The study is made in an attempt to evaluate a Non-Profit Organisation established 30 years ago. The organisation is called The St. Mary’s Development and Care Centre. This centre, amongst others, was established in 1982 by a true humanitarian, Mrs Thelma Henderson, and has since had more than 2250 children and lots more families in its care. The research aims to explore and evaluate the impact that the centre has had on the families and communities in Grahamstown. The evaluation is done as part of the current manager’s strategy to assess the strengths of the organisation and to build on the efficacy of the organisation. The researcher understands impact as any change whether positive or negative. This, from a social science perspective, is experienced by the person on a personal level and the effects in different families cannot be measured with a universal measure. Theory proves that because people are at varying levels of development, they therefore experience change and thus impact, differently. With the use of the grounded theory method comprising of systematic, inductive and comparative approaches for conducting inquiry for the purpose of constructing theory (Bryant & Charmaz 2007: 1) the research found that people have experienced change at different levels. This information, triangulated against previous research, validated the claims that child sponsorship at an NGO level indeed has benefits for the children involved in their programs. Therefore this evaluation paper draws the conclusion through similarities found and qualitative personal views that the St. Mary’s Development and Care Centre has indeed had an impact on the Grahamstown community.

The central objective of the research study was to evaluate the role of Mnquma Local Municipality in poverty alleviation in Mbiza Administrative Area. The key debates after apartheid have been on the successes and shortcomings of the social and economic policies that were adopted. The ANC-led government decided to approach poverty reduction by closing the inequality gap between racial groups in South Africa. It planned to provide services that would improve the lives of the poor and also create employment to sustain development. To provide the necessary services, the Government formulated two broad, but linked macroeconomic policies namely: the RDP and GEAR. This indicated the importance with which the people’s welfare and growth are regarded by the South African government. This guided research report attempted to investigate and analyse the role played by Mnquma Local Municipality to alleviate poverty in the Mbiza Administrative Area. This report shows that poverty is still extreme. The Municipality has achieved limited success in alleviating poverty and prioritising skills development among the community. This research demonstrates the IDP and its mechanism process in trying to address poverty alleviation in the Municipality’s geographical area of responsibility. This report also reveals that much has to be done to improve the effectiveness of the IDP in enhancing and fulfilling its intended goals and objectives.

South Africa is a country faced with immense challenges, such as poverty, as a result of high levels of unemployment. Poverty reduction has become an international phenomenon in view of high levels of poverty in most under-developed and developing countries. From 1994, the South African Government implemented various income generating projects amongst other programs aimed at alleviating Poverty reduction initiatives in South Africa mostly come from government and civil society structures, or non – governmental organisations (NGO) with the aim of changing the living standards of the poor so that they can at least meet their basic needs, such as food, shelter and clothing. This study seeks to explore the impact of income generating projects funded by the Department of Economic Development in the Sisonke District at UMzimkhulu, focussing on the efforts the Paninkukhu co-operative. The study is important because of the high levels of poverty. South Africa (SA) is a country faced with the challenge of poverty as a result of the high levels of unemployment. The research method chosen for the study included a qualitative and quantitative research approach where data was collected through the use of interviews and a questionnaire. The findings of the study indicate a need to provide training to the project members on capacity building.

The global economy has been reeling from the continued effects of the economic crisis since 2007. A range of approaches to economic recovery have been followed, ranging from financial bailout during the 2007/08 financial crisis, to austerity measures in the most recent 2011/12 sovereign debt crisis, but each with limited success. South Africa has similarly experienced significant shockwaves from the meltdown. The South African economy officially entered into recession in the second quarter of 2009. The economy was quick to emerge from economic recession by the first quarter of 2010, but has been on a bumpy path of recovery since. Moreover, economic recovery has been thwarted by the ensuing sovereign debt crisis in the Euro. South Africa is characterised by inequitable growth and development, a high incidence of poverty, a relatively underdeveloped economic base, low levels of skills development and low levels of access to basic services and infrastructure. LED has had a difficult birth in South Africa with regards to accomplishing its objectives of job creation and poverty alleviation. In an attempt to address these problems, the Amathole District Municipality has implemented a number of local economic development projects within the area aimed at improving the wellbeing of communities through the creation of job opportunities and sustainable livelihoods. The study is intended to assist the municipality to identify and address challenges that affect the successful implementation of LED projects. The following research aims to identify and assess the impacts that these projects have had on beneficiaries and the district as a whole. Furthermore the research aims to identify project successes as well as highlight shortcomings in order to enhance the economic impact of these projects in the future.

