This study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of the GWAPA Single Mothers Poverty alleviation Programme. The study hypothesized that women in Gweru are among the most vulnerable to poverty and disease and GWAPA project may be an effective source to their poverty alleviation. Main objectives of the study were to explain selected development concepts, to explore the relationship between gender and poverty, to investigate the effectiveness of the GWAPA Programme, to outline the challenges faced by GWAPA, and to offer recommendations based on research findings to help improve the effectiveness of the programme. Both theoretical study and empirical research methods were used to ensure a balanced evaluation of the problem. The theoretical study established that the target population for poverty alleviation and development programmes must be fully involved for development to replace poverty. On average women were found to be poorer than men and hence the need for projects that focus on poverty alleviation among women. In the empirical study 375 of the 1756 GWAPA single women members were used as questionnaire respondents, and 3 management employees were sampled for the interviews. Descriptive survey and qualitative participatory approaches were used as the main research methodologies. This hybrid approach was intended to improve the validity and reliability of the outcome of the study by mitigating weaknesses of different individual approaches. This approach would ensure maximum utilization and involvement of subjects and available resources. Questionnaires, interviews and documentary evidence augmented by the researcher's experience with the NGDO were used as research instruments. Of the 375 Questionnaires distributed, 357 (95%) were collected. Various statistical measures were used to summarize and interpret the data, particularly tables, graphs and charts, actual frequencies and percentage rates. Narrative descriptions were also used to explain given scenarios and relationships. The study established that poverty and development are multidimensional concepts, families headed by women are on average poorer than those headed by men, respondents' lives have changed for the better, GWAPA single mothers have work overload especially considering that as women they shoulder the biggest chunk of the family responsibilities, and most of the GWAPA projects which started well were now suffocating under the current economic hardships.. Main challenges faced by GWAPA include the current political and economic environment, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the limited educational levels among its members, members' limited access to resources, community cultural biases and negative attitudes towards single mothers and commercial sex workers, government regulation on financial transactions and the amount of cash one should hold outside the banking system, and work overload among members. The study recommends involvement of GWAPA members' opposite sex partners as affiliates, intensive public campaigns, lobbying and advocacy to remove the stigma and negative attitudes towards single mothers and commercial sex workers, improving infrastructure and the GWAPA Farm operations, engaging long term facilitators, certification after attending training programmes, excelling awards, present manuals in mother languages, and alternative fundraising strategies. The government and municipalities are encouraged to invest more in the small enterprise sector as it has proven to have the capability to create employment and develop communities by mobilizing the grassroots. The study also recommends a more detailed and deeper participatory study, related comparative studies that show differences and similarities between related projects in different areas in Zimbabwe, and similar studies on DNGOs that work with both sexes in different areas in Zimbabwe. / Thesis (M. Development and Management)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } Due to accountability measures put in place by No Child Left Behind (NCLB), many schools identified as failing by the legislation are implementing reform efforts. This qualitative case study examined the initiatives one school put in place in order to remove themselves from the NCLB list of failing schools. Additionally, this case study sought to discover evidence of the components of capacity building in one elementary school, Cottonwood Elementary in East Tennessee. The theoretical framework of the study is based on the five components of capacity building as defined by Newman, King, and Youngs (2000). The five components defined by the authors are: teacher knowledge, skills, and dispositions; program coherence; professional community; technical resources; and leadership. Data were collected using interviews, observations and documents. The findings related to the first research question posed in this study were examined through four initiatives created by the administration in an attempt to remove the school from the NCLB list. The administrative team and faculty at Cottonwood Elementary chose to focus on: behavior and the structure of the building, attendance, literacy through professional development, and on data and accountability. Additionally, evidence of each component of capacity building as defined by Newman et al. (2000) can be found at Cottonwood Elementary. After the data were analyzed an additional component of capacity building, internal accountability as defined by Elmore (2007) was found to exist.

