Soon after independence, in 1964, Zambia’s urbanisation proceeded very rapidly presenting significant housing problems to the independence government. In the last five decades, Zambia’s Capital City, Lusaka has been growing most rapidly. Unfortunately, most of this growth has been in informal settlements on insecure land because most residents cannot afford formal lowincome housing. Since 1964, government has undertaken several initiatives to bridge this low-income housing crisis. These include; providing complete housing, providing housing subsidies, providing serviced land, enacting new laws, establishing new institutions and even giving away housing for free. But all these initiatives, designed around the ruling political party governance system, have not yielded the desired results. As a result, the urban housing backlog which was estimated to be around 24,000 housing units at independence may now grow to over 3.0 million by 2030 if urgent action is not taken. Government has an opportunity to transform the urban housing sector by addressing weaknesses in the current laws and institutions, providing specific support to low-income households and encouraging private sector involvement. In all this, government must remember that context matters.

South Africa is ranked number one in the world as the most unequal society by the World Bank. Inequalities are largely manifested in income, education and spatial arrangements, as well as access to opportunities and public services. My dissertation examines the impact of the City of Johannesburg's Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, and the transit-oriented development programme, known as Corridors of Freedom, in transforming the mini-bus taxi industry; providing safe and reliable public transport to previously marginalised communities; and to mitigate the legacy of apartheid spatial planning. The research examines the policy objectives of the Rea Vaya BRT system as part of the larger Corridors of Freedom capital programme, which aims to create development nodes to densify the City and improve mobility, and in turn enhance social integration. The research outlines the implementation of Rea Vaya over the past ten years, and explores the impact of the service on the City's commuters and the mini-bus taxi operators. A key argument of the paper is that while anecdotal evidence exists that the Rea Vaya BRT functions optimally, an evaluation study of the City's continued public investment is critical to ascertain whether the project is achieving its intended socio-political and economic objectives.

Over the past few years, there has been rising interest in the field of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). The interest is evident at international, regional and national levels. Given the widely documented benefits of ECCE, and through the lobbying of various stakeholders, the government of Botswana resolved to provide a one-year pre-primary programme at all government schools. In this study, ECCE and pre-primary education programme are used interchangeably. This pre-primary education programme was initially piloted at a few select schools in 2012. After the successful run of the programme, it was then scaled-up to all government primary schools in Botswana starting in 2014. This programme is the basis of this study, in which the researcher examines two of its main indicators namely accessibility and quality. The study was conducted using a qualitative research approach. It used the following research methods: document analysis, observation and structured and in-depth interviews with teachers, school heads and education officers from the Ministry of Basic Education (MoBE), the Department of Curriculum Development Evaluation (DCDE) and the Regional Education Office (REO). Twelve (12) schools were chosen out of a total of twenty – four 24 schools in the Gaborone sub-region. The data collected from the interviews and observations was analysed using thematic analysis. It was triangulated with the data obtained from documents. The study made three (3) key findings. First the study reveals that although the government achieved 86% scale-up rate of the programme, the student enrolment rate remains low, at an estimated 25%. Second the study also reveals inconsistency in resource allocation, in-service training of teachers and general support offered to the teachers and the schools among the studied schools. Finally, the study reveals that there is no quality framework, that the teachers improvise by using the expected learning outcomes contained in the Integrated Early Childhood Development (IECD) curriculum of 2013. Informed by the Lev Vygotsky's socio-cultural constructive theory, the recommendations were made based on the findings. The implications of the recommendations are that they could improve the equitable and uniform universal allocation of resources ensuring that the quality and access of the programme is standard throughout the country. Also, the researcher proposed some quality assurance guidelines, which would ensure the standardisation of the quality matrix.