The purpose of this study was to review ward committee structures and the role of Community Development Workers (CDWs) in terms of service delivery, with special focus on the Kouga Local Municipality in the Cacadu district. For the study to be successful main objectives were to be highlighted. The study sought to highlight and explain the correlation between ward committee structures and Community Development Workers with regard to basic service delivery. Taken further the study will review the kind of service delivery that communities expect and an analysis was undertaken to establish if there is any link between said structures and the expected service delivery by selected communities who fall under the jurisdiction of the Kouga Local Municipality. The literature review assisted in understanding the concepts of public participation, Ward Committees, Community Development Workers and Ward Councillors and their roles and responsibilities in the Local Government Sphere. In essence, the qualitative approach applied in this study has revealed the casual relationships that may be obtained between variables or events, in order to explain or predict particular phenomena in terms of specific causes. The selection of a qualitative and interpretative approach for this research is justified. The main purpose of the study was to determine the level of effectiveness of Ward Committees, as well as the Community Development Workers in co-ordinating and facilitating public participation process in the Kouga Local Municipality. The study has revealed that there is a need for renewal of the operations of the operations of formal structures, especially the ward committees, as they represent the communities at ward level. The study has revealed that the man reason why national programmes deploying community based workers fail is because of inadequate attention to the provision of institutional support such as adequate training, technical expertise and close supervision. It is recommended that a comprehensive support structure ranging from national to local level is a pre-requisite in order for the CDW programme to succeed.

At the dawn of democracy, the ANC led government inherited an economy with wide spread socio-economic imbalances and geo-spatial challenges. Since 1994, policies have been put in place to try and close the gap between the haves and the have nots in society. It is twenty years on, and significant in-roads have been made towards improving the lives of the masses. Twenty years has not been enough time however, to eliminate the remnants of the oppressive regime. Since 2004, there has been a steady rise in the number of service delivery protests witnessed across the country. The masses of the poor are showing their dissatisfaction with the slow pace of change and development. Service delivery protests as they are known are community protests driven primarily by complaints around inadequate basic service provision. These protests have however been proven to be about a variety of other complaints against municipalities. These include: lack of proper housing, inadequate job opportunities, and allegations of nepotism, fraud and corruption against municipal officials and a general feeling of alienation from the structures of democracy. These inadequacies and frustrations are compounded in the case of informal settlements, where the most basic of services are scarce. The City of Johannesburg has one hundred and eighty four informal settlements, which present the city with major service provision challenges. A substantial amount of research has been done on the causes of service delivery protests and yet a gap exists in terms of literature on the impact of these on development. The main aim of this study was therefore to determine the impact of service delivery protests on development in the Zandspruit informal settlement. The research was carried out in the form of unstructured and semi-structured interviews with the Ward Councillor for Zandspruit (which is in Ward 114, Region C of the City of Johannesburg), the Ward Administrator, Ward Committee as well as members of the community. The findings of the study show a community in distress, with little or no access to basic services such as water and sanitation. The housing challenges in the area are representative of some of the worst housing challenges faced by the city. Lack of communication and a general distrust between the ward councillor and her ward committee make for very poor ward governance. The apparent apathy shown by the municipality is alarming. The pace of development in Zandspruit is incredibly slow, and not even the often violent service delivery protests witnessed in the area have improved the situation.

The study is conducted in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa in Lukhanji Local Municipality. Eastern Cape has a population of 1 676 470. Source: Demarcation Board (www.demarcation.org.za),03 April 2009. The Province is made up of seven district municipalities which includes the following; Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Cacadu, Amathole, Chris Hani, Ukhahlamba, OR Tambo, Alfred Ndzo. It is comprised of seven local municipalities which are King Sabata Dalindyebo, Nyandeni, Qaukeni, Mbizana, Mhlontlo, Port St John’s, and Ntabankulu. Eastern Cape, according to Bradshaw Debbie et al (2000;4) has the second highest poverty levels in South Africa (47percent of households below the poverty line, which is based on imputed monthly expenditure of R800 or less) (SSA, 2000b), combined with the highest provincial unemployment rate (55 percent) in the country (SSA, 2003). This province is characterised by inequitable growth and development. As mentioned above, it has a high level of poverty. For this reason, strategies like Income generating projects (IGPs) have been formulated to address the need for improved livelihoods, better skills and self employment opportunities. Income generating project as a concept is a convincing strategy when looked at a distance however there is a need to evaluate the impact of Income generating projects (IGPs) through a scientific study to determine the evidence of speculations that Income generating projects are claimed to improve and sustain livelihoods of our people. In the light of the aforesaid, the researcher has endeavoured and undertaken a study on the evaluation of income generating projects. This was done to determine the extent to which income generating projects (IGPs) as a mechanism to alleviate poverty address this problem of poverty. Due to the broadness of the concept of the problem and the extensive nature of the geographical area of the Eastern Cape, the study was exclusively focused on the agricultural projects of Ilinge and Machibini Project in Lukhanji Local Municipality. For the purpose of this study, a combined method approach was used. In other words, the study applied both quantitative and qualitative research design in an attempt to gain an indepth understanding of the problem investigated. Both questionnaire and interviews were employed during gathering of data of the study and participants were project members, project leader and key informants as contributing builders and mangers of the projects. Findings revealed that there is lack of sustainability on income generating projects as the projects studied lost a high number of project members with a common complaint of lack of income to sustain project members during their membership on the income generating projects (IGPs). Lack of skills is considered to be a crucial contributing factor as one other project complained of total lack of training of project members.

