Across the world, war has been declared against poverty because of its devastating effects on local communities. The world has made a concerted effort to fight the effects of poverty through developmental agencies and regional integration bodies such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organisation (WTO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). In an effort to complement the efforts of the above–mentioned agencies and bodies, the South African government has developed its own poverty alleviation strategies, policies, initiatives and Acts that focus primarily on alleviation of poverty on the level of local government. The Constitution of South Africa, 1996 provides the guidelines to several regulations and Acts (such as the Development and Facilitation Act, 67 of 1995, the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act, 32 of 2000, and the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, 117 of 1998.) that support the alleviation of poverty on the local sphere of government. The Integrated Development Planning programme was formulated and implemented to alleviate poverty at this level. The purpose of this study was to determine how the level of poverty within the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality could be alleviated through effective integrated development planning. A quantitative approach was followed because the target population response rate was expected to be large. In addition, the research design for this study included a literature review, analyses of official documents, observation and data sampling through questionnaires and scientific analysis of the responses. The study found that IDP objectives aligned to service delivery targets were unclear and did not depict the aspirations and needs of the community. The programmes aimed at the infrastructure coupled with skills development programmes and job creation initiatives could assist in the alleviation of poverty. / M Development and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Small towns internationally and in South Africa are becoming increasingly marginalised, and they are often experiencing economic downturn, demographic shifts and a rearticulation of their role in the urban hierarchy. In the case of South Africa many of these small towns are also faced with low levels of social development. The urgent need to address such conditions is evident by the fact that a large proportion of the South African population resides in small towns, and their surrounding hinterlands. This said, there are examples of small towns, internationally and in South Africa which, through the use of various Local Economic Development actions, have managed to remain sustainable, and in some cases become economically viable localities once again. In light of the above, the research conducted for this thesis seeks first to establish the socio-economic changes occurring over time in three small towns in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, namely Stutterheim, Bedford and Hamburg. Secondly, the research aims to identify the nature of LED activities in the three small towns, highlighting those factors contributing to the success of LED initiatives as well as those factors inhibiting LED in small towns. This is done with the intention of developing future lessons for LED in small towns. The research was conducted using a mix of qualitative and quantitative data generated through the interviews with key role players in each town, as well as secondary data sources. Findings from the research suggest that the small towns investigated are characterised by low levels of socio-economic development. In addition, it appears that the development opportunities for the towns are limited. Current initiatives are being driven by private role players with local government being largely uninvolved. Such initiatives are limited in nature, with benefits only felt by small groups of the local community. However, examples do exist of where LED has successfully benefited the broader spheres of the local community, thus suggesting that if implemented properly such an approach does have potential to assist in the socio-economic development of small towns. In light of this, a number of lessons are identified for LED in small towns, including the need for strong leadership, community involvement, partnerships between role players, and planning for project sustainability.

Local authorities in South Africa need to compile and implement local economic development plans. These plans are not only required by law as a component of integrated development plans, but also emanate from the pressing needs of many communities for development, job creation, and greater welfare and prosperity. A review of the historical and theoretical background reveals changing approaches and different theories to defend the actions taken. A critique of typical strategies and processes reveals that no one strategy or process can be universally applied, but that these should be adapted to the community's unique circumstances. Shortcomings and appropriate applications are indicated. The management plan presents a process to enable local authorities in partnership with the community to compile a plan for locally generated and directed development. This plan can, but need not, be a component of an integrated development plan and is thus compatible with integrated development planning and the formulation of local development objectives. The plan draws on a number of planning methodologies including urban planning, city marketing, strategic planning and neuro-linguistic programming approaches. Techniques from these and community development methodologies are included to guide the community through the process of creating a vision, analysis, goal setting, plan and strategy formulation, implementation and review. This management plan is designed as a generic process that can be applied to a variety of circumstances. The flexible nature of the process permits innovation and adaptations to local needs and other fields of planning. It also provides scope for further research on theories, methodologies and techniques. / Geography / D.Phil. (Geography)

My project takes place in Korsten four kilometers north of central Port Elizabeth. Korsten is today known as the industrial center of the city and provides job opportunities throughout the whole region. Central Korsten contains the biggest informal market within Port Elizabeth; it is also functioning as a nodal interchange where buses and minibus taxis provide transport within the city as well as nationwide. In 2010 major changes in the transport system will take place as a part of the 2010 world cup program. The city introduces the new Bus rapid transit system, a transportation system based on trunk buses complimented with minibus taxis. Introducing a new bus-system to Korsten will be a great challenge especially concerning Korstens informal identity and tradition. The informal economy is today an integral part of the South African economy and something that most South Africans come in contact with on daily bases. But it is an economy and movement not measurable or regulated by the government. The informal economy got its own rules and traditions and it flourishes in Korsten. It creates job opportunities as well as a possibility to buy everyday goods to a reasonable price, but it also contributes to a hectic and unstructured environment which gives a chaotic impression. This dissertation highlights the informal tradition and its possibility to be an integral part of the modern Korsten. It investigates the meaning of the public space and what role it plays in our cities and how it can be implemented in Korsten. / Available at: erik_tellden(at)hotmail.com +46702267034

