MRDV / Institute for Rural Development / See the attached abstract below

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the Masters of Art (Community Work) in the Department of Social Work University of Zululand, South Africa, 2001. / This study is about the significance of income generating projects in Kwa-Ngwanase area. The study was conducted on poverty alleviation projects funded by the Department of Welfare and Population Development As an evaluative research, semi-structured interviews were conducted. A sample of twenty projects was drawn, fourty respondents were interviewed where two were from each project-Related literature has been reviewed that focuses on poverty alleviation and income generating projects. Various recommendations have been made based on the findings of the study. The findings of the study indicated a need for training project members in capacity building. Project members also need to be motivated in one way or the other so that they can develop a sense of ownership and work hard for the success of their own projects. The research findings indicated clearly that the strategies and policies were not effective enough in achieving the desired goals of poverty alleviation.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Community work at the University of Zululand in the Department of Social Work, 2010. / The advent of the democratic transformation in South Africa during 1994, brought with it high hope that income , poverty and inequity would soon be significantly reduced from the high levels that existed during the Apartheid era. Though the development approach was adopted by the Department of Social Development in 1997, it has, however, not yet achieved its purpose. The poverty alleviation programme came as a ubstitut4 of maintenance grants. The grants were phased out in the period of three years whilst the Department of Social Development ws introducing the new approach of funding community projects. The study is about the impact of income generating projects by women in Utrecht area. The study was conducted on poverty alleviation projects funded by the Department of Social Development. An evaluative research method was followed in wwhich data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. A sample of twenty projects was drawn and respondents were interviewed where two were from each project. Related literature has been reviewed that focuses on poverty alleviation and income generating projects. .Various recommendations have been made on the findings of the study. The findings of the study indicated the need for training project members in capacity building. Project members also need to be motivated in one way or another so that they can develop a sense of ownership and work hard for the success of their own projects. Progress in poverty alleviation has been very slow and uneven. Community projects have failed poverty-stricken communities to improve their socio-economic standards. The research findings indicated clearly that the strategies and policies were not effective enough in achieving the desired goals of poverty alleviation. It has been noted that what actually made programmes for poverty alleviation to be disabled ea its implementation in the community.

Women playa vital role in the agricultural sector of many developing economies. However, their efforts have been largely taken for granted, their needs ignored, and their work remains statistically invisible. Since statistics are supposed to function as tools in planning, this has widespread consequences - the continued neglect of women's activities especially as this relates to development. Although the importance of the role of women in development has of recent been acknowledged, the approach at a planning and operational level has been minimal. This has led to questions about the limitations of focussing on women in isolation and instead examining ways of focussing on gender which is the core of this research. In view of this, this research provides a framework for integrating women into the mainstream of development activities without treating them as a homogenous group, using a case study approach of women in the fisheries sector in Igbokoda fishing community, Nigeria. This study uses primary data collected through a household survey from a sample of 300 women over a period of 5 months. The survey covers three major areas - the gender division of labour and time allocation to activities; the gender allocation of responsibilities (responsibility for household expenditure by gender); and access and control of men and women to productive resources. Another aspect that is important to this research concerns development projects - past and present - and the impact these have on women. The overall purpose of this study is to demonstrate that gender roles constitute a key variable in the socioeconomic condition of any country - one that can be decisive in the success or failure of development plans. The major results of the study suggest that women in this community (as in many agricultural communities of developing economies) are working longer hours than men. They spend on average about 13% more time on income-earning activities and 9% less on leisure than men. They also spend on average 70% of their earnings on household food and basic needs. Only about 3.3% of the women studied had access to modem technology and extension services/literacy and training programmes. This research argues that women's work is critical to the survival of their families, they are key actors in the economic system, and their neglect in development plans has left untapped a potentially large economic contribution.

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No description available.

Call number: LD2668 .P7 1975 H35

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Murdoch University, 2009. / Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Sustainability, Environmental and Life Sciences. Includes bibliographical references (p. 333-347)

Public-private partnership (PPP) is an innovative funding mechanism for state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) to utilize private capital and expertise in transportation infrastructure projects, so as to increase funding options to bridge the budget gap of DOTs. In this thesis research, a literature synthesis was conducted to clarify key concepts including reviews on the literature of PPP and toll projects, investigation of the state-of-art financial models, presentation of problems in toll revenue estimation and summarization of the significance of conducting risk management in PPP investments. Financial models can provide public sectors and private partners with an analysis tool to evaluate the potential returns of investments and financial feasibility of the projects. This research develops a methodological framework to illustrate key stages in applying the simulation of investment returns of toll projects. This methodological framework of risk analysis for financing toll projects acts as an example process of helping agencies conduct numerical risk analysis by taking certain uncertainties associated with toll projects into consideration. The numerical financial model provides a deterministic financial evaluation for the project. Next, there are four risk sources identified in this research, including project-based risks, cost-based risks, toll-based risks and finance-based risks. For each risk source, critical variables are recognized. Furthermore, probability distributions of identified variables are suggested. The deterministic financial evaluation result is obtained through the projected single-value estimates of these variables. By considering the variability associated with the components of a project, the Monte Carlo simulation technique is used to estimate the overall project risks. Risk simulation results are interpreted through various numerical measures of project’s risks, which further provide agencies with quantitative information to set investment decision criteria. For risk optimization, there are two main functions. One is to explore the optimal value-combination of variables so as to help set risk control benchmarks. The other is to utilize the single-variable control method to investigate the optimal total revenue considering the impact of toll prices on the traffic demand, which could assist agencies in setting threshold toll prices in order to achieve the goal revenue and maximize potential returns on the investment. The risk analysis, consisting of risk simulation and risk optimization, can give the statistical distribution of investment returns for a project under analysis, providing decision makers with a direct approach to the evaluation of the projects’ financial risks and the development of recommendations for risk control measures. / text

Subcontractors have finite resources that should be allocated simultaneously across many projects in a dynamic manner. Significant scheduling problems are posed by concurrent multi-projects with limited resources. Unfortunately, with a lack of appropriate models, subcontractors mostly make decisions based on their previous experiences to allocate their resources to multiple projects. Moreover, subcontractors frequently reallocate their resources in response to schedule changes and site conditions. In response to schedule changes or project demand, these factors should be taken into account before reallocating resources: site conditions, completion dates, overtime usage, productivity, and complementarity. This research has developed a descriptive cost model for a subcontractor with multi-resources and multi-projects. The model was designed for a subcontractor to use as a decision-making tool for resources allocation and scheduling. The model identified several factors affecting productivity. Moreover, when the model was tested using hypothetical data, it produced some effective combinations of resource allocation with associated total costs. The objective of this thesis is to identify the effect of productivity changes on the total cost resulting from shifting crews across projects using a descriptive model. Furthermore, a subcontractor minimizes total costs by balancing overtime costs, tardiness penalties, and incentive bonus, while satisfying available processing time constraints. / text