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Employing an actor-oriented and multi-sited approach, this thesis analyses the policy interfaces between the multiple actors involved in ActionAid's Savings and Credit programme in Tamale, Northern Ghana. It takes as its starting point an interface approach to development interventions, viewing them as mediated by various actors who invariably have different interests and priorities, dissonances and discontinuities inevitably arise between projected and actual outcomes. Interface analysis problematises the notion that development interventions are implemented according to linear blueprints which culminate in projected outcomes, highlighting the agency of actors that transform, undermine and subvert policy and give rise to the host of unacknowledged and unplanned outcomes. Tracking the genesis and implementation of the programme, this study demonstrates how the assumptions which underpinned Act~onAid' s Savings and Credit programme had little resonance in the specific social relations, because they developed and evolved from international development discourses which inevitably neglected context specificity. Through the ethnography of local social relations, the uncertainties and contingencies of everyday life are highlighted, as well as the dynamic ways in which relationships and social obligations were being (re )negotiated. A central concern of this thesis is to analyse the 'interlocking' of the ActionAid's Savings and Credit programme with the different 'projects' of the female programme participants and local fieldworkers in Tamale. Savings and Credit participants integrated the Savings and Credit programme into their lives to produce outcomes that met their particular circumstances, but challenged its assumptions. The way in which fieldworkers undermined and subverted aspects of ActionAid policy, was a reflection of their different realities. Thus, through the agency of the actors involved, ActionAid policy was effectively reconstituted, albeit in unintended and unacknowledged ways. Identifying and analysing the implications of the social and intellectual distance among actors involved in the policy process, the thesis argues for the need for situated ethnographies to set the policy agenda and inform development interventions such as microcredit programmes

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The aim of this dissertation is to promote public transportation by creating an effective terminal facility accessible to all commuters and creating an identifiable landmark within the city. The facility must have adequate services to support users, such as taxi operators, commuters, tenants, traders and the general city dwellers. Construction of the terminal will be funded by government’s budget allocated to upgrading of public transport. The facility will subsequently generate an income through rent from shops, kiosks, hotels and other commercial activities, allowing the terminal financial sustainability. It must promote safety and convenience to the commuter thereby improving comfort. The terminal must offer a public transport infrastructure that will be more advantageous than private transportation, eventually encourage medium and high income population sectors to start using public transportation. Sustained flow of passengers will increase economic opportunity to traders. The methodology for the research of this dissertation will be based on the grounded theory. Factual information will be gathered from similar projects that have been built in recent years and are located around the country. These terminals have allowed South African culture to adapt itself to these types of interventions. Through a qualitative analysis, This dissertation will reveal findings, concepts and hypotheses, that will form a base for the philosophy and finally the design of an integrated commuter centre. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Architecture / unrestricted

This research project focused on the narrated lives of woman informal street traders. Ten women from the Warwick Junction market in Durban, South Africa, of varying ages, were interviewed. The women selected participated in two interviews, one narrative interview and a follow up in-depth open-ended interview based on their life narrative. Thematic analysis was conducted thereafter; through this process recurring themes relevant to all participants were identified and discussed. Five dominant themes resulted from the thematic analysis: ‘Economic challenges’; ‘Politics, police and permits’; ‘Work’; ‘Being a woman’ and ‘Support’. The findings of this research showed that economical challenges were a substantial issue for several of the women, many of who grew up in poverty and remain trapped in the poverty cycle. Disturbingly, several women highlighted how local authorities and corrupt police showed little regard towards trader’s opinions and several women nostalgically recollected trading conditions before 1994. Many of the women were the sole breadwinners for their families, supporting children and grandchildren and great emphasis was placed on the importance of their work as a means of economic survival and financing their children’s education, as schooling was understood to be leverage out of the poverty cycle. The supportive role of the women’s communities was a significant feature in their lives. Several overarching social networks became resources in times of crises. The need to utilize the community as a supportive network was largely due to the lack of formal support women informal street traders received from local authorities. This research raises concerns over the City’s perceptions of, and approach towards, informal street traders, specifically in the last decade. Furthermore, this study highlights the need to broaden understandings of the means of coping used by women in contexts of poverty, constant vulnerability, and exposure to frequent psychologically disturbing trauma.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alberta, 2000. / Description based on print version record. "A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History, Department of History and Classics." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 342-374).

