Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The idea that the development of people's capabilities lies at the heart of all community and social development has gained support internationally over the past decades. This reflects a significant shift in community and society development thinking, addressing the broad spectrum of social upliftment, human rights and poverty alleviation needs that gained ground during the different historic economic phases of the past two centuries. Historically development thinking progressed from a centralised, structured and systemic approach as, for example, espoused by Adam Smith and Karl Marx, to Maynard Keynes’s more people-centred approach, and more specifically the Capability Approach advanced by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. In the world of liberal democratic capitalism, the mainstream view of development holds that civil society is a key role player in both deepening democracy and enhancing forms of development through various programmes and practices. In turn, the professionalised Non-Governmental Organisations sector, as opposed to more localised community-based organisations or social movements, tends to receive most donor funding to deliver high impact interventions. In sum, the development of society’s capabilities relies significantly on NGOs to deliver capability enhancing services to the needy in society. A key consideration in development debates has been how to efficiently operationalise the development of capability enhancing activities based in the context of the Capability Approach, the focus of my study. This study recognises that NGOs are major delivery agents of development work, both in South Africa and internationally. Their operations focus on delivering quality impact on their beneficiary communities, and on raising funds to sustain their operations. The current methods to assess the impact of NGO operations, both by NGOs and their donors, primarily address past performance of the organisation in delivering external programmes as measured against the objectives stated in NGO concept and roll-out proposal documents. These assessments are customised for every NGO, making it impossible to standardise assessments for comparative and rating purposes and focus on external delivery. When problems are uncovered, this approach results in proposing corrective recommendations during or after completion of a funding round. This study argues that a gap exists in techniques to assess NGO internal performance to improve external delivery before and during NGO operations. Furthermore, it will contribute to assessing the merits of NGOs' internal capacity to deliver on the promises made in funding proposals - before and during NGO operations. In practice the assessment of an NGO for funding purposes currently consists of consideration of a project proposal in the form of a concept and roll-out document of what the organisation intends to achieve, accompanied by historic record data. The assessment of project roll-out focuses on the outputs claimed in the proposal document without paying too much attention to the NGOs internal organisational culture and capacity which is the key to successful external service delivery. In addressing this two part gap of incomplete assessment techniques and overlooked key internal indicators, the study demonstrates, via a series of ten case-studies, that a direct causal relationship exists between the internal organisational capabilities of an NGO, including the motivation, skills and culture of its staff, and its delivery on its external programmes. In essence, an organisation’s internal capabilities will impact directly on the organisation’s ability to deliver externally on its programmes. In spite of this, no standardised organisational capability assessment is used by NGOs or grantmakers, and to date no set of instruments exists to measure the internal capabilities of NGOs. The study sets out to address this gap by offering a methodology for the systemic assessment of internal NGO capabilities, and includes its operationalisation in a toolkit of instruments to measure these capabilities. The instruments presented enable the quantifying of qualitative staff motivational data to develop comparable baseline results between NGOs assessed, thereby presenting qualitative data in a quantitative form that enables a comparison between NGOs’ performances. This capacity addresses a significant shortcoming in the assessment of NGO performance based on purely qualitative assessment that is the current norm, not enabling a measurement against a standardised baseline for NGO performance. In contrast the validity and reliability of the proposed instruments are demonstrated through its application to ten real-world case studies drawn from the SEEDS Consortium. The system proposed in this study is based on Nel and Beudeker's commercial change management and organisational performance improvement model. Nel developed his system over a period of some twenty years whilst working for the then Arthur Andersen Consulting and subsequently as a private change management consultant focusing on the development of high performance organisations, and it has been administered in more than 3000 companies. This model uses key performance indicators, using quantitative methods to develop a standardised internal capability profile for a business based on qualitative data. This study expands on and makes innovative changes in developing new NGO specific metrics to substantially refine Nel's model and thus provides an instrument for measuring the capability profile of NGOs. The modifications were necessitated as Nel's model was designed for commercial change management applications presupposing that all governance considerations are in place and that the business is a running medium or large concern. Nel's proven commercial change management system does not make provision for NGO specific criteria that are critical indicators for both internal NGO performance assessment and for grant-maker capability assessments. The areas added to the instrument relate to internal NGO specific considerations such as internal governance, management, monitoring and evaluation processes that are standard and legislated compliance issues in commercial concerns. This goes beyond the requirements for a substantial commercial concern to include key internal organisation indicators that reflect the opinion of the staff, the people who deliver on the NGO's objectives. As staff are the people who directly impact on the NGO's output, the system does not only rely on the opinion of the CEO of the NGO or the fundraising staff, i.e. the "promise-makers", alone. In order to assess the value of the proposed method, and more specifically the internal capability toolkit, the measuring instruments were administered to the CEOs and staff of ten NGOs/NGO equivalent projects at universities. The responses were quantified and confirmed that in at least ten of these cases, there is a 95% correlation between internal organisational capability and external performance output, both positive and negative. The results also enabled the creation of a baseline internal capability profile for NGOs. Ten international grant-makers from OECD embassies were also interviewed on current methods of assessing funding applications, indicating a 62% confidence level in current systems and an 84% confidence level in the proposed internal organisational capability assessment method. This serves as an indicator of external delivery on promises and to guide internal change interventions to optimise output. This approach reflects the potential value of a shift in assessment thinking beyond a systems approach towards a people-centred approach that focusses on the measurement and development of the organisation and its staff's internal capabilities to meet and exceed its external delivery objectives. My research confirms that a focus on NGO internal organisational capabilities directly reflects the capability levels of staff to deliver externally. The output is a new, standardised, replicable and defendable methodology and toolkit of instruments for assessing an NGO’s current and future operational performance. The toolkit should also provide for the objective comparison of the performance of NGOs and thus be of great use for future grant-maker decision-making. It will also complement existing assessment techniques by focusing on the internal people motivation and capability issues of an NGO. Furthermore, the study provides a method to support organisational self-improvement efforts and grant-making efficiency that can be used in pre-project and during project capability assessment. This goes beyond the more prevalent post-project systemic and summative evaluation methods. In conclusion, the proposed method and toolkit can make a significant contribution to the efficiency of NGOs as the key role-players in enabling the delivery of capability development of communities and societies. All the elements described collectively point to a practical way to operationalise the Capability Approach, an aspect criticised as a weakness in Amartya Sen's work.