The focus of this research was to investigate the lack of access to primary education in King William's Town district in Eastern Cape which is inhibiting rural community development. The aim of the study was to determine whether geographic location have effects on attendance of school, to perceive gender discrepancy in primary education, to investigate what cost as a factor that contributes to a child's access and attendance to a primary education and to make recommendations to improve the situation. The study followed a descriptive research method. Data was collected by studying relevant existing literature. Document analysis was used to analyse the data and recommendations for improvement were made. The findings revealed that the day to day attendance of learners is below what it should be, which lead to dropouts, non-compliance with legislation, inadequate monitoring and evaluation. There is a need to recruit Department officials with a particular level of education, knowledge, understanding and expertise to minimise the chances of failure. Recommendations are finally made to mitigate the problem situation

Amongst other socio-economic challenges that South Africa has, unemployment still remains high; in July 2010 unemployment was at 25.3 percentage and in July 2011 it was at 25.7 percentage ; in a space of a year it grew by 0.4 percentage (Trading Economics, 2012). Even though South Africa has made some significant progress with its democracy; there is still significant socioeconomic problems. Poverty, lack of economic empowerment among the disadvantaged groups are amongst and lack of proper education are amongst some of these pressing challenges in South Africa. More than a quarter of South Africa's population currently receives social grants (Index mundi, 2011). The Eastern Cape Province is still faced with significant socio-economic challenges such as high unemployment rate. 74 percentage unemployed are the economically active group as they are under the age of 35 (ECDC, 2011:22). “More than a quarter (26.4 percentage) of households in the Eastern Cape relies on government grants as their main source of income. Nationally, the youth unemployment rate is estimated to be close to 35 percentage, with more than three million young people out of work. Youth unemployment in the Eastern Cape averages 41.4 percentage. This is more than twice the adult unemployment rate (18.4 percent). A total of 695,175 young people have been without work every year in the Eastern” (ECDC, 2010-2011: 23). Besides, this province has a third largest number of people who are living with HIV/AIDS in the country. These statistics have a major significance on the province’s economic prospects and progress (ECDC, 2010-2011:22). The RSA Constitution 1996, the White Paper on Local Government 1998 has mandated local governments to facilitate LED. South Africa adopted LED as a way of fighting poverty and stimulating economic growth and development for local residents. LED is promoting skills development, SMMEs and tourism to encourage economic development. However the success of LED has received mixed views in that; some successes of LED were recorded in urban or metropolitan municipalities. Few successes have been recorded of LED projects in rural municipalities. Some of the constraints of LED consist of capacity problems within the municipalities, understanding the role of LED in the municipality and lack of funding. In Makana Municipality, about 23 percentage of households live below poverty line of (R800.00 – R9600 a year). Most of the population earns between R801.00-R1600.00 per month with 24.7 percentage. A mere 0.6 percentage earn R204801.00 or more compared to 12.7 percentage with no income. Inadequate infrastructure poses as a threat to attracting and retaining investment in this municipality. In light of the above paragraphs, this thesis evaluated the impact assessment of the LED projects within Makana Municipality. The premise of this thesis is that realization and significant support of LED projects would impact positively on unemployment and poverty rate that this municipality is facing and subsequently; the burden of unemployment and poverty will be reduced in the region, province and country.

The study sought to investigate the role of local economic development initiatives in rural areas of the King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality in the Eastern Cape. This is the area which is mostly rural where poverty and unemployment take place every day. In South Africa, local economy is a critical success factor in addressing poverty and inequity .The South African Local Government White Paper on local government defines local government as a sphere of government that is committed to working with citizens and groups within the community to find sustainable ways to meet their social, economic and material needs and improve their quality of life. The study evaluates the participation of local people in small business to contribute in economic development of South Africa. Skill development and access to business information is also assessed to understand the knowledge the locals possess so that the able to own businesses. The research was conducted among the municipal officials, Ward Councillors, Municipal Managers and local economic development directorate. Government of South Africa has promoted LED through the concept of the “developmental state” and offers practical and financial support to local groups organized for the purpose of developing the local economy. Although most of the participants were educated people who have knowledge about the local economic development, people at grassroots level are struggling in being involved in different programmes funded by the government. The level of empowerment is low. Documents which are written in foreign language contribute to this challenge of not participating in local economic initiatives. There are few professionals who have experience and who can assist in planning and implementation of LED strategies and policies. Strengthening of already existing business association and partnering with business sector will promote active participants of the local people. The Department of Economic Development and Environmental Affairs argues that a critical part of local government’s leadership role in the area of LED rests within its ability to draw other key stakeholders into the development process. Effective and sustainable local economic development has been associated with the emergence of strong local partnerships, bringing together key stakeholder from both public and private sectors along with local community interest groups. Although there were studies that were conducted before the locals are unable to play active role in determining their own economic paths. The aim of local economic development to empower the local communities to identify their local resources to create opportunities for economic growth and employment. The objective to of this study is to create such opportunities so that the people at grass root level are able to understand their potentials in order to participate and promote the economic development of South Africa. Successful Local Economic Development depends on local participation as well as on national and regional structures to provide and support local initiative programmes. The government has policies that have not reached every citizen of this country. As indicated in literature review most researchers had dealt with different methods of how the local economic development strategy can be implemented but the gap still exists. The study is supposed to close those gaps by involving different structures in the King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality.