Natural resources are in abundance but have not benefited resourcebased communities. The mining industry, especially in developing countries, has fallen short of working towards sustainable community practices. Different governance initiatives adopted by governments to make the communities beneficiaries of these resources are yet to bring sustainable results. Government is seen as the sole actor on policymaking and its implementation, and the production and delivery of goods and services. Acknowledgement is not given to the roles and responsibilities of the resource-based communities to work as co-partners towards sustainable community development. Hence, this thesis argues that government policies should move away from seeing resource communities as recipients and representatives in policymaking towards co-partnership. As such, this thesis aims to explore the dynamics between resource use and achieving sustainable community development by exploring the barriers and potential for sustainable community development in diamond mining communities in Kono, Eastern Sierra Leone. To do this, the thesis uses data from a wide rage of indebt semi-structured interviews, documents and focus group discussions from four case studies representing four chiefdoms to point out a shift from the governance approach of institutionalisation to adaptive governance approach that will make the resource communities self-determined and sustainable. The thesis deals with three objectives. First, a focus is put on the relationship between resource exploitation and community governance in mining communities through an analysis of key actors and their roles at a range of scales. Second, in an attempt to find out the scope of sustainability in resource-based communities, attention is given to the ways mining communities utilise their assets and undertake practices that contribute towards sustainable community development. Third, in finding answers from issues arising in these communities and the prospect for effective mining policies, the thesis attempts to identify both the structural and community-based barriers to promoting sustainable community development in mining communities and then make policy recommendations for community development in such communities. Key Words: Resource Exploitation; Community Development, Community Governance, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Community Development

The term, sustainable development, is not new in our society. However, understanding the concept of sustainable development is not without problems. What does the concept mean in business and management? It is observed that ecological issues are neglected by mainstream management academics and practices. Conventional strategic management and organisational study do not include the "green" ecological environment issues as part of business environment. If "green" ecological environment is a part of the business environment, how do decision makers, especially top level managers, perceive green issues in the business environment and how are these perceptions related to strategic management issues? This research focuses on answering the question by studying how top executives in the Korean chemical industry perceive the uncertainty caused by ecological issues and influence the effectiveness of implementation of corporate environmental management based upon Miles and Snow's (1978) strategic typology of corporate responses. The research employs three different methods, the questionnaire, the interview and the case study for data collection. These research methods are used to identify the levels of uncertainty which result from green issues in business environment, and the link between uncertainty and strategic management issues. The findings from this research show that top managers selectively perceive green issues in the business environment. Thus, business organisations seek to create their own environment to match with their strategy rather than be controlled by their environment. The findings support the "strategic choice" view by Child (1972) and Miles and Snow (1978). Selective strategic choice based upon top managers' perceptions produces different types of corporate environmental strategy which range from the reactive to the proactive.

Devant l'accroissement des problèmes environnementaux menaçant la vie humaine, la question de l'implication de toute l'humanité dans la protection de l'environnement est aujourd'hui fortement mise en avant. Sur le plan managérial, les recherches académiques insistent, ces dernières années, sur la nécessité du changement des visions, des valeurs, des attitudes, des intentions et des comportements menant vers une organisation écologique. En positionnant notre recherche dans le champ de la psychologie du développement durable, l'objet de cette thèse est de développer un modèle expliquant les antécédents de l'intention environnementale des dirigeants des PME industrielles. Ainsi, en se basant sur la théorie du comportement planifiée et sur l'orientation entrepreneuriale, nous proposons un modèle conceptuel présentant l'influence des variables contextuelles (politiques, socioculturels et économiques) et individuelles (caractéristiques personnelles) sur la formation de l'intention environnementale des dirigeants des PME. La démarche empirique s'apparente à une démarche de triangulation méthodologique. Elle consiste en une étude qualitative exploratoire au prés de vingt dirigeants de PME, suivie d'une deuxième étude qualitative au prés de dix experts en développement durable et en RSE. Enfin, une étude quantitative au prés de 226 dirigeants est destinée à valider le modèle de recherche. Les résultats obtenus sont très intéressants et originaux. Ils montrent que les intentions environnementales des dirigeants ne résultent pas des pressions des parties prenantes. Par contre, l'intention est le résultat des perceptions de la disponibilité des ressources financières et de l'accompagnement, des résultats espérés du comportement souhaité vis-à-vis du pouvoir public et des institutions financières et aussi des caractéristiques personnelles du dirigeant (son degré d'innovation et de prise de risque). / In front of the increasing environmental problems that threaten human life, the question of the involvement of all mankind in the protection of the environment is strongly emphasized. At the managerial level and in the recent years, academic researchers have emphasized the need to change perceptions, values, attitudes, intentions and behavior leading to an environmental organization.By placing our research in the field of psychology of sustainable development, the subject of this thesis is to develop a model explaining the history of environmental leadership for industrial SMEs. Thus, based on the theory of planned behavior and entrepreneurial orientation, we propose a conceptual model showing the impact of contextual (political, cultural and economic) and individual variables (personal characteristics) on the formation of the environmental intention of SMEs managers.The empirical approach is similar to a process of methodological triangulation. It consists in a qualitative exploratory study nearly twenty SME, followed by a second qualitative study almost ten experts in sustainable development and CSR. Finally, a quantitative study in nearly 226 leaders is used to validate the research model. The results are very interesting and original. They show that environmental intentions of leaders are not the result of pressure from stakeholders. By contrast, the intention is the result of perceptions of the availability of financial resources and support, the expected results of the desired behavior concerning the public and financial institutions as well as personal characteristics of the leader (his degree of innovation and risk-taking).