This is an inter-disciplinary argument for a moral entitlement to a capability to be healthy. Motivated by the goal to make a human right to health intelligible and justifiable, the thesis extends the capability approach, advocated by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, to the theory and practice of the human health sciences. Moral claims related to human health are considered at the level of ethical theory, or a level of abstraction where principles of social justice that determine the purpose, form, and scope of basic social institutions are proposed, evaluated, and justified. The argument includes 1) a conception of health as capability, 2) a theory of causation and distribution of health capability as well as 3) an argument for the moral entitlement to a sufficient and equitable capability to be healthy grounded in the respect for human dignity. Moreover, the entitlement to the capability to be healthy is defended against alternative ethical approaches that focus on welfare or resources in evaluating and satisfying health claims. In specific, it is argued that human health is best understood as a capability to be healthy - a meta-capability to achieve a cluster of basic and inter-related capabilities and functionings. Such a cluster of capabilities and functionings is in line with Martha Nussbaum's central human capabilities. A theory of causation and distribution of health capability is put forward that integrates the 'classic' biomedical factors of disease (genetic endowment, exposure to hazardous materials, behaviour), social determinants of disease, and Drèze and Sen's econometric analysis of the causation and distribution of acute and endemic malnutrition. Furthermore, the argument critiques Norman Daniels's revised Rawlsian theory of health justice, and advocates for the capability approach to recognize group capabilities in light of 'population health' phenomena. Lastly, the thesis also argues that a coherent, capability conception of health as a species-wide conception will tend to make any theory of justice recognizing health claims a cosmopolitan theory of justice.

Virginity Testing, a traditional Zulu pre-nuptial custom that determines the worth of a bride, has been resurrected in communities in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa as a response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The practice takes place during large community festivals when young girls have their genitals physically examined to determine whether they are virgins and results are made public. Supporters of the tradition claim that in fostering a value of chastity among its youth, it encourages abstinence from sexual intercourse which leads to a lower HIV infection rate and prevents the disease from spreading. Human rights activists disagree; Rather than slowing the spread of a disease, they argue, the practice instead endangers girls. Those who fail are often shunned and turn to prostitution, while those who pass may be exposed as potential targets for rape (due to a myth that says intercourse with a virgin cures HIV/AIDS). Despite a ban on the practice in 2005, the testing festivals continue, and are described by supporters as an important part of the preservation of Zulu culture. This thesis examines the ways in which human rights may be re-negotiated for young girls in Zulu communities while maintaining a respect for local culture. It moves beyond the traditional debate between relativism and universalism in order to propose solutions to rights violations in culturally diverse contexts by exploring ideas of inclusive human rights and capabilities theories.