The influence of local economic development strategic leaders on how Integrated Development Plans (IDP) are developed is critical to gain insights into strategic planning directed towards economically developing municipalities. Concisely, the aim of this qualitative study was to gain a multiple understanding of how LED strategic leaders, namely managers of the LED directorate and sub-directorates at Makana local municipality influenced the IDP formulation. The fact that these LED strategic leaders, ‘make consequential or strategic decisions’ suggests that their decisions have an influence on the IDP formulation. Thus, the key research question in this study was: How do LED strategic leaders at Makana local municipality influence the formulation of the IDP at this municipality? This qualitative research used purposive sampling of incidents upheld by LED Strategic leaders. A total of ten in-depth and semi-structured interviews were conducted with four LED strategic leaders regarding incidents of their perceived influence on the formulation of the Integrated Development Plan at Makana. The interviews were in-depth in order to gain a rich understanding of their perspectives of reality. As the number of LED strategic leaders was already very small, all the four leaders at Makana participated in this study. Interview data was transcribed and analyzed using open coding and constant comparison. Member check was conducted to enhance confirmability of the findings of this study. Findings indicate that LED strategic leaders perceived their influence on the formulation of the IDP Makana municipality in four varied ways. Predominantly, LED strategic leaders commonly perceived that they had influence in setting evidence-driven direction, and searching for fitness of activities and issues with LED strategy. Thereafter, the other ways in which these LED strategic leaders perceived how they influenced the IDP formulation involve the facilitation of clarity and local relevance of LED mandates, and finally the integration of multiple economic voices of stakeholders. This demonstrates that LED strategic leaders at Makana emphasize proactively managing strategy process rather than content in terms of identifying key opportunities and major economic drivers in the local milieu. Instead, they perceived their influence as characterized by enhancing compliance with bringing the process of municipal strategy formulation closer to stakeholders. Implications of these findings are highlighted.

MAdmin / Department of Public and Development Administration / This study focused on The Integrated Development Plan as a strategy to empower informal traders using Thohoyandou as the case study. The study was conducted at Thulamela Municipality and at the informal markets of Thohoyandou. The researcher used two population groups; the municipal officials and the informal traders. The researcher made use of both qualitative and quantitative methods as the study was explorative in nature; 50 informal traders were sampled and took part in the study and on the other hand, 20 municipal officials were sampled and participated in the study. The researcher made use a pilot survey to two groups of population to test the efficacy of the interviews schedule as well the questionnaires as data collection instruments. SPSS and Microsoft excel were used as tools for data analysis. The results show that Thulamela Municipality’s IDP strategy is not doing enough for the informal markets in Thohoyandou. However, respondents indicated that shortcomings such as Limited Budget affect the success of IDP on informal trading. Initiatives such as the provision of loans, workshops, training and promotion of LED programmes were indicated as having been put in place in an effort to empower informal traders, although a number of informal traders in the Thohoyandou area are forever increasing, through urbanisation and migration which pose serious control challenges to the municipality. To manage informal trading in Thohoyandou, the researcher recommended that there could be: preferences on trading fee/levies; provision of services and infrastructures to informal traders; enhancing public participation; limiting overtrading, integrated management planning, policy formulations and that future researchers can be more specific on aspects such as: situation of foreign traders; constitutionality of by-laws and trading at intersections.

MPM / Oliver Tambo Institute of Governance and Policy Studies / See the attached abstract below

Magister Artium - MA / Recent years have seen an upsurge of interest from governments and development organisations in adopting the Public Private Partnership (PPP) approach when developing and operating ecotourism projects. A PPP is a contract between a public sector institution and a private party, in which the private party assumes substantial financial, technical and operational risk in the design, financing, building and operation of a project (South African National Treasury 2004). Countries such as India, China and Kenya have developed numerous projects through PPPs. Protected Areas have followed suit in adopting the PPP approach, to be able to focus on their core business, namely conservation. To date, relevant research on PPP ecotourism projects, specifically pro-poor tourism approach is fragmented, limited in scope, and lacks examples that can assist practitioners in embedding pro-poor tourism principles in the PPP methodology. Academically, studies are largely evaluations that compare progress against projects’ defined objectives or broad based sustainable tourism goals. However, this study is an assessment of a tourism development from a pro-poor tourism perspective. Thus, this study interrogated the extent to which ecotourism PPP at De Hoop is pro-poor. Furthermore, the study sought to establish if rural local communities living in and near De Hoop PPP benefit and how their benefits can be enhanced. Pro-poor tourism indicators are used in this study as a theoretical base to evaluate De Hoop PPP.