In 2009 Zimbabwe experienced a cholera outbreak of unprecedented magnitude where over 90 000 cases where recorded an at least 4 500 people lost their lives. It is argued that this outbreak created the impetus for implementation of water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector reforms which would contribute towards addressing service level challenges and gaps. Through this study the researcher sought to understand the WASH sector reforms implemented and the extent to which they had resulted in the anticipated improvements in service delivery amongst targeted rural communities. The study adopted a mixed methodology descriptive survey to understand the practical aspects and intricacies of policy implementation and reform in the Zimbabwean WASH sector, with emphasis on the benefits of policy reform for enhancing access and management of rural WASH service delivery initiatives. Three empirical data sources were used, comprising of desktop review of documents on WASH policy implementation processes and guidelines, qualitative interviews carried out with four key informants from WASH coordinating committees and the case methodology to study three districts implementing the sector reforms using a semi-structured questionnaire administered to various district and community stakeholders. The researcher found that the WASH sector reforms have not fully achieved the intended objectives, although some strides have been made in terms of improving water and sanitation access to selected communities. However, the researcher notes that the gains in service coverage that have been made in the case districts are proving short-lived and unsustainable as issues such as limited funding, sustainability of the WASH coordination structures, operation and maintenance of infrastructures remain a real challenge. Considering these challenges the researcher recommends that the government explore alternative innovative sources for WASH funding including streamlining the WASH coordinating committees to improve efficiency and effectiveness, strengthening sector financing through adoption of user-pays initiatives and inclusion of community-based management structures in WASH planning and decision making to enhance effective community participation.

The Voortrekker Road Corridor in Cape Town was recently identified as an Integration Zone according to National Treasury's Integrated City Development Grant (ICDG). Prior to this a number of private and public stakeholders founded the Greater Tygerberg Partnership, in response to the need for a coordinating body to champion inclusive regeneration and local economic development in the corridor and neighbouring northern suburbs. Funded wholly by the City of Cape Town for its first three years of operation, the Partnership had after two years in operation appeared to have made little progress in catalysing interest and tangible investment in the area, even on a micro level. This dissertation utilises the qualitative analysis method of process tracing for the period of 2012-2015 to explore themes of urban governance and conversely urban patronage. It firstly considers whether the apparent stasis is due to the Partnership being subjected to capture by strong private and political elites. Subsequently it examines whether incremental, micro-level governance initiatives and acts of public entrepreneurship, though seemingly small, have the potential to build momentum capable of overcoming such threatening predatory networks, and in so doing redirect the organisation towards achieving substantive inclusive and equitable regeneration.

Many research documents indicate that learners’ ability to transition from education and training to employment is closely linked to their work placement experience during their studies and on exit from their respective qualifications. This study identifies and analyses successful work placement practices through case studies, to understand which elements have supported TVET Colleges to facilitate the successful placement of their learners. The study starts with a historic overview of the Colleges to provide the context. It then moves on to explore, through secondary research, what the literature says about the identified elements which are institutional responsiveness; Work Integrated (WIL) units, curriculum relevance, partnerships and work readiness and their contribution to the transition from education to employment. The literature analysis was used to formulate key research questions for the primary research with three metro TVET Colleges, to explore how these Colleges have responded to the elements identified. The responses from the interviewees were used to extract the learnings from their practice and to draw out the elements that are key contributors to the successful placement of TVET learners.

This report is a quantitative analysis of two case studies demonstrating the binding development constraints and options for their alleviation. The first case study is an analysis of health inequalities which remain an important policy issue in many developing countries. Using the 2014 data for the Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), the paper assesses health inequality in Zambia using Child stunting as a health variable. The paper finds that those in the poorest group had more than thrice the Child stunting rate of the richest group, proving the existence of health inequality in Zambia. The paper further investigates the factors associated with stunting and finds that the mother's age, education, marital status, socio-economic status, location and nutritional status measured by body mass index (BMI) are significantly associated with Child stunting. Policy recommendations center on women empowerment, improving household food security and rolling out Social Cash Transfer schemes among others. The second case study is concerned with technical and vocational skills development, which despite being a key factor in economic growth remains limited in Zambia. Using multiple regression, the study finds that participating in skills training is determined by age, level of education, gender and location (rural or urban). These factors also affect participants' choices among the various skills training options that exist in Zambia: on-the-job training, public institutions, private institutions and apprenticeship. The study provides a number of recommendations. One relates to improved access to education for girls to improve their chances of accessing skills training. Another one calls for the formalisation of apprenticeships which remain informal and unofficial despite a substantial proportion of people acquiring skills through this avenue.

