After independence on March 6, 1957, Ghana, under the late President Kwame Nkrumah, turned to diverse developmental activities. Economically, Ghana was on sound footing; the balance of payments was favorable and cocoa was yielding a good harvest. In 1967, Nkrumah was ousted due to his dictatorial rule. In this study the available primary and secondary sources were utilized. Primary sources were made available by the Ghana Embassy in Washington, D. C. and by friends and relatives in institutions of higher learning in Ghana. The study is divided into five chapters. Chapter I concerns itself with a geographical survey of the country, including land, climate, people, and natural resources. Chapter II explores political developments, and Chapter III examines some of the crucial economic problems. Chapter IV explores some economic progress and Chapter V makes suggestions, some of which may seem sordid and grim, but at least they offer a "stepping stone."

This thesis discusses the creation and history of Hardeman County in the state of Texas. The period of the Texas Republic was one of uncertain and unstable government, and the Red River Municipality thus created in 1835 remained as such for only two years. It was realized by the government that such large political subdivisions would not be easily administered, and by 1837 these municipalities were further divided into counties. The vast territory encompassed by the original boundaries of the Red River Municipality yielded thirty-five counties between 1837 and 1891, including Hardeman. The population of the newly created county was made up entirely of transient pioneers and roving bands of cowboys and cattlemen. The official census did not list a record of any population until 1880, when fifty people were shown as residents.

Microfinance programs, by providing financial services to economically disadvantaged individuals, generally women, are intended to help poor self-employ and become financially independent. Earlier research in India has documented both positive and negative consequences of microfinance programs on women, from financial independence to domestic abuse. However, most of the research has been geographically limited to the southern states of the country, with a matured microfinance industry, and has given little attention to how variations in cultural practices across different regions of the country may influence the impact of microfinance programs on its members. To fill the gap in the existing literature, three related studies of Indian women were conducted. The first study was a qualitative study of 35 women engaged in microfinance programs in the northern region of India. The study found that women engaged in microfinance programs reported having increased social networks, higher confidence and increased social awareness. The second and third studies used nationally representative data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) 2005-2006. Controlling for a variety of other individual-level and community-level characteristics, the second study examined if getting a microloan affected women’s access to public spaces, and the third examined if getting such a loan influenced married women’s participation in household decision-making. Both studies further investigated if the microloan effect on these dimensions of women’s empowerment varied by the normative context of woman’s respective communities. The results indicated that, all else equal, women who had ever taken a microloan were more likely to go alone to places outside their home such as market, health clinics and places outside the community compared to women who had never taken such a loan. Getting a microloan also had a positive effect on women’s participation in decisions about large household purchases and husband’s earnings. The hypothesized moderating effect of the normative context of women’s respective communities was found only for women’s participation in decisions about large household purchases. Getting a microloan had a stronger positive effect on women’s participation in these decisions if they lived in communities with restrictive gender norms.

M.Comm. / The aim of this study was to analyse and discuss the importance of rural advancement in the development of developing regions or countries, and KwaZulu-Natal was used as a case study. The literature focused on the backwardness of the rural areas and the importance of rural advancement for the development of less developed regions or countries. Development cannot be said to have taken place unless people's lives in general have improved. Large parts of developing regions or countries consists of rural areas. Furthermore, it appears that a large proportion of the population in the developing regions or countries live in rural areas. Rural advancement will, therefore, play a crucial role in the development of developing regions or countries. Amongst other things, it will improve the lives of the people living in rural areas, it will provide markets for both local factor inputs and locally produced goods and services, it will redistribute national income, it will reverse rural-urban migration by providing employment opportunities in the rural areas, and in general it will stimulate the rural economy. KwaZulu-Natal is one of the poorest provinces in South Africa, and a large proportion of KwaZulu-Natal's population live in non-urban areas. The development of KwaZulu-Natal will therefore to a great extent depend on the development of its rural parts. The rural areas in KwaZulu-Natal are subject to a number of factors that results in underdevelopment. Rural KwaZulu-Natal is poverty-stricken, low levels of human development prevail, there are high rates of unemployment, low productivity, low economic activity, and in general people in rural KwaZulu-Natal are subject to low standards of living. Economic activities in the province are concentrated to a large extent in the urban areas of the province. This suggests that development initiatives of the past were not focused on rural KwaZulu-Natal. Rural KwaZulu-Natal is also subject to high rates of political conflict, crime and violence which have hindered the development of the province. The provision of social and basic services in rural KwaZulu-Natal is inadequate, and the province is subject to environmental degradation. The study confirmed that rural advancement - through stimulation of the economic, social, political, and environmental dimensions of development - will play a crucial role in the future development of less developed regions or countries, in general.