[ES] Esta investigación recoge distintos puntos de vista y percepciones en torno a los impedimentos de comunicación de la acción cultural, en especial entre personas que viven en pobreza, en la República Dominicana. La misma se basa en un extenso análisis bibliográfico y de opinión y contó con la participación de más de 1,800 internautas, de más de 300 estudiantes de bachillerato, de casi una veintena de expertos y de cerca de una decena de residentes rurales para presentar una correlación entre cultura, desarrollo, (des)igualdad y comunicación. Se pretende contextualizar la realidad de la República Dominicana en materia de comunicación, acción y educación cultural, así como la percepción que tiene el dominicano en torno a las desigualdades en el campo cultural. En el proceso se identificaron oportunidades de mejora e ideas para maximizar la difusión de acciones culturales. / [CA] Esta investigación arreplega distints punts de vista i percepcions entorn dels impediments de comunicació de l'acció cultural, en especial entre persones que viuen en pobresa, en la República Dominicana. La mateixa es basa en una extensa anàlisi bibliogràfica i d'opinió i va comptar amb la participació de més de 1,800 internautes, de més de 300 estudiants de batxillerat, de quasi una vintena d'experts i de prop d'una desena de residents rurals per a presentar una correlació entre cultura, desenrotllament, (dónes) igualtat i comunicació. Es pretén contextualitzar la realitat de la República Dominicana en matèria de comunicació, acció i educació cultural, així com la percepció que té el dominicà entorn de les desigualtats en el camp cultural. En el procés es van identificar oportunitats de millora i idees per a maximitzar la difusió d'accions culturals. / [EN] This research collects different points of view and perceptions about the communication impediments of the cultural action, especially among people living in poverty, in the Dominican Republic. It is based on an extensive bibliographical and opinion analysis and a series of interactions involving more than 1,800 Internet users, more than 300 high school students, almost twenty experts and about ten rural residents to present a correlation between culture, development, (dis)equality and communication. The aim is to contextualize the reality of the Dominican Republic in terms of communication, cultural action and education, as well as the perception that the Dominican individuals have, regarding the inequalities in the cultural field. Throughout this process, opportunities for improvement and ideas for maximizing the dissemination of cultural actions were identified. / Martinez Sosa, MI. (2020). Comunicación de la cultura en la República Dominicana, impedimentos para la difusión y su relación con la pobreza [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/156036

In recent decades tourism has asserted its importance as the biggest employer and foreign exchange earner in both the developing and developed countries. Consequently, there has been increasing attention to tourism development as a strategy to stimulate economic growth, local economic development and poverty alleviation, especially in the developing countries. This study was undertaken with the objective of determining the direct benefits of the growth in tourism to the local communities in the vicinity of protected areas in South Africa's Mpumalanga Province. The tourism sector is strategically located within the economic mainstream as it links easily with other sectors of the economy such as agriculture, hospitality, transport and entertainment. It has added advantages, including the fact that the tourist product is consumed at the destination. This offers local communities opportunities in job creation, skills development, economic empowerment and social development. The study found that meaningful involvement of local communities in the tourism industry through ownership of tourism-related enterprises was almost non-existent. There were no meaningful linkages between the industry and the local communities other than the communities' supply of unskilled labour. There were also no programmes aimed at harnessing the phenomenal growth in South Africa's tourism for the economic empowerment of local communities. The economic empowerment of local communities need not be achieved through the ownership of tourism-related enterprises only, but may also include shareholding, outsourcing, affirmative procurement and social responsibility programmes by the industry.The continued marginalisation of the local communities by the tourism industry was attributed to unsatisfactory progress with the industry's transformation. The launch of the Tourism Black Economic Empowerment Charter and Scorecard in 2005 provided impetus for the transformation of South Africa's tourism industry. However, more work still needs to be done in the identified areas of ownership and control of tourism-related businesses, distribution of tourism benefits and the development of tourism-related skills and entrepreneurial culture in local communities. The role of the private sector in stimulating community involvement in tourism is particularly important. The private sector is singled out because of government policy that tourism development would be regulated by government and be private-sector driven. Furthermore, the private sector has the capacity and the resources to mobilise, not only to improve the attractiveness and marketing of a destination and the overall management of the tourism industry, but also to build thriving local communities. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)