This research is a case study analysis of NetOne Cellular (Pvt) Ltd, a state enterprise in the mobile cellular telecommunications industry in Zimbabwe which has failed to perform to government and public expectation since its launch in 1996. At the advent of mobile telecommunications industry in Zimbabwe in the 1990s, it was expected that the Government of Zimbabwe would reap huge revenues in the lucrative telecommunications industry by being the pioneer and monopolising the provision of mobile telecommunications in the country. Government therefore, set up NetOne, initially as a department under the Postal and Telecommunications Corporation (PTC) and later turned it into an incorporated company in 2001. The company has however failed to perform to expectations despite the advantages which usually go with government protection and favouritism in comparison to its competitors Econet Wireless Zimbabwe and Telecel Zimbabwe. This study provides evidence of the company's poor performance, an analysis and discussion of the underlying and proximate causal factors thereto as well as a set of recommendations and possible ways forward. The study seeks to explore and prove that the Zimbabwean political settlements, mismanagement of economic rents, as well as the scourge of poor corporate, undercapitalisation, unfavourable sectoral and regulatory dynamics negatively impact on NetOne's performance. Derived from the foregoing the above are the cascading effects of inadequate leadership and business practices within the organisation which also played a major role in the company's modicum growth and underperformance over the years. It concludes that the Zimbabwe political settlements and failure to manage and effectively exploit political rents is the major contributor to the company's failure and lead to both external and internal poor governance of the company thereby affecting its performance.

The dissertation begins by outlining the history and objectives of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) as one of the key government interventions to address poverty and unemployment. The paper moves on to analyse the Vukuzakhe programme which is an initiative of the Eastern Cape Department of Roads and Public Works within the infrastructure sector of the EPWP. This analysis looks at policy assumptions in respect of institutional arrangements that informed the development and implementation of the Vukuzakhe Programme. The study goes on to identify and assess the outcomes of public entrepreneurship with the context of the Vukuzakhe programme. The hypotheses made are that: A: "The success of the Vukuzakhe programme was as the result of effective acts of public entrepreneurship." B: "The successful and effective acts of public entrepreneurship were demonstrated in the way in which change was orchestrated and directed, through the building of internal capacity and ability to marshal support from diverse stakeholders."

This research explores the role of politics in the construction of a capable bureaucracy. The dominant discourse deals with the structural attributes of a developmental state, and eschews the inherent politics of the construction or emergence of bureaucracy in a state. The focus of the research is about how capable bureaucracies emerge out of an abidingly complex and messy political reality. This research endeavours to unravel the complex, dynamic, often messy inherent intersection of politics and bureaucracy. It is argued that politics are an inherent ingredient of the fermentation of a capable bureaucracy, in which the agency of political actors is critical and that public reforms often spawn from particular critical junctures. This research undertakes a comparative study of South Korea, Unites States of America and South Africa, and juxtaposing the first two comparators with South Africa in order to draw important lessons for the latter. The endeavour looks at the pre-history, critical junctures, and the moment of consolidation to demonstrate how history shapes and influences the institutional realities of different countries; examine the proximate events or driving forces that contribute to or precipitated the emergence of capable bureaucracies in the successful comparators and distill lessons for South Africa. In the United States of America public service reforms fostered by broad coalitions in collaboration with political actors eradicated patronage and ensured economic progress. In South Korea the symbiotic relationship of meritocratic bureaucracy with an uncorrupt political elite ensured high speed growth. The research strives to demonstrate that building a capable bureaucracy is not a straightforward affair - exposing the nature of challenges and complexities of setting up a capable bureaucracy, thus contributing to the discourse - grappling with constructing a capable bureaucracy in South Africa.