Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / Across the globe, land reform has become a key strategy for improving people’s livelihoods aimed at reducing poverty and increasing food security for resilient livelihoods. In sub-Saharan Africa, redistributive land reform has been implemented since the post-colonial period as a developmental approach. Since independence, Zimbabwe implemented two forms of land reform programmes which are the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme (LRRP) (1980-1997) and the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) (2000). The LRRP was based on the willing buyer willing seller approach with the state buying land for redistribution, while the FTLRP emerged from the chaotic and sporadic invasion of white owned commercial farms led by liberation war veterans and other politically affiliated people. In this thesis, I will focus on the LRRP which provided small farming land to many beneficiaries to ensure sustainable livelihoods. Land is an important livelihood source for the people of Zimbabwe, but on its own it cannot sustain the living standards of resettled farmers. Contemporary literature shows the catastrophic failure of land reform in Zimbabwe. Despite all the problems, land still remains the spring board of livelihoods in Zimbabwe. There is, however, less empirical research undertaken to assess how the LRRP has benefited and enhanced livelihoods of resettled farmers. This research will assess how the LRRP improved the livelihoods of Nyahukwe resettled farmers in Rusape, Zimbabwe. The study’s investigation will focus and add literature on how LRRP has been successful in empowering resettled farmers to enhance their livelihoods, to be more food secure as well as to improve their well-being. Using qualitative research methods, the research aimed to assess the livelihoods of farmers since they resettled. In particular, assessing the assets and capital available and how the farmers have been able to cope, strategies implemented to diversify their livelihoods and the outcomes achieved. The Sustainable livelihoods approach (SLA) was used as a theoretical framework to assess the new livelihoods patterns established after resettlement. Purposive non-random sampling was employed to interview 3 Nyahukwe government officials such as the extension managers, Environmental health officer and Veterinary officer. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 30 participants from Village F. A focus group 10 - 15 purposefully selected farmers was conducted. Data analysis was performed on the narrative and information from interviews, focus groups and questionnaires conducted during data collection. The findings show that land reform has enhanced the livelihoods of farmers since they were resettled as they reckon food selfsufficiency and better well-being. The research findings also illustrate that land remain the livelihood base of Nyahukwe farmers although they have adopted coping strategies to expand income generation. Coping strategies are farm and off farm activities that have diversified the farmers’ livelihoods through the interaction of assets. Land as a natural asset has been used with human, physical, financial and social capital to sustain the farmers. The findings revealed positive livelihood outcomes by assessing the assets before and after resettlement and outcomes achieved after adopting strategies as all farmers have increased income, self-sufficiency and improved well-being.

In 1996, Guatemala achieved peace after 36 years of civil war which took root in the political and social oppression of the country’s vast indigenous population. To counter the country’s widespread poverty, inequality and ongoing political and social frustrations the Guatemalan government adopted a liberal peace building agenda by ‘globalizing’ its economy and by decentralizing the political and economic process. Through this process, Guatemala has achieved a democracy which is accepted by western standards as well as the classification of a middle income country. However, the vast, and predominately rural, indigenous population has been left behind in this progress; it is estimated that 7 out 10 indigenous Guatemalans today are facing more or less severe livelihood conditions below the poverty line, why Guatemala remains one of the most unequal countries in the world. The government now hopes to overcome the shortcomings in the rural sector by stimulating local agricultural projects and ideas which are anchored in the many and various territorially strengths and challenges throughout Guatemala’s countryside; the intention is, in other words, to encourage a stronger local control over the development process.This study explores the conditions for, and the relevance of, local ownership of development in terms of livelihood improvements in Yalambojoch, one indigenous agriculture community in one of the poorest and most war torn regions in Guatemala. An abductive field work with a holistic livelihood-approach has been necessary in order to localize more or less obvious factors that are trapping the village in poverty, and to understand to what degree poverty is determined by the village’s level of autonomy, or ownership, over its development process. The results shows that the village's low livelihood level is determined by agricultural insufficiency, poor access to crucial services and political and socio economic isolation. The village's empowerment is restricted to protection of territory, which reproduces a context in which a more participant autonomy in a wider societal setting is thwarted, where external development projects are often reluctantly rejected due to local mistrust, frustration and discontentment with governmental as well as private agencies and where the livelihood situation consequently remains essentially static.

Mozambique remains one of the poorest countries in the world and has one of the least functional basic education systems. Despite a rapid expansion in access to basic education, the vast majority of pupils fail to complete a full seven year cycle of primary school. This research aims to better understand the characteristics, causes and consequences of children dropping out of primary school among low income families in rural areas. The research is based upon a qualitative fieldwork study in Ribáué, a rural district in the northern province of Nampula. Theoretically orientated by the Capabilities Approach, giving a holistic conception of education and development, this research will analyse the findings using the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (SRL) framework. Such a model enables the analysis to incorporate a diverse range of household, societal and exogenous aspects to give a rich interpretation of the situation. Given education’s prominence in many development discourses, particularly in relation to the Millennium Development Goals and the forthcoming post-2015 agenda, this research aims to contribute a deeper understanding of the role of education in such situations, what factors influence the dropout phenomenon, and the consequences of children failing to finish primary school. The results indicate that dropouts are characterised by situations of extreme income poverty interacting with exogenous factors which create vulnerable livelihoods and where the quality of education is considered low. The causes of dropouts generally relate to families’ lack of resilience to cope with socio-economic shocks and the paucity of post-school opportunities. The consequences are severe for the individuals, their families and Mozambique, resulting in limited capacity to create sustainable livelihoods. There is also a likely transgenerational effect, with future generations afflicted by persistent vulnerability due to a lack of capabilities and opportunities from not completing school.

Cette étude est fondée sur le fait que la croissance urbaine a accru les niveaux d'interaction entre le rural et l'urbain dans les pays en voie de développement. Ces interactions jouent un rôle significatif dans l'amélioration des moyens d'existence, en particulier pour les banlieusards. L'objectif général de cette étude est d'analyser cet état de fait. L'étude contribue à la compréhension des moyens d'exitence à travaers les frontières spatiales et sectorielles. L'étude examine les formes d'activités, cherchant à définir l'influence des facteurs politiques et des stratégies des ménages. L'étude a été menée dans la région de Bugisu à l'est de l'Ouganda et couvre cinq districts du "grand" Mbale : Mbale, Manafa, Budduda et Sironko. L'étude a mobilisé des méthodes de collecte d'information et d'analyse à la fois qualitative et quantitative. Parmi les principales conclusions, on constate que le Bugisu rural a des liens plus importants avec les centres urbains. La ville de Mbale, une des plus vieilles villes de la région, sert de hub au Bugisu concentrant 69% des activités de navette, qui dans la région, sont fortement influencées par la pression sur la terre, les conditions du marché, les relations de voisinage, la capacité des ménages et les différents moyens accessibles aux banlieusards, ainsi que l'augmentation de la pauvreté dans les zones rurales. Une politique délibérée devrait être mise en place pour soutenir les conditions d'existence des populations et réduire le coût du business. / This study is premised on the understanding that rising trends of urbanisation have led to increasing levels of interactionsbetween rural and urban settings and vice versa across the developing world. It is also envisioned that, rural-urban interactions play a significant role in supporting livelihoods especially of commuters. The overall objective of the study was to analyse the role of rural-urban interactions in supporting livelihoods of the commuters in Bugisu region. The study contributes to the understanding of livelihoods across spatial and sectoral boundaries looking at the synergistic coexistencefound between rural and urban and urban and rural settings. The study examined patterns of interaction and commuting activities in Bugisu region, looking at the influence of policy factors on commuting activities and commuter livelihoods strategies. The key concern was to establish a “fit” between rural-urban interaction and their potential for sustainable livelihoods. This study was conducted in Bugisu region, eastern Uganda covering the five districts of the then greater Mbale namely; Mbale, Manafa, Budduda and Sironko. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis.In examining patterns of interaction and commuting activities in Bugisu, the studynotes that rural Bugisu relates more closely with its urban centres. Mbale town, one of the oldest towns in the region serves as the hub of Bugisu region with, 69% of commuting activities in the area centred in it.

