Namibia has been praised for having rigorous policy frameworks that address various national development challenges. Over the years, the country has introduced various policy initiatives to address the housing challenge in the country. However, implementation of such policies and programmes faced various challenges resulting in suboptimal outcomes and consequently, a situation where such programmes are abandoned, and new ones are introduced with little learning from past experiences. This paper, analysed the role of governance on effective programme management using a case study of Namibia’s Mass Housing Development Programme. The findings highlight governance challenges, as one of the key contributing factors to failing programmes. A qualitative approach was employed in gathering data using face to face in-depth interviews with the informants who represented the target population in the study. The paper contributes to the body of knowledge on the importance of governance which public policy and programme makers can draw lessons from for effective programme implementation.

Zimbabwe is among the top diamond-producing countries and is believed to hold a quarter of the world's diamond reserves. Yet it is still one of the poorest countries as the economy is slumped and growth has slackened, and it is expected to further weaken. This study tracks the history of diamond mining at Marange diamond fields, describing what has played out since the discovery of huge diamond deposits in 2006.The study considers potential entry points to try and effect reform in diamond mining in the country. It also explores the governance options and their experience, distinguishing between domestic and global mechanisms and exploring the prospects for each. The study interrogates the strength and ability of various stakeholders to affect reform casting light on the politics and power dynamics at play.

As a fledgling democracy, South Africa has had to contend with a slowing economy that has been accompanied by increasing unemployment. The Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) is one of the policy instruments used by the South African government in an attempt to overcome these challenges. This research study takes a closer look at this policy instrument within the specific context of the Saldanha Bay IDZ. Saldanha Bay is an operating port on the West Coast of South Africa which, after a series of feasibility studies, has been deemed a suitable location to establish a services hub for upstream oil and gas activities. Its competitive advantages are inter alia a naturally deep port and close proximity to Cape Town. This study seeks to construct a rich narrative that unravels key activities that emerged from the project's conceptual phase through to its implementation phase. This is a period of a little less than two decades stretching from around 1999 to 2016. In linking this narrative to a timeline, this dissertation explores three central issues. The first is whether the Saldanha Bay IDZ presents a commercially viable option for investors. Secondly, it explores whether the public sector has been able to establish the necessary enabling environment required for project success. Finally, it seeks to determine the factors that influenced the speed of project delivery. This narrative is built by having conversations with key stakeholders from both the private and public sectors who have had an involvement with the project for a considerable amount of time. The intention is to extract lessons from their journey and use these learnings as a basis to improve stakeholder co-ordination in this and other projects characterised by multiple actor and principal relationships.

In 1994, South Africa's post-apartheid government inherited a highly-centralised energy sector, in which all aspects including planning, procurement, generation, distribution, pricing, and management were determined through top-down institutional arrangements and investments, centred around Eskom. In 2016, however, following rounds of energy sector reform, and the successful implementation of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), this centralised configuration of power showed signs of disruption. Municipalities began to ambitiously redefine their role by building on opportunities related to renewable energy, resulting in an emergent challenge to centralised energy policy and planning. This dissertation sought to explore how this contestation took shape and to explain how seemingly ad hoc actions have created new possibilities, as well as new regulatory frameworks, by municipalities for municipalities. To achieve this, an analysis of the evolution of decentralised renewable energy generation in South Africa between 2008, when it first began, and 2016, was undertaken, applying the method of process tracing to two case studies. In order to contextualise these bottom-up processes within the national political economy of energy, process tracing was also applied in a high-level analysis of countervailing movements that consolidate centralised energy planning and procurement during the same period, with a particular focus on national plans to undertake massive investments in nuclear energy. It was found that municipalities' bottom-up actions have positioned them to drive renewable energy in such a way that seriously challenges the historical configuration of power that has determined South Africa's energy future up to now.