This thesis focuses on integration of family planning into development programmes. It aims to recommend most appropriate ways that non-governmental organizations can adopt in order to introduce family planning as a cross-cutting issue in their development programmes in rural regions of Ethiopia. This is to ensure that women and men have the possibility to make free and informed choices on their childbearing preferences and exercise family planning. In order to identify the most suitable approaches, methods and strategies for family planning mainstreaming, the thesis determines the most significant determinants and factors that affect the childbearing preferences and identify those that can be addressed by family planning mainstreaming. The thesis bases its theoretical framework on the Amartya Sen's Capabilites approach to human development. The second part of the thesis is dedicated to Ethiopia Case Study.

Every individual, regardless of ethnicity, religion, income, etc., has the right to health. The right to health is a fundamental human right that can be further strengthened through the lens of Martha Nussbaum's central capabilities. This thesis explores how Canada's current national energy policy is focused on fossil fuel extraction and combustion, which is a leading cause in the rise in the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and changing the climate. Based on the evidence this thesis explores how, through its role in the climate crisis, the government of Canada is hindering the full enjoyment of the right to health by the Inuit, and how there is a need for a redesign in the national energy policy. A focus on climate justice is raised as the best possible focus for this redesign, in the energy policy, in order to respect the right to health of the Inuit.

This study examined how isiXhosa-speaking women street traders in Cape Town's Langa Township exercised agency in responding to similar structural constraints and opportunities that affected their livelihoods. Drawing on Giddens's Structuration Theory and Sen's Capabilities Approach, I unpacked and conceptualised agency as five dimensions (reflexivity, motivation, rationality, purposive action and transformative capacity). This analytical framework was then used to assess the ways in which women from a poor township community exercised their agency as street traders. A case study methodology (n=25) was adopted using participant observation and in-depth interviews. Miles and Huberman's thematic coding approach guided the qualitative analysis. The study found that structurally imposed constraints were rooted in class, multiple sources of power dynamics, and material constraints related to health; while opportunities emanated from market mechanisms of supply and demand, community social support systems in the form of social capital and social networks, family support and statutory social welfare programmes. Other key findings included resistance to patriarchy, cultural norms and practices, such as submission to abusive partners and unreasonable demands from extended family members. The findings report structure and agency as mutually constitutive in so far as familial circumstances, previous work experience, social capital, educational achievements and temporality either reinforced or diminished the participants' agency. Three profiles of agency among the women traders emerged from the data. The profiles demonstrated varying degrees of enablement (most enabled, moderately enabled and least enabled) and that individual agency was a distinguishing factor. Reflexivity, as a dimension of agency, presented as more fluid and malleable than the other four dimensions. The findings show that agency is reasonably elastic and it can expand capabilities and opportunities for enablement. Finally, the study proposed a diagnostic tool for assessing and enhancing agency with potential applications in entrepreneurial training for development. My study contributes to a theoretical understanding of the concept of agency, the role it plays in development at a micro-level and criteria for assessment. Furthermore, lessons learnt from the profiles can be applied to development practice and entrepreneurial training among African women traders.

This dissertation investigates how very recent, recent, and established immigrants who use e-government service platforms in Canada experience and circumvent digital inequalities. Employing a Capabilities Approach perspective, this study focuses specifically on the challenges encountered by very recent, recent, and established Nepali immigrants to Canada in using federal-, provincial-, and municipal-level e-government service platforms. To meet this objective, an explanatory sequential design mixed-methods approach involving a survey with 261 respondents and five focus group meetings with 25 Nepali immigrants to Canada was used to gather the requisite data. In contrast with dominant narratives in much digital divide literature, the findings revealed no statistically significant differences in the use of e-government service platforms by very recent, recent, and established Nepali immigrants other than very recent immigrants were found to be using the federal-level e-government service platform more frequently than their recent and established immigrant counterparts. The lack of observable differences between the two groups was found to be linked to the participants' reliance on their social support networks of family and friends who provide the material and immaterial resources needed to mitigate the effects of digital inequalities. The implications of these unexpected findings are important for understanding the evolving on-the-ground dynamics with which immigrants must contend and, specifically, how their lived experiences contrast with stereotypical perceptions and understandings of their encounters with digital inequalities. The findings also contribute to advancing the knowledge both in terms of theory and practice. At the level of theory, the findings suggest the presence of two conversion factors — social support networks, and perceptions of convenience — that up to now have not received much attention in the Capabilities Approach literature. At the level of practice, the findings suggest a need to reconsider the ways in which the ubiquity of ICT devices and the pervasiveness of Internet connections along with changing immigration criteria are contributing to a transformation in how very recent, recent, and established immigrants experience digital inequalities.