Short Food Supply Chains (SFSC) can be understood as ‘alternatives’ to conventional, complex food chains that tend to dominate contemporary agri-food systems. They redefine producer-consumer relations through socially and physically ‘closer’, more transparent supply chains founded upon quality cues associated with provenance, whereby products become embedded with information about the spaces of production. It has been argued that SFSC can have significant socio-economic benefits for rural development, providing livelihoods for small-scale, independent food producers who would otherwise be marginalised from food markets. SFSC have received plenty of attention amongst ‘alternative’ agri-food scholars in recent years. However, empirical research has typically addressed SFSC in relation to a specific set of values, politics and traditions, examining a locale or region in relation to cultural structures ingrained in a particular context. This has resulted in vast amounts of agri-food literature with specific reference to the contexts of Europe, North America and other global North regions. Attention to countries from the global South has increased recently, but there are limited cross-cultural, comparative analyses between regions from the global North and South. This is surprising given that small-scale food producers the world over face similar obstacles associated with access to markets, adaptation to climate change, contradictory policies and development programmes and increased competition from imports. This research investigates how SFSC operate in context, drawing on evidence from case studies in rural regions of The Gambia, West Africa and East England; illustrative cases of the global North and South. This thesis adopts an inductive methodology, incorporating grounded theory and a range of qualitative methods and data analysis techniques. The regional food group Tastes of Anglia and social enterprise named ‘Gambia is Good’ served as gatekeepers and provided access to small-scale food producers in each case. The Sustainable (Rural) Livelihoods Framework as originally conceived by the Department for International Development (DFID) was used as a conceptual toolkit to guide data collection and analyses. This involved an amalgamation of the largely disparate ‘alternative’ agri-food literature with that of sustainable livelihoods, revealing the important role that horizontal embeddedness and vertical embeddedness have in the context of SFSC. This research has found that in The Gambia, limited access to capital assets, infrastructural constraints and a lack of social embeddedness between rural producers and customers in the high value tourist industry undermines SFSC as viable livelihood strategies. This is in contrast to the UK, where food producers have access to a wider set of resources and can also draw on established ‘quality’ cues associated with Product-Process-Place linkages to market their products. Results suggest this is due to the historical (agri)cultural trajectories of East Anglia and spatial-temporal synergies that enable products embedded with information to be differentiated in competitive marketplaces. The processes enabling this differentiation can be considered as a form of cultural capital. This cannot be as readily drawn upon in The Gambia given its different agricultural and political-economic histories, and comparatively weaker forms of vertical embeddedness. This raises questions about the relevance and transferability of SFSC models to contexts such as The Gambia and other ‘similar’ regions in sub-Saharan Africa and the global South. The broader implications of these findings are discussed and five future research agendas that explore the key processes of horizontal and vertical embeddedness in both the global North and South are presented.