The capability approach’s primary point of departure from mainstream economics may be stated simply: it perceives incomes and commodities value predominantly as instruments or means to other ends. In contrast to mainstream economics, the approach places individual freedom at the centre of its attention. Therefore, income is merely one of numerous variables that influence deprivation. The dissertation aligns itself with the capability approach to development in its conclusion that developments’ primary target ought to go beyond a study of the level of per capita incomes as it has more significant moral implication of diminished lives, agonised existences and a large percentage of premature preventable deaths. Therefore, the dissertation advocates a fundamental shift in the measures that economists utilise in their measurement of poverty. Accordingly, the dissertation suggests that the manner in which economists intellectualise the relationship between poverty and the lives that people lead requires alteration. The dissertation provides evidence, using regression analysis, that the democratic frameworks that are in place in Sub-Saharan Africa are failing to provide the negative freedoms that serve as the environment in which individual’s pursue their own conception of well-being. However, the dissertation acknowledges the constitutive and instrumental importance of democracy in the process of development. Therefore, the dissertation argues that it is the shape of democracy that has led to these results in Sub-Saharan Africa. As a repercussion, democracy remains an important ingredient in the development process. Instead of embracing the view that political freedom and, in particular, democracies failure to assist in human development is evidence of a flaw in the capability approach. The dissertation perceives the failure as an opportunity to re-evaluate the nature of democracies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, there is scope for policy makers to conceptualise and implement policies that will be able to harness the inherent strengths of democracy.

M.Comm. / The primary aim of this research is to indicate that the lack of economic progress in the Northern Province is basically caused by the absence of a strong manufacturing sector, particularly the chemical industry. The chemical industry is a key sector in both the primary and secondary sectors. In agriculture and mining it provides fertilizers and explosives respectively to increase output. Diversified farming will emerge as a direct response to a rise in agricultural output. As the population in the Northern Province is rapidly rising, the demand for agricultural products will also rise. This will have a positive influence on the income of farmers. As the income rises, production in agriculture will increase which will bring about a demand for implements, tractors and other equipment. In the manufacturing sector the chemical industry will stimulate the process of industrialisation in the Northern Province. The industrialisation process will involve the outward-orientation of the economy. This means that the chemical industry will act as a leading sector by showing forward and backward linkages. The economy of the Northern Province is performing poorly in terms of GGP. The role of the government in providing services cannot alone generate a sustainable economic growth. A sustainable economic growth in the Province can take place if the chemical industry plays a crucial role in producing chemicals which can be used in agriculture and manufacturing. Therefore this study will show that economic growth in the Northern Province can be sustained by growth in the chemical industry.

