the state in social policy, the theoretical generalisations of the study are that NGOs have a legitimate role to play in the social policy process. However, this is defined by the nature and role of the state itself as central driving agent in social policy. Therefore, the roles NGOs are not exclusive in themselves but are anchored within the contextual framework and its definition of societal spheres within it. The thesis established the evolution of the NGO sector in Zimbabwe, its impact on the social, political landscape and argues that the democratisation agenda in Zimbabwe requires a political solution embedded in a transformative state as the panacea for building a redistributive and participatory social policy agenda that engages with non-state actors, NGOs included within a developmental framework. Conclusively, the thesis proposes a theoretical distinction between NGOs as service oriented entities and CSOs as forums for associational life and civic engagement.

It is broadly accepted that there is a need for better security management and protocols for hostage incident management, there is currently a lack of basic empirical knowledge about the existing security management protocols with reference to existing policies, knowledge and the capability of International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) to handle hostage incidents. Many INGOs have successfully managed high-profile hostage crises, but there is still a considerable level of uncertainty about the way these crises have been solved and the way their success can be seen in relation to other crises. This study aimed to understand how INGOs prepare themselves for hostage incidents, whether policies, procedures are in place, how they manage hostage situations, and also how INGO staff are trained and prepared. The methodology adopted for this study was qualitative and comprised of indepth interviews with sixteen INGOs and ten industry experts and a review of INGO documents, policies and plans. The study sheds light on some of the less talked-about aspects for INGO security management in general, as well as preparedness and responsibility towards their staff. The study suggests that while most organisations have a level of preparedness in place, enhancing each agency’s respective policies may assist the organisation in better management. The study also found that there is a higher use of ransom payment than expected, and that there is an increasing willingness to engage external expertise to assisting in managing a hostage crisis. The study makes several recommendations that may have policy implications, including pre-deployment hostile environment training, reviewing potential cooperation between INGOs and United Nations, and the use of external resources to assist in managing a hostage crisis. It also recommends a revision of existing negotiation models, as the current models are lacking in addressing protracted hostage cases. The establishment of an accurate database of incidents to allow for improved interpretation of trends and scope of hostage cases is also recommended.

There are growing calls for the involvement of multiple agencies to address health inequities. Many international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) working in health and development mention equity principles in their vision statements, missions, or strategic directions, and many authors view equity, including focusing on vulnerable populations, as an important role for these INGOs. However, there is a lack of in-depth empirical research on what influences INGOs’ implementation of equity principles in their work. The present study helps to fill this gap by using a case study to examine INGOs’ implementation of equity principles in their HIV/AIDS initiatives. In this case study, I focused on HIV/AIDS initiatives in Kenya to illustrate the nature of the implementation gap between the intent of INGOs to ensure equity in their work and actual practice, and to examine the various influences that affected the implementation of INGOs’ equity principles. I used HIV/AIDS as the exemplar because of the global epidemic of HIV/AIDS and the resulting large monetary investments made by donors to Southern countries and INGOs to address the disease. I conducted an in-depth case study of an INGO operating in Kenya. The research questions were: “What is the nature of the implementation gap between the intent of an INGO to ensure equity in its HIV/AIDS work and actual practice? What characterizes multi-level influences that affect an INGO’s implementation of equity principles in its HIV/AIDS work? How do multi-level influences affect an INGO’s implementation of equity principles in its HIV/AIDS work?” The case study design employed multiple methods including document reviews, interviews with staff of the INGO in Kenya, as well as its Northern INGO counterparts in Canada and the U.S., interviews with partners and clients of the INGO in Kenya, and participant observation with staff of the INGO in Kenya. I found that many players (e.g. Southern country government and the Northern donors) from different levels (e.g. in-country as well as Northern donor countries) shape INGOs’ implementation of equity principles in their HIV/AIDS work. Influences from donors include donor agendas and the focus of donor funding, as well as donor country policies. Influences from the Southern country government include government priorities and legislation. These influence INGOs’ implementation of equity principles in their HIV/AIDS work, and in some cases can outright contradict equity principles. However, since INGOs are often reliant on donor funding and need Southern governments’ permissions to work in-country, INGOs work within a system that is characterized by asymmetrical interdependence. They have to find a middle ground for implementing equity principles in their HIVAIDS work. Hence, these influences help give rise to an implementation gap between what INGOs intend to accomplish in implementing equity principles in HIV/AIDS work and actual practice. Implications for policy and practice include the need to: increase awareness of the roles various players have in implementing equity and the need for ongoing collaboration to achieve equity aims; continue work in capacity building on equity for INGO staff and its partners; and develop and refine tools for measuring and monitoring the implementation of equity. The present research clearly shows the significant role that INGOs play in equity, and the importance of understanding the multiple players and levels that influence INGOs’ implementation of equity principles in HIV/AIDS. The research can help INGOs, Southern country governments, and donors to better understand the system within which INGOs work in implementing equity principles, as multiple organizations continue to try to address health inequities around the globe.

Magister Economicae - MEcon (Social Development) / This thesis presents a model of the characteristics of an effective nonprofit organisation and a practical tool to evaluate the extent to which nonprofit organisations comply with these characteristics. As part of identifying the characteristics of effective nonprofit organisations, it was necessary to establish whether or not nonprofit organisations and businesses were distinct from one another, since this would determine whether research on the characteristics of effective businesses could be applied to nonprofit organisations. An exploration of the key similarities and defining differences between nonprofit organisations and businesses subsequently revealed a number of startling and unexpected insights. / South Africa