Magister Artium - MA / According to Professor Muhammed Yunus, Nobel Prize winner in 2006 and the founder of the internationally acclaimed Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, microfinance is a viable solution to poverty alleviation among the poorest people residing in rural areas. Microfinance programs have led to poverty alleviation and empowerment of especially rural based women of developing societies, as they enable the poor to manage their finances and cope with unpredictable shocks and emergencies (Yunus, 2007). This research evaluated the developmental impact of microfinance on poverty alleviation and women empowerment. It assessed the impact of the existing microfinance programmes among the members of the three microfinance Savings and Credit Associations (SCAs) in the rural areas of the Caprivi region of Namibia. This study explored whether microfinance programs have helped their members to minimize financial vulnerability through diversification of income sources and accumulation of assets. The research employed both qualitative and quantitative research designs. Data were collected through different qualitative and quantitative techniques (in-depth individual interviews, faceto- face interviews, questionnaire and questionnaire schedule). Summary findings indicate that the SCAs has positively contributed to the socio-economic improvement in the living standards (contribution to livelihood – increased income, enhanced health, and food status), improved education/healthcare, women empowerment through micro enterprise training and skill development. However, SCAs are still struggling with challenges, such as lack of income, high default rates and unprofitable micro enterprises. This research makes several recommendations, including: MFIs should concentrate on women’s economic empowerment as their main aim, incentives should be provided to the MFIs to encourage savings and investment amongst the poor, and if microfinance is to be used as a promotional tool for credit and saving services for the poor, then the socio-economic consequences of micro-credit lending have to be re-investigated, especially when they negatively impact on poverty reduction.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The aim of this thesis is to examine the association between information and communication technologies (ICTs) and poverty reduction in South Africa. ICTs have been argued to be a means to improve household livelihoods and thereby to provide people with the capability of changing their existing poverty trajectories. The study conceptually investigates ICTs as a contributor to human development through the theoretical lens the sustainable livelihoods framework (SLF). Since ICTs broaden the asset base of the poor, the study first theorises household access to ICT as a new form of capital, termed as the ‘digital basket’. This new wealth indicator augments the current well-developed list of capitals adopted within the SLF approach. This digital basket concept and the ICT systems that provide its components are described, establishing the theoretical contributions of this thesis.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Growth rates of three commercial eucheumoids: brown Eucheuma denticulatum and green and brown Kappaphycus alvarezii were studied at three sites (Gazi Bay, Kibuyuni and Mkwiro) in southern Kenya. The study was conducted using the fixed off-bottom rope technique over a 15 month period from August 2001 to October 2002, in 4 plots (5 m x 1.5 m) set up at each site. The brown E. denticulatum had the highest mean growth rate over the entire period of 4.7% day-I compared to the green and brown K. alvarezii which were 4.3% day l and 4.2% dayl, respectively. Mean relative growth rates were highest at Gazi (5.6% dayl), and lowest in Kibuyuni (3.2% day-I) with intermediate values of 4.8% dail at Mkwiro. Increased water motion was observed to increase thallus nitrogen and hence the growth of eucheumoids. The 'ice-ice' syndrome affected both brown E. denticulatum and brown K. alvarezii but not green K. alvarezii. Mean growth was higher during the southeast monsoon (4.7% day+) than during the northeast monsoon (4.0% dayl).The carrageenan characteristics of the three morphotypes were measured for 12 months. The highest carrageenan yield was obtained for green K. alvarezii (59.1% dry wt), whereas the average carrageenan yield for brown K. alvarezii was 56.5% dry wt and 56.6% dry wt for brown E. denticulatum. The plants at Gazi (58.0% dry wt) had a slightly, though significantly, higher carrageenan yield than both those at Kibuyuni (57.1 % dry wt) and Mkwiro (57.3% dry wt). However, from a commercial point of view the differences in carrageenan yields were not meaningful. Highest gel strengths were obtained in carrageenans from green K. alvarezii (1042.1 g cm") and brown K. alvarezii (1053.7 g ern"), whereas low values of 100.8 g ern" were obtained for brown E. denticulatum. The brown E. denticulatum had carrageenan with higher viscosity (81.7 mPa.s) and sulphate content (29.1% dry wt) than both green and brown K. alvarezii. The gel viscosities of all the morphotypes were higher during the southeast monsoon (67.3 mPa.s) than during the northeast monsoon (46.3 mPa.s) and were positively correlated with gel strengths.A survey was conducted among households in the three villages, from April to September 2001 to assess their socio-economic characteristics. There were 182 household heads interviewed; about 20% were women. Fishing was the main source of livelihood for about 48% of the household members. In 