D.Comm. / The purpose of this study is to investigate the ways in which future development policy for post-apartheid South Africa must be structured. The motivation for the study stems from, firstly the way in which development issues were handled in the past, secondly the unique problematic nature of South Africa's development, and thirdly the shortcomings in the present proposals for development policy. If one examines the latest tendencies in the international literature on development policy, a shift in emphasis in the international approach to development since the late 1980s is discernible. Whereas the earlier emphasis in development policy was on the generating of economic growth which would have to trickle down to all levels of society, there has more recently been an increasing awareness of the important role which people must fulfil in the development process. According to the latest international literature on the subject, development must be a sustainable and humancentred process in which the protection of the environment, human security, and economic growth must be taken into account. As regards South Africa's development experience, this study came to the conclusion that the ways in which development issues were historically addressed were not successful. All policy initiatives were directed at the development of First World structures, the promotion of economic growth and the uplifting of minorities, while a ceiling was placed on opportunities for the development of the majority of the country's people. An economic growth pattern for development was thus advocated in which people and their development fulfilled a subordinate role. Although since the 1980s attempts have been made to stimulate development, these did not have political legitimacy in the eyes of the broader population and did not take place in a co-ordinated manner. The consequences of these policy initiatives are reflected in South Africa's current development problems. For the broader population, access to health, education and other essential services is either lacking or is of a poor quality. Human security is seriously threatened. Dualism occurs as regards the standard of human development and it is especially the black population, women and rural communities which have the greatest need for investment in human development. South Africa has limited environmental resources and in some areas has to deal with a degenerated environment. As regards economic growth, the economic growth pattern over the last two decades has seen the weakening of distribution of income, a reduction in per capita income and an increase in unemployment. The consequence of this is that approximately half of the population lives in poverty. Although since the early 1990s various policy documents have appeared with the aim of making policy proposals about the ways in which growth and development must be stimulated, none of these documents - including the Reconstruction and Development Programme - offers a satisfactory policy framework in which future development policy must be structured. As regards South Africa's unique development problems, the following proposals for a framework for future development policy are made: Development is the long-term goal which we endeavour to achieve. If a country really wants to benefit from the development process, it is necessary that development be a sustainable process. Sustainable development implies that development policy and decision-making in this regard must not only benefit the present generation, but future generations as well. A prerequisite for sustainable development, however, is that it must be humancentred. Development can therefore not be successful unless people and their choices are central to the development process. The humancentredness of development must therefore constitute the axis around which all development activities in South Africa must evolve. In order to ensure that sustainable development will be humancentred, it must, in accordance with the vision of the United Nations, be "pro-people, pro-jobs and pro-nature." Sustainable development is therefore a multidimensional and allinclusive concept with different dimensions. The discussion of a policy framework for South Africa examines the different dimensions which must be addressed in the development process in order to ensure that development in the long term will be people-centred and sustainable. The dimensions to be discussed include the social, economic, ecological, and also the political dimensions. Turning first to the social dimension, the ways in which people can be developed and their needs can be satisfied are discussed. Human development is thus regarded as the social dimension in the striving for sustainable development. Secondly the protection of the environment is discussed as the ecological dimension in the development process. Thirdly the striving for sustainable job-creating economic growth is regarded as the economic dimension in the development process. Lastly the political dimension of the development process is discussed, as it affects the successful formulation and facilitation of development policy. In addressing the different dimensions of the development process, the humancentreciness of the process must always be kept in mind. Humancentred development will clearly form the most important link in the striving for sustainable development in South Africa.

M.A. (Political Science) / In this study an investigation is made into: (a) the relationship between industrial conflict and political violence; (b) the role of organised labour in the strategy of revolution; and (c) the activities of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) as part of the revolutionary strategy of the ANC-led Liberation Alliance...

The weather derivative concept was created in the United States of America as a result of the deregulation of its energy industry. When other countries learnt of this concept they decided to enter the market as well. Thus a body called the Weather Risk Management Association was established. This body’s main function is to collate information pertaining to weather risk and to help the process of advancement and growth within the market. The weather risk market has grown tremendously and various participants across the world are using weather derivative products to protect the revenue of their respective companies against adverse weather condition. South Africa entered the weather risk market and it’s contracted its first weather contract in February 2000. The objective of this study is to evaluate the South African financial market perceptions on weather derivatives and to establish the feasibility of use. The study also places emphasis on the importance of evaluating the South African economic conditions in order to achieve the goal of the study. Hence the study evaluates the different aspects in terms of the legal, accounting, taxation, weather data, and structuring and pricing implications of a weather derivative transaction. Thus a survey was designed, forwarded, and received back from professionals in the legal, accounting, taxation, weather data, and structuring and pricing fields. This analysis was conducted to evaluate the South African financial market’s perceptions on weather derivative applications. / Prof. C.H. van Schalkwyk

M.Com. (Economics) / The aim of this study was to look at the economic survival problem that has been very much in appearance in South Africa, especially recently. This will translate into a study of poverty in South Africa. In the second chapter I tried to get a clearer definition of poverty by, firstly looking at some formal definitions relating to poverty and then to look more generally at other descriptions of poverty from a more economic point of view. In this chapter we also discuss the Lorenz curve and how that can be used to measure poverty using income and the consumption of the population. Following on from this, in the third chapter we look at some definitions and theories of income and consumption. The theories we look at are the following : The General Consumption theory of Keynes, the Relative Income Hypothesis, the Permanent Income Hypothesis and the Life Cycle Hypothesis. After narrowing down the main cause of poverty, in the next two chapters we look at some characteristics of the poor in the rural areas as well as in the urban and metropolitan areas. In the chapter concerning the poor in the rural areas, the characteristics we look at are among others, the income, climatic problems, educational problems and health problems of the poor communities in these areas. When we discuss the characteristics of the urban and metropolitan poor, we also discuss the occurrence of unemployment and some measures that can alleviate this problem. In the sixth chapter we look at a comparison of South Africa with other countries in the world regarding the poverty problem, mainly at where South Africa fits into the world picture. In the summary some possible solutions for the whole poverty problem is put forward.