This research report investigates the impact of skills development programmes on the informal traders in the City of Johannesburg (COJ). The research would like to determine if skills development provided by municipality has benefited individual traders, in terms of financial performance and increased employment. The researcher will ascertain the progress between informal traders who receive training and those who did not participate in the training programme. The report would further establish if there were any impacts at all. Was the impact directly influenced by municipal training or was because of some externalities such as trader’s innovation or trader’s organisations? To what extent has training been able to reduce the skills gap in the informal business? This research is responding to the lack of previous work on the impact of training offered to informal traders. There is a strong commitment on the part of COJ to dialogue with informal traders. Informal trading is regarded as integral part of broader economy (The Star: 2006: 21). The research was conducted through in-depth interviews with informal traders operating at Metro Mall in the City Business District (CBD). The researcher conducted interviews with service providers and municipality. The hypothesis suggests that informal traders who receive training are more productive than those who did not participate. The lack of skills in the informal business prompted the COJ to deliver skills training in an attempt to improve the condition of the informal traders. (Simon McGrath 1994), referred to this scenario as “planning for what was traditionally unplanned”. The argument is that training does not make successful informal traders. The report will argue that while training is important to informal traders who arrive in Johannesburg lacking skills, training should be monitored and be accompanied by incentives for example to help those who may not have a start-up capital. The selection criteria will have to be reviewed such that most informal traders are given equal opportunity to acquire skills necessary for the development of their business. As long as these factors, remain un-addressed there are limited potential growth in the informal business. Training should be an integral process linked to various structures such that survivalist activities are replaced by sustainable entrepreneurial business. The duty of the planners as the practitioners in the built environment is to ensure that informal trading coexist with formal business without one affecting negatively on the other. They also have a duty of influencing municipal decision-makers in ensuring that informal traders training programmes reinforce the enabling environment that would allow them to benefit and improve their business undertakings. This may be accomplished by restricting competition from illegal informal traders operating outside the mall, providing incentives to informal traders after the training and organise special events that would attract more customers at the mall. This is because “planning is a profession concerned with the management and development of human beings and their settlements within urban and rural settings. It is about the organisation of human activity in a way that will help to realise their hopes and dreams for future” (www.wits.ac.za/depts/wcs/archschool.html).

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M.A. / „Street trading is an activity which involves the selling of goods or the supply of services for a reward in a public road‟ (City of Johannesburg, 2009b: 5-7). This minor dissertation is an examination of the conditions and aspirations of street traders in Johannesburg‟s Central Business District (CBD), specifically Kerk Street. The underlying rationale is the fact that, while there is a small, but growing body of literature on street traders in South Africa, there is little on street trading in the Johannesburg CBD. Moreover, to the best of the researcher‟s knowledge, virtually none of this deals with the views and aspirations of the street traders themselves. This dissertation is based on the following research question: How did the conditions and aspirations of street traders in Kerk Street change between 2005 and 2009? Fieldwork was conducted in two phases: 2005/6 and 2009. The separation in periods of study, and the opportunity it provided for comparison, was unintended and largely as a consequence of work pressures. But it proved unexpectedly beneficial. The researcher‟s original concern was to discover how traders viewed their existence and detail of the developments that they would like to see. Conditions were clearly poor and tales of dissatisfaction were predominant in informal conversations and formal interviews. When the researcher returned to the field in 2009, the assumption was that conditions would be the same, allowing me simply to update my earlier assessment. However, this was not the case. Whilst much was familiar, some conditions had improved and the traders were relatively more positive about their situation and more optimistic about the future. It is clear that the Johannesburg City Council has intervened to introduce improved conditions, and this contributed to improved morale amongst traders. It is recommended that there be continued engagement between street traders, the City of Johannesburg, and official bodies, namely the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD), Central Johannesburg Partnership and Metro Trading Council. This will serve as inspiration for more traders to learn how to grow their businesses, to ensure that infrastructure around trading is further improved, and to increase adherence to and acceptance of relevant by-laws concerning the traders.