This is a study of how two small neighbourhoods, Mano and Mikura, recovered from the 1995 Kobe (Japan) earthquake, with a particular focus on the relationship between community vulnerability and capacity. Few studies have examined these interactions, even though vulnerability reduction is recognized to be a vital component of community recovery. Drawing from literature on disaster recovery, community development, vulnerability analysis, community capacity building and the Kobe earthquake, a community vulnerability and capacity model is elaborated from Blaikie et al.’s Pressure and Release Model (1994) to analyze the interactions. The Mano and Mikura cases are analyzed by applying this model and relating outcomes to the community’s improved safety and quality of community lives. Based on the experience of Mano, appropriate long-term community development practices as well as community capacity building efforts in the past can contribute to the reduction of overall community vulnerability in the post-disaster period, while it is recovering. On the other hand, the Mikura case suggests that even though the community experiences high physical and social vulnerability in the pre-disaster period, if the community is able to foster certain conditions, including active CBOs, adequate availability and accessibility to resources, and a collaborative working relationship with governments, the community can make progress on recovery. Although both Mano and Mikura communities achieved vulnerability reduction as well as capacity building, the long-term sustainability of the two communities remains uncertain, as issues and challenges, such as residual and newly emerging physical vulnerability, negative or slow population growth and aging, remained to create vulnerability to future disasters. The case studies reveal the interactions of community vulnerability and capacity to be highly complex and contingent on many contextual considerations.

The designation and enforcement of protected areas in southeast Brazil severely restricted livelihoods of rural inhabitants, who had limited options to adapt to new settings. Serious challenges emerged from deficiency in local capacity for the organization, management, and application of mitigation interventions. However, the Cananéia Oyster Producers’ Cooperative managed to overcome numerous challenges and was a finalist for the United Nations Development Programme’s 2002 Equator Prize for simultaneous poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation. Qualitative research methods, including Rapid Rural Appraisal tools, were employed to examine the cooperative’s self-organization, cross-scale institutional linkages, and livelihood and conservation impact. Through various coordinated endevours such as the adoption of oyster rearing beds, depuration station, education, and designation of an extractive reserve, cooperative members have been able to improve their livelihoods while minimizing environmental impact. Lessons learned from the cooperative on simultaneous poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation are presented in the final chapter of this thesis. / May 2006

This study examines the extent to which volunteer-run local land trusts in Ontario are governed in a manner that will allow them to protect valued ecosystems effectively in perpetuity. It also identifies needs and opportunities for building the capacities of land trusts as long term stewardship organizations. The primary academic contribution of this research is the identification of criteria for evaluating land trust governance and their ability to meet their conservation aims. The criteria are applied in a case study of the Niagara Land Trust, a local land trust in the process of incorporating. Specific recommendations are made to assist this organization to improve its operations. The principal findings of this research are that some local land trusts have attained a level of governance which will allow them to protect land in perpetuity, but some land trusts have not. The failure of some land trusts could result in donors and government questioning the movement as a whole. Generally, the main gaps in capacity centre on weaknesses in financial sustainability, training/managing of volunteers, record-keeping, baseline inventories and continued monitoring, and the problem of requiring people to have specific professional skills in largely volunteer organizations. The thesis concludes by offering specific suggestions to the Niagara Land Trust, the Ontario Land Trust Alliance and the Canadian Land Trust Alliance. Local land trusts have provided many communities with an attractive option for conserving land; strengthening the movement will ensure that this grassroots work can continue.

This study investigates how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects implemented through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) impact on the roles, relationship, responsibilities and agendas of the involved actors – the private sector, civil society and the state – and whether these can lead to women’s empowerment and the capacity building of civil society in India, through a case study of the CSR projects of the Indian wind power company Suzlon. The empirical findings in terms of women’s empowerment lead us to conclude that although the first dimension of power, the ‘power over’, reflected in unequal gender structures, only has been addressed to a minor extent through Suzlon’s CSR projects, women’s ‘power to’, ‘power with’ and ‘power from within’ have been enhanced significantly, particularly through the projects specifically aimed to address women’s empowerment. Further, to adequately enhance women’s empowerment requires addressing gender structures and the gender sensitization of men, and not only the capacities of women. Suzlon has contributed to the capacity building of civil society – the NGOs implementing the CSR projects - in terms of enhancing project sustainability, promoting NGO ownership of projects, decreasing donor dependency and enforcing long-term strategies, while some other aspects of capacity building largely have remained unaddressed. Although the respective actors in the PPPs generally are positive of the collaborations, our findings indicate that the state partly withdraws from its responsibility to further development while the private sector increasingly takes on the same. The risk of corporate control of the civil society agenda associated with PPPs is not confirmed by our study although civil society tends to bear the highest costs in PPPs, in terms of credibility losses and insecurity concerning project terms and funding. The findings further confirm the importance of ‘critical cooperation’ and ‘complementary core competencies’ in PPPs.

