As an alternative to commodity-based programming (in-kind aid), Cash Transfer Programming is attracting both humanitarian organizations' and institutional donors' attention. Unlike in-kind aid, Cash Transfer Programming transfers purchasing power directly to beneficiaries in the form of currency or vouchers for them to obtain goods and/or services directly from the local market. In distributing currency to beneficiaries, the private sector, especially financial service providers, plays a prominent role, due to the humanitarian sector's limited relevant resources. The present work unveils challenges for the private and humanitarian sectors, which hinder implementing Cash Transfer Programming. Based on primary and secondary qualitative data, the paper presents the main characteristics and the mechanisms of Cash Transfer Programming to explore how the private sector is involved with Cash Transfer Programming. Then, this study presents bottlenecks of reciprocal relationships between financial service providers and humanitarian organizations in Cash Transfer Programming.

No description available.

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / Through the Health and Safety Act, government has placed pressure on corporate organisations to exercise their duty of care and provide support to employees who may have psychological difficulties. Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP) is the one way in which organisations can fulfil their duty according to the Health and Safety Act. Human Resource is most important and valuable resource an organisation has which is often not even recognized. The effectiveness of an organisation is to a large extent dependent on the well-being of its staff. An employee assistance programme is designed to help employers manage issues of performance in the workplace. Employees manage the balance between work and personal pressures which have become increasingly part of daily life. Furthermore, the success of this programme depends on the flexibility it has according to the ever-changing needs of employees, organisations and society. The organisation in this study does not have formal assistance programmes in place to provide support to its employees who may have psychological difficulties. This study examines the need of an Employee Assistance Programme from the perception of both the employer and the employee and reveals that both groups have different needs, experience different types of problems and view the EAP in different contexts. Despite the differences in opinion, the evidence indicates that both employer and employee perceive there to be a great need for an EAP.

This study investigated the potential application of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in water supply, taking cognisance of the water demand and supply in the Central Coastal Namibian (CCN) mines. NamWater does not meet demand for the existing and planned mines in the CCN. Primary objective was to investigate and analyse water demand and supply as well as the effectiveness of PPP as a solution by exploring its potential, successes and challenges. In order to obtain relevant information, literature review was used to collect evidence on water demand and supply in the north-central Namibia as well as the application of PPP in provision of water supply. Multi-case studies were carried out on three operational mines, namely; Rio Tinto Rössing Uranium Mine, Langer Heinrich Uranium Mine and Areva Trekkopje Uranium Mine to attain empirical data on water supply requirements. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data supplemented by interviews with NamWater, operational mines within the study area, government institutions, and knowledgeable consultants on water and the mining environment. The key findings included: institutional weaknesses and lack of legislation frameworks to support PPP projects; skills shortage; and financing problems were identified as major challenges. Results further show that these problems could be resolved by effectively implementing a PPP approach, whereby the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) enters into a contract with the public authority. The study concludes that there is a need to increase water output to meet current and future supply requirements to these mines. This situation should be addressed by all stakeholders, from government to private sectors. The study recommends that a sea water desalination plant should be developed to increase water capacity supply to the existing operational and prospective mines in the area. The PPP approach is proposed as a possible solution to water supply infrastructure service delivery problem to ensure long-term water security in the CCN mines.

