Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Dissertation (MEng (Water Utilization))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Chemical Engineering / unrestricted

A research dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of a Master of Management in Public Policy (MMPP) The University of Witwatersrand Wits School of Governance 26 February 2015 / This research dissertation investigates what factors drive poverty in South Africa using annual data from 1996 to 2013. In an attempt to contribute towards a better understanding of what contributes to poverty in South Africa, the researcher adopted three types of research questions: a contextual research question, a main research question and an applied research question. The central questions of this study was “what drives poverty in South Africa?” and “how do these drivers influence poverty trends in South Africa?” The study recognises poverty as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, in addition to the unidimensional money-metric definition of poverty for analysis purposes. Consequently although the study adopts the monetary definition of poverty as a framework to poverty analysis; it also incorporates other variables that capture the multi-dimensional nature of poverty relevant to the South African context. The study uses various data analysis tools including descriptive statistics, line graphs, bivariate analysis, and trend analysis to investigate the relationship between poverty and the variables in this study. Consistent with Klasen (2000) and Finn et al. (2013), the main findings were that there is a negative relationship between poverty and government expenditure on health, housing, energy, public order and safety, and access to credit in South Africa. On the contrary, government expenditure on education is found not to reduce poverty in South Africa, neither is unemployment found to increase poverty in South Africa. The research concluded that although certain variables are expected to reduce or increase poverty, remedial policy interventions by Government and country specific economic structure mitigate these a prior expectations. From these findings the researcher makes recommendations, contributing to how scholars (and government) can further their attempt to alleviate poverty in South Africa. / MT 2018

Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2008 / Refer to document

“All religions emphasize the need to support charity, welfare and the disadvantaged. Obligatory giving is, thus, a manifestation of spirituality. This is why religious communities are capable, like no other sector of society, of mobilizing enormous resources for poverty alleviation and development initiative” (Maharaj & Chetty, 2007:82). Most African countries are faced with serious and worsening poverty (Wogaman, 1986:47), and one of greatest issues that demands our immediate attention within the church and society is poverty alleviation. Wogaman (1986:47) further argues that the increase in production has not served to bridge the great historic chasm between rich and poor. Hence, the church needs to direct its attention and its activity to poverty alleviation so that it becomes an advocate for the poor. Lawrence (2012:1) argued that we are created for fellowship with other people and also depend on God for our survival. Therefore, poverty touches all of God’s creatures and not simply those who experience it directly. Poverty prevents human beings from realizing their potential; it creates barriers of inequality between people, and bars people from experiencing the abundance of God’s creation.

Thesis (M.Com. (Development Theory and Policy))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2015. / Food price inflation has been an important subject of debate internationally since 2008. This sharp increase in food prices experienced during 2008 lead to intense research into the causes, dynamics and responses to this particular instance of food price inflation. The international literature attributed food price inflation to such factors as climate change, increases in energy costs and speculative activity in financial markets for agricultural commodities. This research report undertakes a review of the measurement of food price inflation in South Africa, broadly assessing how it is to be linked to the poor in South Africa. The research report focuses on the work of institutions concerned with the measurement of food price inflation in South Africa. Different methodologies of identifying foods as food staples are looked at. Food prices and trends are analysed using CPI data from January 2008 until October 2008, using selected consumer price index series from Statistics South Africa. The research report finds that the institutions studied show evidence of that higher food price inflation is correlated with demographic markers of poverty, although the traditional measure, the CPI, does not suggests that this is very extensive. This, it is argued, is due to the calculation methodologies used in the published CPI, and the data period. The research report then ends with an overview of the political economy of food in South Africa, thereby makes recommendations as to why the measurement of food price inflation is important for the poor.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg, March 2017 / This thesis focuses on group of poorer white South Africans who have settled, informally and illegally, in a former caravan park on the West Rand of Johannesburg, The King Edward Park. It is enthographic study that explores the socio-economic genealogies of the poorer white residents of the park, the everyday practices of making livelihoods, and attempt to produce ideologies of South African blackness. [Abbreviated Abstract. Open document to view full version] / MT 2018

