Large scale rural out-migration has gained momentum over the past four decades in Iran, contributing to urbanization at unprecedented rates. In the wake of the Islamic Revolution, it was recognized that in order to reduce reliance on oil revenues and foster self-sufficiency and social equity, it was essential to ensure the viability of agriculture and rural settlements. As a part of this new strategy, a rural infrastructure provision policy (RIPP) was undertaken in order to bring about rural prosperity and to curb out-migration. Yet, the plight of villagers and out-migration persist. This dissertation focuses on the village end of the problem, and on permanent outmigration in post-revolutionary Iran. It investigates the causes of rural out-migration and their impacts on the remaining rural households. Further, it examines the potential of RIPP to reduce out-migration and enhance village viability. In terms of methodology, a cross-analysis was conducted at the levels of individual, household, and community. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed. Data were collected from primary and secondary sources. While the latter served analysis needs at the macro-level, the former, which included case studies in five villages in Hamadan Province, served those at the micro- and meso-levels. The macro-level analysis reveals population pressure on agricultural resources and rural-urban disparities as the overriding causes of rural out-migration in Iran. Correspondingly, the micro- and meso-level analyses: (a) highlight the critical importance of the middle strata (MS) for the future viability of rural Iran; (b) identify household insecurity, resulting from precarious and uncertain rural livelihoods as the root cause of out-migration for MS; and (c) suggest that the ongoing migration of youth from MS must be contained to ensure the next generation of farmers. Finally, five roles are identified for RIPP to target the overriding causes as well as those pertaining specifically to MS. While there is need for policy changes in the macro-economic sphere in Iran, RIPP has the potential to reduce rural out-migration. More fundamentally, it suggests that it is not merely the presence of physical infrastructure and its direct role, but rather an effectively functioning social infrastructure and its intermediary roles that are vital to curbing excessive out-migration and ensuring village viability.

This study examines the problems outsiders have in understanding local attitudes towards development in the southern Labrador community of Cartwright. It looks at local history and the nature of community complexity. The way in which these complexities provide a context for local discourse and shifting frames of reference are reasons why outsiders rarely understand the ideological coherence underlying what local people say. / An approach is proposed for a more "humanistic" anthropology of development that takes into account local attitudes towards development. A "multi-layered" approach, it entails a more concerned interest in listening to what local people themselves have to say about their own situation and incorporates aspects of history and community life as necessary analytical perspectives. Based upon this greater understanding of local experience, this approach puts order and coherence into what are often disparate and seemingly inconsistent statements.

Thesis (M.Com. (Information Systems)) - Rhodes University, 2007.

The object of the thesis is to describe and evaluate the current state of the region, which will be determined by drawings from the Rural Development Programme. A new solution will be proposed, which should lead to more efficient development of the region. The thesis includes a literary review, along with an outline of the characteristics of the region. A SWOT analysis was carried out based on these findings. The most important part of the thesis is the analysis of obtaining financial resources from the Rural Development Programme (axis number III and IV).

Poverty and inequality in South Africa are a result of the impact of apartheid policy, which inter alia stripped people of their assets, especially land, distorted economic markets and social institutions through racial discrimination, and resulted in violence and destabilization. This has shaped the nature of poverty in South Africa. In view of the above, the South African government has introduced a programme known as the Comprehensive Rural Development Strategy in order to redress the imbalances of the former apartheid regime. In this strategy it is envisaged that vibrant, equitable and sustainable rural communities and food security for all will be achieved. In this study, I investigated the implementation of rural development programmes in the Mbhashe local municipality of the Eastern Cape Province in order to determine appropriate intervention strategies. This study focused on Ward18 of Mbhashe local municipality on a village known as Nkwalini Bafazi. This is a village that has been earmarked by the government to be a pilot site for the Rural Development Programme. This project is at the initial stage of social facilitation. In other words this research project is designed to investigate the process of Rural Development and how it can be implemented in the Mbhashe Local municipality in order to alleviate poverty and underdevelopment. For the purpose of the study, a mixed research approach was chosen. This means that the study used both the qualitative and quantitative approaches for in-depth understanding and verification. Questionnaires and structured interview questions were used to collect the data. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was also used for the purpose of observing and involving the community in the exercise. Data was collected from residents by conducting surveys, making use of questionnaires. Structured interviews were conducted with government officials (Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform) in order to understand the situation better.

Traditional methods of providing public services to disadvantaged rural communities in South Africa have, over the years, proven to be inefficient and in most such communities, simply non-existent. Although the South African government has taken initiatives to make these public services cheaply and conveniently available online at national level, access at local municipal level is still lacking. The goal of this study is to develop a cost-effective e-government system that will contribute to improved provision of public services to the Dwesa area, a rural community in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, by the government. A prototype construction approach was used, to develop a cost-effective four-modular web application. Interviews were conducted in the field, resulting in four e-government system modules, based on open-source software, developed and integrated to form a single, dynamic web component that will act as a one-stop shop for Dwesa community members. These are the Dwesa Online Application Centre (DOAC) to apply for important government documents and grants, the Dwesa Online Reporting Centre (DORC) to report various grievances to the responsible agencies, the Dwesa Forum Corner (DFC), a digital community, and the management back-end module. The Dwesa e-government portal was developed using Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP (LAMP) technology, a Zoop framework to model the individual components and a JQUERY JavaScript library to increase the responsiveness of the user interfaces. The most significant contributions of this thesis have been the development of a cost-effective, integrated e-government functionality, applicable to disadvantaged communities, and the greater understanding this has given of the tools and methodologies that can be used to deliver public services efficiently to citizens. The final evaluation of this e-government system gives significant evidence that the e-government portal provides a solid foundation that will allow e-government implementation to raise the provision of public services to a higher level.