The local to global crisis facing society and the need for sustainable development has provided the impetus for this research study based on education for sustainable development (ESD). Education is often viewed as a tool for sustainable development. However, at present, it arguably reinforces inequalities and unsustainable development. This research study therefore seeks to help analyse and address this paradox in education. It focuses on the research and development of a humanities curriculum for sustainable development in a secondary school in London. It follows the journey of a group of teachers who try and bring about change through the curriculum and explores and examines the opportunities, challenges and outcomes of the curriculum activity. The main theoretical framework used in this research study is Activity Theory. This study argues that Activity Theory, based on the Vygotskian concept of unity between consciousness and activity, shares many philosophical underpinnings with education for sustainable development. The study argues that Activity Theory's expansive and holistic qualities mean that it not only has the potential to act as an effective tool to analyse the curriculum activity system but also the potential to act as a tool for learning and change. The main methodology used for the research study was loosely based on development work research (DWR). DWR applies Activity Theory in a practical and participatory manner. DWR allowed for the teachers involved in this research activity to act as research participants, with myself as the main facilitator of the change process. Through the DWR sessions the teachers were able to critically discuss research findings, examine contradictions and tensions within and beyond the curriculum activity system and identify tools that may mediate and reorientate the curriculum towards sustainable development. 14 Overall, this study shows that Activity Theory and the DWR sessions did provide an effective means to research and develop a humanities CSD. They enabled the teachers and myself to deconstruct the humanities curriculum activity system and expand this system so it became more orientated towards sustainable development. It is hoped that this research study has not only led to positive change within the local empirical field but also contributed to the more general theoretical field. The wider implication of the study suggests that greater links between ESD and AT can be of mutual benefit to each field. ESD and SD can provide the rationale for AT and help AT move more closely back to its Marxist roots, while AT has the potential to strengthen the theoretical underpinnings of ESD and act as a vehicle for change.

M.Comm.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2016. / This study evaluates the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) practice in the South African energy sector against a criteria developed by the researcher to determine the extent to which the EIAs contribute towards sustainable development. A questionnaire survey was conducted to gather information on the performance of the EIA practice of Eskom, which in this study represents the energy sector of South Africa. A review of the quality of a sample of EISs was also done against the modified Lee and Colley review package. The study revealed some strengths and weaknesses of EIA, as practiced by Eskom. The strengths include effective mitigation, public participation, training and the use of resources within ecological limits. The EISs were found to be generally of satisfactory quality. The weaknesses which limit EIA in the energy sector to reach its full potential in promoting sustainable development include inadequate monitoring, inadequate consideration of cumulative impacts and alternatives and inadequate engagement with community members directly affected by development projects on a personal level. Despite these weaknesses, the study concludes that EIA in the energy sector contributes, to some extent, towards the promotion of sustainable development. Key words: Environmental Impact Assessment, EIS, sustainable development, monitoring, mitigation, public participation, alternatives, ecological limits / LG2017

This research addresses conceptual and practical issues in the field of environmental education. Environmental education is a compound and contested field in terms of both environmental and educafional ideologies. Its practice is also influenced by perspectives of context and change. Hence, the operationalisation of environmental education might be expected to vary across different ideologies and contexts. Thus, this research attempts to ore the operationalisation from theory into practice in environmental education. 'he approach of this research derives from those issues in the research context of education lental education that are currently of most concern. That is, policy-makers and I practitioners expect researchers to answer question such as "what works?" because they face the pressure of making decisions, in response, this research attempts to shed light on the nature of environmental education by using an evidence-based approach. However, most lence-based work in education is grounded in a post-positivistic perspective. This research, by contrast, employs evidence drawn from qualitative inquiry that recognises the significance depth contextual understanding. Thus the research sits within the qualitative paradigm and employs case study methodology.