MAdmin / Department of Public and Development Administration / While globalization has created new opportunities for economic and social progress, it has also brought some costs such as the reduction of employee training programmes in the developing world and in private companies. As a result, poor employee job performance and failure to retain employees have become the norm in companies. This study explored the influence of employee training on employee job performance and employee retention in the Zimbabwean private sector. The study was quantitative in nature and it was conducted in two private sister companies namely Annualvest and Vast Africa. Stratified random sampling was used to choose the sample. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. This questionnaire comprised of four sections which measured the biographical data of the participants, employee training, job performance and retention. The training instrument was used to measure training and the individual work performance instrument (IWPQ 1, 0) was used to measure employee job performance. The turn-over intention instrument was used to measure employee retention. A statistical Software Package for Social Science (IBM- SPSS-2015) version 23 was used to analyse data. To establish the relationship between the research variables, the Spearman product moment correlation coefficient was used. Linear multiple regression analysis was performed to determine which dependent variable between job performance and employee retention is mostly affected by the independent variable (employee training). The study concluded that employee training has an influence on employee job performance and employee retention. However, a look at the different sub-scales of training shows that the availability of training proved to be the biggest predictor of job performance and employee retention of employees as compared to supervisor support and co-worker support on training. The study recommends that organisations should consider finding more resources to boost employee training. Policies must be put in place to encourage supervisor support and co-worker support on training.

The fundamental goal of this study was to measure the levels and causes of stress of employees in an organisation undergoing immense change, including a transaction whereby the full administrative and managed healthcare operations are sold to a prominent insurance company (acquisition). This change represents an acquisition of the intellectual capital and systems of a mutual open medical scheme by a major insurance company with a well established brand equity and profile in the South African insurance market. The importance of the study is imperative as it forms an integral part of the management of change programmes. The goal is to execute a paradigm shift in leaving behind old comfort zones and moving towards a competitive workforce in a highly competitive environment with an outcomes based approach to business. The identification of the most important levels and causes of work stress will enable the organization to address factual situations and to build these strategies into its change programmes, whilst not relying on generic, non-focused initiatives with marginal success outcomes. Some organisations are more stressful than others and in order to manage stress and embark on effective strategies to cope with stress, the unique disposition of the organisation and its employees needed to be identified. The data was collected electronically via the organisation’s Intranet by means of the Experience of Work and Life Circumstances Questionnaire (WLQ), compiled by Van Zyl and Van der Walt of the Human Sciences Research Council in 1991. The questionnaire was developed to determine the levels and causes of stress of employees. The WLQ endeavours to establish whether employees experience normal, high or very high levels of stress and also identify those factors which cause these levels of stress. The questionnaire consists of three different parts namely, a demographic questionnaire, experience of work which determine the levels of stress and finally, circumstances and expectations which analyses the causes of stress. It was clear from the study that organisational change, such as is experienced by the employees of this organisation, does lead to increased and higher stress levels. It was further demonstrated from the results that uncertainty and lack of control over their own destiny and immediate circumstances, contributed to an increase in the levels of stress. Copyright 2009, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: V an Zyl, P 2009, The measurements of levels and causes of work stress of employees in a competitive open medical scheme in the privater sector, MCom dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-03152012-170001 / > C12/4/69/gm / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

Blended finance (“BF”) is a form of structuring finance which involves using foreign aid to leverage commercial funding to a project. The topic is generally under researched, despite its increased importance in development finance and as a tool in attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This research set out to investigate if BF was being applied in a justified manner in private sector renewable energy (“RE”) projects in Sub-Saharan Africa (“SSA”). The first two sub-questions looked at the criteria considered when qualifying projects for BF, and the factors influencing terms offered. The final sub-question was to seek operational evidence of appropriate BF usage. Data was collected through a series of semi-structured interviews with Donors, Development Finance Institutions (“DFIs”) and research institutions and analyzed using an inductive thematic approach. A descriptive case study was used to answer the final sub-question, and involved interviews with key individuals involved with the BF approval process in the selected project. The results suggest that BF is being applied in a justified manner. Sub-question one found that there is a difference in the criteria considered by Donors and DFIs when offering BF. Donor principles appear to be broader, due to their limited engagement on individual projects and delegated investment authority to DFIs. Having a development rationale and economic case for the use of BF was a prominent theme with DFIs and Donors. Factors influencing the BF terms offered to projects were difficult to extract due to the sensitive nature of the topic. Four factors did emerge, with minimizing concessionality being an overarching theme. For the final sub-question, the Mocuba Solar project was used as a case study and provided much needed evidence on the detailed processes followed in assessing the projects need for BF and how terms were derived. This research sheds light on the project level use of BF in the SSA RE IPP context and identifies areas where improvements can be made. Having more BF case studies and an agreed definition of BF for reporting purposes were recommendations to ensure BF is applied effectively.