2001, the average monthly income for the surveyed households was Kshs. 9904 (1 US$=75 Kshs.), with about 67% having less than Kshs. 10 000. The average prevalence of poverty among the households surveyed was 45.1% with 38.8%,54.8% and 46.7% of households in Gazi, Kibuyuni and Mkwiro villages, respectively, living below the poverty line of Kshs. 1239 per month per adult person. An economic feasibility study for growing brown E. denticulatum and brown K. alvarezii in pilot farms of 0.1 ha was conducted at Gazi and Kibuyuni. A higher yield of 793 kg dry wt was obtained for plants grown at Gazi than those at Kibuyuni (793 kg dry wt). The net income derived from E. denticulatum was estimated at Kshs. 7549 annually in a 0.1 ha seaweed farm. A higher annual income of Kshs. 49 126 was generated from K. alvarezii. The rate of return on investment in farming E. denticulatum ranged from 15 to 63%, while 122 to 380% for K. alvarezii. The pay back period was shorter for the latter (0.3 to 0.7 years) than the former (1.2 to 2.7 years).A cross-sectoral policy analysis regarding legislation and policy relevant to the introduction and development of eucheumoid cultivation in Kenya, with particular reference to Kenyan legislation was conducted. The analysis showed that there is no system of promoting or regulating mariculture, though there are fragmented regulations that are scattered among the policies, Acts and regulations of various institutions. Such regulations were not designed specifically for mariculture and as a result they do not fully address the needs of mariculture. The establishment of a national mariculture development programme in Kenya is proposed as a means to develop and manage the farming of marine resources, including seaweeds.

Magister Economicae - MEcon / When looking at South African land policy, one would agree there is a clear commitment to ensuring land ownership for the previously disadvantaged. South Africa’s 1996 Constitution is widely regarded as among the most progressive in the world in terms of its emphasis on human, social and economic rights. Despite this, many South Africans desiring land ownership and access through land redistribution instruments, generally struggle to do so. This study is a mixed-method study, through its survey and interviews, calls into question the criteria used for land redistribution in South Africa. Furthermore, it makes a case why landlessness should be prioritised in the allocation criteria. Because of its interest in livelihoods and capital asset framework of the poor, the study’s basic points have caused us to explain the meaning of landlessness using the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. However, the study believes the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework is not adequate to conceptualise landlessness; therefore, it comes up with a new conceptual framework to landlessness that is rooted in the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework The study uses Fezile Dabi District Municipality as a case study and, as a result, this process has now created an opportunity for the study to identify the broad typologies of landlessness which exist within the municipality. The thesis believes that considered holistically, the social and economic (tangible and intangible) assets of the rural poor will ensure that the land redistribution leg of South African land reform will achieve its main objective which is poverty alleviation.

This research is situated in the community of Vilcabamba in the province of Loja, Ecuador. Vilcabamba is a small village in the southern Andes of Ecuador, approximately 28 miles (45km) from Loja city. Many people were drawn to the area because of stories they heard about people there living to be over 100 years old. Books and articles have been written in attempts to establish the veracity of these claims and to explore why the people of Vilcabamba are living so long. This dissertation is a qualitative case study that explores how the recent surge of tourism and immigration in Vilcabamba is impacting the people and sustainable way of life of the village and its surrounding communities. Through gender analysis the study also explores if tourism and immigration are affecting men and women differently and the way that women respond to this impact. The literature review provides different lenses to understand what types of conflicts and opportunities are present in the area and how these conflicts affect the livelihood strategies of the locals. The methodological approach of this research is case study analysis, which explored what is happening to the people of the Vilcabamba community and their land. To explore this phenomenon, I used certain methods developed by ethnographers, such as field observation. The study is based on the experiences of four women living in poverty from the local community of Vilcabamba. I wanted to understand the vulnerabilities that exist for them. I explored the livelihood strategies of women in their everyday lives. The use of the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework assisted me in understanding the concepts of assets and vulnerabilities. This research is expected to contribute to the field of conflict analysis and resolution by elucidating the relationship between gender and tourism in Vilcabamba. It will bring awareness to the issues women experience that keep them rooted in poverty. An exploration of how other communities have met and overcome the challenges of tourism and colonization is presented and the final outcome suggests possible resolutions for social change.