published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Thesis (M. Inst. Agrar.(Agricultural Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Includes summary. Includes bibliographical references.

published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

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

My thesis examines the discursive similarities between the public political voice of Thatcherism and the "bureaucratic" policy voice of Community Care Documents. The similarities I am searching for between the rhetoric and the documents involve mythical representations of the family, the free market and the community. The argument of the thesis is that the construction of meaning in the policy documents is at least partially supported by discursive representations present in the public discourse. These representations mythologize: first, the role and form of the family; second, the role of women in caring within the family; and third, the role or capabilities of the market; and fourth; the "failings" and "breakdown" of the welfare system. I also argue that these representations exist within certain key social and economic conditions relating to "late capitalism" or more, exactly, the model of flexible accumulation and market regulation prevalent in Britain during the eighties. I conclude by arguing that if language does have a role in power relations, then it can be useful for policy analysts to learn some of the models of linguistic or discursive analysis. Such an inclusion would especially be useful in understanding the difficulties that women and other "minorities" have in finding a voice in the policy arena. / Master of Arts

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 has lead to reduced welfare assistance to the needy. This thesis analyzes how families have become increasingly homeless and hungry during the welfare reform years.

The aim of this study was to explore the role and the prospects of smallholder agriculture as local economic development in Eastern Pondoland, in the former Transkei homeland. The study explored the role of agriculture in contributing to local economic development and the upliftment of the rural poor. It also explored the role that government and its agencies have played and could play in stimulating agricultural development.

Governance is defined here as the process of decision-making and implementation. Public participation which leads on from good governance is a process leading to a joint effort by stakeholders, technical specialists, the authorities and the developing agent who work together to produce better decisions than if they had acted independently. Environmental decision-making and environmental partnerships go hand in hand in the sense that good environmental decision-making can only take place if sustainable environmental partnerships are formed. This thesis focuses on the case study of the Warwick Junction Urban Renewal Programme as an example of an area based management development project in the eThekwini Municipality. Warwick Junction is a vibrant trading and transport node in the heart of the city. The area is complex in terms of its biophysical, societal, economic and political structures. The purpose of the implementation of an Urban Renewal Program in July 1996 in Warwick Junction was to uplift and upgrade this inner city area so as to provide an improved trading and residential environment. A large number of projects that fall under this renewal programme have been completed. Community involvement in these projects has been implemented via community representation on a steering committee. It is proposed that a process of good governance is necessary to integrate sustainability into all spheres of development. The aim of this research therefore is to assess the decision-making processes for a number of environmental projects in Warwick Junction. The following projects that have already been completed will be the focus of this study: The Warwick Triangle Playground, Herb Traders Market, Bovine Head Cookers facility, Mealie Cookers Facility and the Badsha Peer Project. Theories of urban governance, public participation, environmental decision-making and environmental partnerships under the broader framework of sustainability, form the conceptual framework for this study. A qualitative approach has been employed in this research. Primary data has been derived from focus groups and open-ended interviews. A set of social sustainability indicators that was derived from the theoretical framework was used to determine the most successful project. Results show that the Mealie Cookers Project displayed all the characteristics of good urban governance. It is also considered to be a sustainable project because as part of its commitment to the urban renewal programme it has balanced the social, economic and environmental needs of present and future generations in Warwick Junction. This was the most successful project out of the five projects as it ranked very high on the social sustainability indicator table followed by the Muthi Traders market, the Badsha Peer Shelter, the Playground Facility and lastly the Bovine Head Cookers facility. The Muthi Market ranked as high as the Mealie Cookers Project on the social sustainability indicator table. This is due to adequate participation with affected communities which allowed them to contribute towards the decision-making process. The strength of the Badsha Peer Shelter Project lies in the good governance and good environmental decisions being taken, win-win partnerships and overall empowerment of stakeholders. The Playground Facility brought with it many political tensions as there were two civic associations that were at loggerheads with each other surrounding the whole project. The strength of this project lies in its transformative participation as the affected communities ideas were used to decide on the location of the park. There were also many political tensions among the Bovine Head Cookers. As a result of the cookers belonging to different political parties, an issue of territory was brought to the surface. Due to serious conflict between cookers and the renewal team, this project has taken three years to implement. It is thus considered to be the most unsuccessful project out of the five projects researched. It is therefore evident that three out of the five projects have been successful, displaying appropriate environmental governance. The results indicate that the environmental decision-making mechanisms that have been employed by the urban renewal team have been transformative in the sense that they not only give a voice to the communities, but also have empowered them in the process. Adequate public participation has also contributed to the success of the programme along with win-win types of partnerships that have formed. It is therefore concluded that the urban renewal decision-making mechanisms implemented in the Warwick Junction have contributed to the sustainability of the development programme. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2004.

The aim of this study was to explore the role and the prospects of smallholder agriculture as local economic development in Eastern Pondoland, in the former Transkei homeland. The study explored the role of agriculture in contributing to local economic development and the upliftment of the rural poor. It also explored the role that government and its agencies have played and could play in stimulating agricultural development.

[Truncated abstract] As a developing country, Indonesia has been struggling with complex and contentious development issues since Independence in 1945. Despite remarkable economic achievement during the New Order period (1966-1998), poverty has persisted and the benefits of development have been unequally distributed. Social welfare — the system of social security to protect the well-being of the weaker members of society has received little attention in Indonesia, both from the state and from the scholarly community. The historical neglect of social welfare in Indonesia has begun to be addressed recently, with the Social Safety Net (SSN) initiative. SSN is a social welfare program that was launched by the government of Indonesia to mitigate the deleterious impacts of the economic crisis that hit the nation in 1997. This thesis aims to assess how the SSN accommodated the needs and aspirations of poor women, particularly those who live in rural areas. The rural poor deserve attention because poverty in rural areas is widespread and often intractable, and because poverty in rural areas tends to be more invisible than in urban areas. The urban poor are more visible, because they are “in the face” of the powerful every day, and they are more likely to be able to access agencies of power than the rural poor.