This study examines the extent to which volunteer-run local land trusts in Ontario are governed in a manner that will allow them to protect valued ecosystems effectively in perpetuity. It also identifies needs and opportunities for building the capacities of land trusts as long term stewardship organizations. The primary academic contribution of this research is the identification of criteria for evaluating land trust governance and their ability to meet their conservation aims. The criteria are applied in a case study of the Niagara Land Trust, a local land trust in the process of incorporating. Specific recommendations are made to assist this organization to improve its operations. The principal findings of this research are that some local land trusts have attained a level of governance which will allow them to protect land in perpetuity, but some land trusts have not. The failure of some land trusts could result in donors and government questioning the movement as a whole. Generally, the main gaps in capacity centre on weaknesses in financial sustainability, training/managing of volunteers, record-keeping, baseline inventories and continued monitoring, and the problem of requiring people to have specific professional skills in largely volunteer organizations. The thesis concludes by offering specific suggestions to the Niagara Land Trust, the Ontario Land Trust Alliance and the Canadian Land Trust Alliance. Local land trusts have provided many communities with an attractive option for conserving land; strengthening the movement will ensure that this grassroots work can continue.

The aim of the thesis is to examine the Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) Planning that is recognized as the most appropriate approach in the international arena for the wise-use and sustainability of water resources. In this framework, the thesis has been organized in two major parts: Theoretical framework and the Konya Closed Basin case study analysis. The first part draws a theoretical framework on IWRM planning and discusses its principles, aims and implementation tools through an internationally accepted point of view. The second part, meanwhile, examines the interpretation of the IWRM planning in Turkey and its implementation in the case of the Konya Closed Basin IWRM Planning Process. The study reveals that only an integrated approach at the basin scale can solve the water demand problems of different human activities, which puts pressure on the carrying capacity of the water resources and their basins. Despite the inadequacies in the related institutional and legal frameworks in Turkey, Konya Closed Basin IWRM planning, especially Tuz Lake Management Plan studies, comes to forefront as a pioneering IWRM planning practice: The capacity building, public participation, and awareness raising principles of the IWRM planning approach have been positively realized during this planning process. Besides, the components of the plan are also compatible with the theory of IWRM planning, which consists of strategic, goal-oriented, and participatory planning approaches.

No description available.

As the world globalizes and people travel more, volunteering has never been more popular to combine with a cultural exchange. Many countries have volunteers and non-governmental organizations which try to help that country’s vulnerable. This study investigates the impact of non-governmental organizations through a case study done at one of ActionAid Denmark’s Global Platforms in Kenya. This Platform works as one of ActionAid’s training hubs where participants from mostly Denmark and Kenya take part in courses focusing on capacity building and global citizenship. Their aim is to provide knowledge to facilitate social change. By using qualitative data in the form of interviews and observation, this study makes an impact assessment and evaluates what impact the Mt. Kenya platform actually achieves and what challenges there might be. Questions about the impact and challenges are asked to a wide range of involved people at the Platform, namely participants, staff, locals and neighbors. This study’s theoretical concept employs the theories “4 Levels of Evaluation” developed by Donald Kirkpatrick and Robert Brinkerhoff’s “The Success Case Method” as well as Jack Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning and Beck’s & Purcell’s theory of social change. The analysis shows that the trainings themselves make a tremendous impact on the individuals participating in the Platform’s trainings. The courses are well structured and executed by the facilitators. The concept where different cultures meet and interact is a success in itself. To make even more impact in the community and for the people in the surrounding area, the Platform needs to be more visible to the locals and improve its marketing and communication activities so the locals want to participate more.