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Thesis (MPA) --University of Limpopo, 2010 / Rural households have always faced a variety of risks which rendered them vulnerable to poverty; hence, they have continuously adopted different risk-spreading strategies aimed at reducing and/or de-concentrating the risks that they face. However, there is always a chance that risk-spreading strategies adopted by rural households could intensify or increase the levels of vulnerability to poverty, because most of them are too informal and ineffective. The study examines different risks that households in the rural areas face, including their implication for levels of vulnerability to poverty. The effects of risk-spreading strategies on household level of vulnerability are analysed using a sample of 100 households from Tsianda village. The survey results reflect that a variety of risks faced in the village have a cumulative effect on households’ vulnerability to poverty. However, the risk-spreading strategies appear to be more helpful for the better-off households than for the poor, because the former experience short-term risks whereas the latter face apparently multiple perpetual risks. The village’s political, social, economic, cultural, institutional, technological and environmental contexts seem to perpetuate the status quo against the efforts of the poor households. The study concludes that the political,social, economic, cultural, institutional, technological and environmental contexts in the rural area have a huge impact on the concentration of risks that households face, the risk-spreading that they adopt and also their level of vulnerability to poverty. Hence, the poorer households’ risk-spreading strategies are not effective to reduce and de-concentrate the risks; moreover theyintroduce them to new risks and high level of vulnerability to poverty. / University of Limpopo

The number of South Africans that fall beneath “a commonly accepted poverty line” has risen from 17 million in 1996 to 23.5 million in 2008 (CDE, 2008: 6). The escalating poverty levels and the critical shortage of state-driven poverty alleviation programmes have led to the expansion of a space in which civil society organisations are attempting to address South Africa's development deficit. Given the potential and actual influence of such organisations, specifically faith-based organisations (FBOs), in poverty alleviation programmes, coupled with recent debates on the dark side of associational life, this research examines FBOs in terms of Putnam's conception of bonding and bridging social capital. Examining one particular FBO, in which no evidence of bonding social capital or exclusion is found, the research questions Putnam's rather narrow perception. However, strict gate keeping exercises on the part of the FBO, a lack of empirical data and the presence of complex social realities prevent a comprehensive evaluation of the FBO. Unable to prove whether this FBO provides a suitable model for the government to implement or whether the FBO is an appropriate candidate for government to partner with in the fight against poverty, it is proposed that a more wide-scale investigation of the programme and its participants, be conducted. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

What role can the commercialisation of natural resource products play in the efforts to reduce poverty and vulnerability and how can this be enhanced? With poverty alleviation at the top of the global development agenda, this is a question posed by many scholars, practitioners, donor agencies and government departments operating at the environment-development interface. However, recent commentary on this issue is mixed and ambiguous, with some observers being quite optimistic regarding the potential of these products, while others hold a counter view. This thesis explores the livelihood contributions and poverty alleviation potential of four products traded locally in the Bushbuckridge municipality, South Africa; namely traditional brooms, reed mats, woodcraft and a beer made from the fruits of Sclerocarya birrea. A common approach, employing both quantitative and qualitative methods, was used to investigate the harvesting, processing and marketing arrangements, sustainability and livelihood contributions of each product. The results illustrate that any inference regarding the potential of the trade to alleviate poverty depends on how poverty is defined and interpreted, and on whether the role of these products is assessed from a holistic livelihood perspective that includes notions of vulnerability, alternatives and choice, diversification and the needs of rural producers themselves. Overall, the products studied were key in enhancing the livelihood security of the poorest members of society, forming an important safety net and assisting in raising household incomes to levels equivalent to the wider population, but generally were unlikely, on their own, to provide a route out of poverty. However, there were notable exceptions, with marked variation evident both within and across products. Incomes often surpassed local wage rates, and a minority of producers were obtaining returns equivalent to or greater than the official minimum wage. Other benefits, such as the opportunity to work from home or to diversify the livelihood portfolio, were also crucial, with the trade representing different livelihood strategies for different households. When viewed within the context of rising unemployment and HIV/AIDS these findings assume greater significance. While the trades were complex and growth limited, livelihood benefits could be improved on a sustainable basis if the sector was given the attention and support it deserves.