The free exercise of religion as a basic human right is considered essential by those who are concerned about protecting and maintaining each person?s capability to live a good life. Unfortunately, in protecting this right the fundamental rights of women are often violated or overlooked. In order to grant religious freedom, liberal states often permit discriminatory and oppressive practices. Martha Nussbaum maintains that a balance must be struck between the protection of individual rights and the protection of religious freedom. She suggests the liberal state should not take a stand on disputed non-political issues concerning the good. The state should adopt political liberalism, thereby refraining from espousing religious or other ?comprehensive? views such as the view that men and women are innate moral equals. By doing so, Nussbaum says the political liberal state shows full respect for its citizens, and protects their ability to lead a good life. This thesis presents the argument that the liberal state need not, and should not, go as far as political liberalism in order to protect and show full respect for its citizens. Although the state should not pressure or force religious groups to change their doctrines to fall in line with liberal principles, the state may assert the truth of some non-political liberal values that are essential to maintaining the liberal political system. Political liberalism ties the hands of the liberal state, leaving it handicapped in its ability to protect individual rights, especially the rights of women and minorities. / Master of Arts

Food security exist when every human being is able to obtain adequate food and be free from hunger. This thesis sets out to explore the moral responsibility of individuals to enhance food security in the world by their consumer choices. More specifically, this research will investigate the negative impact of the meat industry on food security in the world and whether this impact entails a moral responsibility upon individuals to reduce their meat consumption in order to enhance food security. With the capabilities approach and utilitarianism as the theoretical tools, based on the evidence and the method of argumentation, this thesis finds that consumers hold a responsibility to reduce meat consumption as it is highly detrimental to global food security, not only on a moral basis but as a matter of social justice in the world. The emphasis of reduced meat consumption should ideally be of industrially produced sources, as they have the largest impact on both food security and environmental degradation.

In my paper, I argue that the underlying social ideals of the late modern labor market, namely flexibility and singularity, undermine human flourishing as conceptualized by Martha C. Nussbaum. It is on these grounds, that we should be critical of late modernity. For an account of late modernity, I rely on the sociological works of Ulrich Beck (1992), Zygmunt Bauman (2000; 2007a), and Andreas Reckwitz (Reckwitz & Pakis, 2020). My account of this socio-historical era focusses on the three main components that set it apart from the previous industrial modernity according to the aforementioned sociologists: the revolution in ICT, the creative economy, and the socio-cultural revolution within the new middle class. It becomes clear that these three components contribute to a more liquid, flexible, and singularized setting. On this basis, then, I will introduce the ethical theory of Martha C. Nussbaum: The Capabilities Approach. I will justify the methodological choice of using her theory, and not that the Capabilities approach of Amartya Sen. My focus on human flourishing will be defended against the accusation of being universalist or biased, and the suggestion that preference utilitarianism would be a better fit for my research objective.  The main body of my paper is the ethical analysis and weighing of arguments for and against my thesis, that we ought to object to the social ideals promoted by the late modern labor market because they undermine human flourishing. I will give two main arguments in support of this thesis, each corresponding to one of Nussbaum's central Capabilities. The first one identifies a conflict between the requirements for our emotional Capability and the kind of self-sufficiency needed to achieve the social ideal of flexibility. I show, that flexibility has become a necessary coping strategy for the late modern individual, making the conflict a pressing one to solve. My second argument draws out a lack of respect and dignity granted to those who perform functional labor (mostly in the service sector) in late modernity, because the functional worker can not live up to the social ideal of singularity. The lack of respect for functional workers pushes them below the threshold required for human flourishing. Finally, I will consider the counterargument, that the late modern labor market provides better opportunities for creative expression and self-actualization. Is that not the epitome of human flourishing i.e. the actualization of one's potentialities? However, I refute this counterargument on multiple grounds: firstly, the goal is not human flourishing, but economic profit. Secondly, it promotes a kind of consumerism, that seems to conflict with emotional needs. Lastly, the workers who are enabled creative expression, are and will remain few.