This dissertation presents results from research on three development economics issues. In Chapter 1, I study the impacts of fuel subsidy reforms on the spatial dispersion of grain prices using a "natural experiment'' from Ethiopia---which removed fuel subsidies in 2008---and a highly disaggregated monthly grain price data from about 300 locations. I find that the removal of fuel subsidy substantially increased grain price dispersion and remote areas are particularly highly affected. Change in grain price dispersion resulting from high transportation cost is a key channel through which the removal of fuel subsidy could influence welfare. Farm households in remote districts have experienced welfare losses due to dampening of grain prices in their areas. In Chapter 2, I present evidence from a randomized control trial on the impact of in-service teacher training and books, both as separate educational inputs and as a package. I test whether there is complementarity between these education inputs. The results suggest that the provision of books, in addition to teacher training, raises student achievement substantially. However, teacher training and books weakly improve test scores when provided individually. The evidence suggests that it is pertinent to supplement teacher training schemes with appropriate teaching materials in resource-poor settings. In Chapter 3, I study the rural non-farm economy (RNFE) in Uganda and Ethiopia to understand the gender gap in access to and return from RNFE using panel household surveys. I find that female-headed households tend to have low access to and return from RNFE.

This dissertation consists of three essays on development and health economics. In the first chapter, I study how abortion responds to drought-induced transitory income shocks and generates unintended demographic consequences under son preference. I focus on rural Vietnam where low rainfall induces a short-run downturn through a reduction in rice yields. With widely available sex-selection technologies at a low cost under son preference, Vietnamese parents can decide the quantity and the sex of child simultaneously, and it can be directly observed from rich household-level data on abortions. Linking rich microdata on fertility with droughts defined at a fine geographic unit, I first find no effects of droughts on the number and the composition of mothers who conceive. I then find compelling evidence that affected mothers were 30% more likely to get abortions, and the effect was mainly driven by the income effect because most abortions occurred in the pre-harvest season of the next rice crop when consumption smoothing is difficult. Surprisingly, droughts are associated with disproportionately more abortions of female fetuses, which exacerbated the problem of the skewed sex ratio: the affected birth cohorts become more male-biased due to the six abortions of female fetuses to one aborted male fetus, explaining up to approximately 3% of the sex ratio imbalance in rural Vietnam from 2004-2013. While a full rebound in births in approximately two years appears more consistent with the effect on the timing of fertility, the effect on the sex ratio at birth emphasizes that even transitory income shocks can have long-run demographic consequences. Thus, this study can shed light on how the gender gap can persist during a process of economic development. This study also enhances our understanding of the mechanism through which credit-constrained mothers adjust their fertility to smooth consumption. Finally, this study can provide timely evidence to developing countries which witness demographic transitions to low infant mortality but are vulnerable to extreme weather events. In the second chapter (joint work with Anna Choi and Semee Yoon), we study how usual economic activities can harm the health of people who are living in other countries. This study investigates the adverse effect of transboundary particulate matter on fetal health. The adverse health effects at exposures to particulate matter are evident by a handful of experimental and epidemiological studies. The health effects of PM2.5, which has a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers, are particularly alarming because those hazardous particles are so diminutive that they can easily enter the bloodstream to cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Unlike the consensus in the United States on the negative impact of pollution on human health, the evidence for the relationship between pollution and health in developing countries is not straightforward to quantify due to the lack of accurate pollution and welfare measures as well as the difficulty of finding exogenous variables to purge other endogenous factors. However, this study can circumvent these endogeneity concerns by exploiting the unique meteorological settings which can trigger transboundary transport of particulate matter. The westerlies from heavily polluted eastern China carry pollutants to South Korea, thereby intermittently exposing the population to pollution above threshold levels. We find that conditional on local weather and pollution trends, one standard deviation increase in Beijing’s PM2.5 explains 1.1% of standard deviation of daily fetal mortality rates in South Korea. We hope that the results of this research can suggest the first accurate cost estimates of transboundary fine-particle to highlight the urgent need for regional cooperation. In the third chapter, the unintended consequences of economic activities on human capital in developing countries can be further emphasized by a randomized control trial study (joint with Hyuncheol Bryant Kim, Booyuel Kim and Cristian Pop-Eleches). We use a four-year long follow-up of an intervention based on a two-step randomized design within classrooms in secondary schools in Malawi to understand the impact of male circumcision on risky sexual behaviors and the role that peers play in the decision and consequences of being circumcised. Although medical male circumcision can reduce HIV infections, its preventive effects may diminish if circumcised men are more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors. Despite a number of short-term studies of risk compensation following male circumcision, there is scant rigorous evidence on how these behavioral responses change in the longer term. This study is the first evaluation of risk compensation over such a long follow-up period. Our analysis yields three main results. First, we show that the intervention substantially increased the demand for male circumcision for the students assigned to the treatment group. Second, we find evidence of positive peer effects in the decision to get circumcised among untreated students. Third, we find evidence of risk compensation using biomarkers of sexually transmitted infection for those who got circumcised due to the intervention, but not for those induced by peer effects.

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