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This study is directed towards the relationship between the economic environment in Nigeria and its indigenous private sector from 1960 to 1980. Nigeria practices mixed capitalism aided by the national government, foreign governments and international agencies. The 1972 and 1977 Indigenization Decrees were passed to eliminate foreigners from certain economic fields to be replaced by Nigerian citizens. The economic environment of Nigeria is less than suitable for the operation of modern business. Roads, telephones, telex services, electricity services, law and order and a few other critical underpinnings of business are inefficiently provided for in the economic system of the country. Despite the unfortunate economic environment Nigerian Entrepreneurs, especially the Ibos, have been particularly industrious. However, indigenous private enterprise in the country has not been especially successful.

Globally, more than two billion people suffer from deficiencies in micronutrients that are essential for human health. Low-income populations in low- and middle-income countries are especially vulnerable to these deficiencies. There are three priority interventions used to reduce micronutrient deficiencies and improve overall nutrition status — supplementation, fortification, and diet diversity. As the share of food purchases made by low-income households has been increasing, there is increasing interest in the role the private sector can play in these interventions. Currently, there is little known about the potential for a market-based approach to contribute to improvements in diet diversity. Proven to be one of the most effective ways of improving nutritional status, increasing diet diversification among low-income populations will be essential for reducing micronutrient deficiencies in the long-term. The purpose of this research is to contribute evidence on the potential for a market-based approach to increase diet diversity among low-income households in Mozambique. This research starts by examining the extent to which low-income consumers in Nampula, Mozambique make diverse food purchases and the amount they are willing to pay for such diversity. Since diet diversification is intended to improve health, the connections between individual-level health constructs and diversity of food purchases is subsequently investigated. These studies are then used as the basis for a participatory community-based intervention that explores if health constructs influence modifications in food purchases and the barriers and enabling factors that exist to using the market to increase household diet diversity. The findings of this work reveal that there is potential for markets to contribute to the diversity of foods consumed by low-income households; however, concerted efforts between the private, public, and civil sectors will likely be required for the success and longevity of market-based approaches. / Doctor of Philosophy / Though we usually think of hunger in terms of not getting enough to eat, there is another form, known as 'hidden hunger', which refers to not eating enough of the right types of foods. This results in not getting enough of the nutrients, such as iron or vitamin A, that are essential for human health and development. People living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are especially vulnerable to this type of hunger, as their diet typically is comprised of calorie-rich but nutrient-deficient foods. One of the most effective ways to reduce hidden hunger, is to eat a variety of foods that are rich in micronutrients (e.g., fruits, vegetables, legumes, meat). In LMICs, governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have created programs to encourage this so-called 'diet diversity' by encouraging households to produce different types of food crops or plant kitchen gardens. These programs have been successful in increasing diet diversity, however, significant portions of the population in LMICs still lack diversity in their diets. We now know that an increasing number of low-income households in LMICs are purchasing at least some of their foods from markets. Thus, there is increasing interest in the role that businesses and food purchases can play in increasing the diversity of the diet among households that may be suffering from hidden hunger. The purpose of this research was to explore this possibility. First, I investigated if low-income consumers are already purchasing diverse foods from the market in Mozambique, and, if they are, how much are they willing to pay for this diversity. Second, I explored how the diversity of these purchases are related to what individuals believe about the connection between diet diversity and health. Then I conducted a community-based intervention, where low-income households participated in a nutrition and food-purchasing education and worked with facilitators to find ways that worked for them to increase the diversity of the foods they purchased from the market. The findings of this study show that it may be possible to use the market and food purchases to increase the diet diversity of low-income households, but that support from governments and NGOs will likely be required in order to be successful in reducing hidden hunger in the long-term.