In 1994, the first democratically elected government in South Africa faced the significant task of shaping new institutions and delivery transmission mechanisms capable of developing and implementing policies aimed at inclusive socio-economic growth and development. Evidence shows that the South African public sector is generally not yet able to be a key driver of development, at least not to the extent required to reduce poverty and inequality to the levels envisioned in the National Development Plan. The study argues that comprehensive public sector reform based on the principles of New Public Management was inappropriate given the unique South African political and institutional context and that incremental approaches to development are more likely to achieve results. This leaves room for the emergence of islands of effectiveness where public entrepreneurs or multi-stakeholder governed arrangements could be employed as alternative or complementary delivery transmission mechanisms. Operation Phakisa, an adaptation of the Malaysian Big Fast Results methodology, introduced a radical new approach to improving government impact. The Operation Phakisa methodology made certain assumptions about (or perhaps deliberately ignored) prevailing principal-agent relationships in South Africa and the readiness of these relationships to be challenged and transformed. Through the development and application of an analytical framework, the study examines the role of islands of effectiveness (using the Oceans Economy Operation Phakisa as a case study) as possible alternative or complementary delivery transmission mechanisms. While the Oceans Economy Operation Phakisa did not create sufficient scope for multi-stakeholder governance arrangements, some initiatives, most notably the Oil and Gas initiative, did benefit from public entrepreneurs that were able to navigate complex political and institutional realities to achieve results. Based on the outcome of the analysis, the study concludes with recommendations that could enhance the effectiveness of future iterations of Operation Phakisa.

The Kayayei of Ghana have been studied over several decades though there still exists a gap in the literature based on their profiles. A contributing factor to that gap is the limited information around how many Kayayoo are across the country. Another is the varied demographic and biographic profiles of Kayayoo that provide a good extent of diversity but not depth. Current policy and program interventions are driven by the profiles of Kayayoo, as is presented in existing research. However, the existing profiles miss out on the richness and texture of the Kayayoo's life, which means that programs and policy interventions that use them are not as effective as they could be in reaching the Kayayoo's needs. This phenomenological study revealed that there is likely no need to continue trying to conduct a census of Kayayoo in other to understand their lives. Especially since the nature of their movements in migration remain nomadic. Instead, what is needed are interventions on their external environment that will strengthen their sense of choice and agency. This study's insights show that the meaning and connections the Kayayoo constructs of family, social network, and work are driven by their construction of self. It showed that the Kayayoo exercises more of their agency than may be evident. Their actions are engendered by what they perceive allows them to exercise this agency and choice. With this insight, what is needed is a mapping of the Kayayoo's external environment to identify their intersections with public policy and other services, and then design interventions on that environment to maximize the benefits of their actions when they make a choice to access it. The outcomes of policy and programs will undoubtedly be better and more impactful if designed based on this more in-depth understanding of the Kayayei from their point of view.

In 1998 World Health Organisation Europe outlined a vision of a new community-based nurse called the Family Health Nurse (FHN) who would help individuals, families and communities to cope with illness and to improve their health. Scotland was the first European country to develop this idea through policy, education and practice. The two phase national pilot project (2001-2006) primarily involved remote and rural regions. Despite its vanguard position, Scottish family health nursing has been subject to little in-depth critical analysis. This thesis addresses this deficit by analysing why and how family health nursing developed in Scotland. The research methods used are: critical review of textual sources; empirical research into policy, education and practice; and critical review and application of relevant theoretical perspectives to enable interpretation. Grounded primarily in constructivism, this approach builds explanation of the development of family health nursing in Scotland as a phenomenon in contemporary nursing history. This explanation highlights the importance of key factors and processes, particularly: agency at policy formulation level; use of the piloting mechanism to mediate knowledge production, containment and expansion; tensions between generalism and specialism as manifest within the promulgated FHN concept, the educational programme, and the FHN role as it was variously enacted in practice; related difficulty in engaging substantially with families; and the strong influence of local context on the nature and scope of FHN role development, especially in terms of situated power and embedded culture of place. The explanation is summarised as a synoptic story. A new integrative, explanatory model of the development of family health nursing in Scotland is also posited. This knowledge is then examined in relation to contemporary community nursing and primary care in order to understand influence and implications. This highlights the importance of the development of family health nursing in shaping the new Community Health Nurse (CHN) role which emerged from the Review of Nursing in the Community in Scotland 2006. The new explanatory model constructed within the thesis is then applied in its more generic MAPPED format (Model for Analysing Policy to Practice Executive Developments) to analyse the new policy formulation advancing the CHN role and to anticipate key developmental factors and processes. On this basis, the thesis argues that the MAPPED model is potentially valuable for the analysis of developments that require purview from policy through to practice. The thesis concludes by summarising its contributions to understandings of community nursing policy, practice, research and theory, and makes a number of related recommendations.