The chief purpose of this study was to determine the role of the rural communities in the food security initiatives of the government in alleviating food shortages in the Marange communal area of Mutare district in Zimbabwe. The focus was on local community empowerment; ownership of food security initiatives by the communities; communities‟ independent analysis of needs and priorities; their involvement in designing food security programmes and the role of the government in linking with the communities. The data was gathered using a case study research design with the qualitative method being the main research approach. The primary data was obtained from focus group discussions held in three wards of Marange area and some in-depth interviews conducted with selected key informants. The findings indicate that the government designs food security strategies without considering the input of communities. The communities are introduced and expected to adopt these pre-conceived food security plans at the implementation stage. The results also show that poor community participation in the food security initiatives of the government, specifically during the initial stages, is a significant contributing factor to the continual shortages of food in the communal lands of Marange. It is the view of this study that unless community input in decision making at the planning and designing phases is given preference in the food security interventions of the government in rural Zimbabwe, food security will seldom be achieved. While the government has a significant role to play in food security measures, such interventions can make an important contribution if the use and development of community participation is made central to food shortage alleviation strategies. The principal conclusion of this study is that if food security is an intended ultimate goal in rural Zimbabwe, the communities must participate fully in the conceptualisation, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the government-initiated food security programmes.

Large scale rural out-migration has gained momentum over the past four decades in Iran, contributing to urbanization at unprecedented rates. In the wake of the Islamic Revolution, it was recognized that in order to reduce reliance on oil revenues and foster self-sufficiency and social equity, it was essential to ensure the viability of agriculture and rural settlements. As a part of this new strategy, a rural infrastructure provision policy (RIPP) was undertaken in order to bring about rural prosperity and to curb out-migration. Yet, the plight of villagers and out-migration persist. This dissertation focuses on the village end of the problem, and on permanent outmigration in post-revolutionary Iran. It investigates the causes of rural out-migration and their impacts on the remaining rural households. Further, it examines the potential of RIPP to reduce out-migration and enhance village viability. In terms of methodology, a cross-analysis was conducted at the levels of individual, household, and community. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed. Data were collected from primary and secondary sources. While the latter served analysis needs at the macro-level, the former, which included case studies in five villages in Hamadan Province, served those at the micro- and meso-levels. The macro-level analysis reveals population pressure on agricultural resources and rural-urban disparities as the overriding causes of rural out-migration in Iran. Correspondingly, the micro- and meso-level analyses: (a) highlight the critical importance of the middle strata (MS) for the future viability of rural Iran; (b) identify household insecurity, resulting from precarious and uncertain rural livelihoods as the root cause of out-migration for MS; and (c) suggest that the ongoing migration of youth from MS must be contained to ensure the next generation of farmers. Finally, five roles are identified for RIPP to target the overriding causes as well as those pertaining specifically to MS. While there is need for policy changes in the macro-economic sphere in Iran, RIPP has the potential to reduce rural out-migration. More fundamentally, it suggests that it is not merely the presence of physical infrastructure and its direct role, but rather an effectively functioning social infrastructure and its intermediary roles that are vital to curbing excessive out-migration and ensuring village viability. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2017. / While there are a fair number of studies on land reform in South Africa, there are knowledge gaps on the impact of some specific forms of land redistribution on livelihoods of beneficiaries. The purpose of this study therefore was to assess the impact of the land redistribution in the case of selected farms in the Vhembe District, Limpopo Province, South Africa. A qualitative research method was used and twelve households were interviewed. A number of indicators were used to assess impact. These included household income, job creation, empowerment and sustainability. The selection of indicators was informed by a comprehensive literature review on land redistribution, not only in South Africa but in other parts of the world as well. The findings from the study revealed that the land redistribution beneficiaries are faced with challenges such as poor infrastructure on redistributed farms, limited or lack of access to affordable inputs and lack of financial support immediately after redistribution. These and other challenges makes life for the intended beneficiaries very difficult which in the end makes land redistribution ineffective. A major factor which explains the failure of these farms appeared to be the inadequate planning of post-settlement support. Even though land was effectively transferred to the beneficiaries, the little support they have received in terms of financial, infrastructural and marketing support, for example, has limited their capacity to utilise the land productively and cost effectively. The study recommends that the government and other agencies should consider providing comprehensive support to these communities until they are able to run on their own. Substantial research should be carried out to rethink strategies on land redistribution, particularly on how to handle the issue of title deeds which currently appears problematic in the context of the farms that were studied. Finally, the training programmes for land redistribution beneficiaries should also include training current legislation on land redistribution issues in order to adequately prepare the new land owners for any unexpected challenges as has occurred in the case of the farms that were studied.

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