Thesis (M.Sc. (Environmental Science and Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Environmental Science and Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Environmental Science and Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

This thesis focuses on support of tourism, namely grants of private entities. There are described ex post assessments of Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2007-2013 impacts in this thesis. The programme focused on accommodation and sports devices in the region Jihočeský kraj (CZ). The influence of the support and the utilization range of new services are analysed here. There is measured a success rate of support in conclusion and there is also given an advice, how to improve the support efficiency.

In this thesis the feasibility of making social transfers conditional in South Africa is examined with specific focus on the Child Support Grant. Currently, there are more than 8.7 million children receiving Child Support Grants, which is impacting positively on poverty alleviation. Yet, social outcomes, especially in health and education are poor. The conditionality of transfers will compel the parents/guardians of these children to ensure that the children regularly attend school and also utilise the health services. Conditional cash transfers, by their nature, attempt to address the low demand for these services, which are available but are not being utilised. The National Income Dynamic Study (NIDS) is employed to test empirically whether it will be feasible to institute conditionality to the CSG. The methodology adopted is to determine if there is any statistically significant difference (education and health outcomes) between the recipients of the CSG with non-recipients of the CSG. Moreover, the population (as extrapolated from the sample) is separated into four groups, namely, children that qualify and receive the grant (QR), children that qualify and do not receive the grant (QNR), children that do not qualify and receive the grant (NQR) and children that do not qualify and do not receive the grant (NQNR). Subsequently, educational and health outcomes are compared between these groups to determine if there is any statistically significant difference between them. The results demonstrate that school attendance is high among children, and there is no significant difference in school attendance between the recipients and non-recipients of the CSG; as well as between the QR, QNR, NQR and NQNR. Moreover, there is no substantial difference in education outcomes (grade repetition) between the recipients and non-recipients of the CSG; as well as between the four groups. Similar results are found for health where there is no statistically significant difference between the groups regarding utilisation of health services as well as health outcomes. Therefore, conditionality of the CSG would not be feasible, as it does not address the causes of poor health and education outcomes, which are mainly due to supply-side deficiencies. Government should rather strengthen current poverty alleviation policies which seem to be impacting positively on poverty reduction. / Economics / D. Com (Economics)

M.Tech. (Architectural Technology) / Alexandra's Far East Bank, formerly an apartheid buffer zone, is caught up in a reactive process by government to provide both housing and public transport. This process has resulted in a segregated relationship between the Marlboro Gautrain Station and the adjacent Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) housing scheme. The station is completely cut off from the immediate community by a perimeter fence with 24-hour security. This further entrenches the division between the Gautrain commuters and surrounding community. This forced physical relationship sets up an opportunity to design and create a space that aims to straddle the current socioeconomic gap. After on-site investigation and research, a This project would be the first catalytic response to the City of Johannesburg’s Regional Spatial Development Framework (RSDF) for Region E (CoJ 2009/10: 149). The

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The primary intent of this study was to seek solutions to the practical problems experienced by practitioners in their management of child abuse cases. A fundamental problem regarding the current management of child abuse is that there is no guarantee that a child entering the child protective system will be dealt with in terms of a set procedure and/or protected against further abuse. To address this problem in the Western Cape, the Intervention Research (IR) methodology (Rothman & Thomas, 1994) was used to develop a Protocol for the Multi- Disciplinary Management of Child Abuse and Neglect. The protocol was designed for agencies that intervene in instances of child abuse. It establishes criteria and procedures for interdisciplinary co-ordination and effective case management, delineates the professional roles and responsibilities and provides step-by-step intervention procedures. The Intervention Research Design and Development methodology provided a useful framework to apply social science research methods to child protective practice and policy reform. IR focuses on the design of practice guidelines for intervention and policy reform. It can be conducted in a diversity of practice settings and therefore enhances collaborative efforts and inter-agency exchange among practitioners and among practitioners and universities. The study evolved through six phases involving inter-as well as intra-disciplinary activities. These activities were guided by systematic and deliberate research procedures, techniques and instruments. The research phases included: problem analysis; information gathering and synthesis; the development and design of the protocol; testing the protocol through a process of workshops and finally, the launch and dissemination of the protocol. A core element of the study was the active participation and collaboration of a broad range of key stakeholders, including: victims of child abuse, their families, service providers, and policy makers. The methods and instruments used were therefore designed to enhance participation and included interviews, workshops and observation of court processes. The bottom-up approach and collaborative design enhanced the level of contextual relevance, ownership and the commitment of stakeholders. As a demonstration of this commitment, the protocol has been endorsed by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health and Social Services of the Western Cape. The Department of Social Services has committed financial support to the project and is pilot testing it in three districts. The study cautions that protocols alone cannot eradicate and solve all the problems in the child protective field and asserts that there is an urgent and critical need to develop and to implement a National Strategy on Child Abuse. Such a National strategy should include legislation that supports and enforces all aspects of a national policy on child abuse. At minimum, national policy should ensure consistent political will and leadership. This means that broad statements about the obligations of politicians and state officials is not enough. These should be followed by specific accountability and measuring mechanisms for enforcement. State policy should also provide guidelines for standardized and appropriate working conditions, recruitment and training of staff. Furthermore, it should provide for a broad array of effective and accessible services to all children and families and the co-ordination of such services. Finally, legislation should include specific obligations regarding the appropriation of adequate and flexible funding to see that commitments made to children are realised.

Les Réseaux de Petri (RdP) sont actuellement les approches les plus prometteuses pour modéliser et vérifier les systèmes complexes tels que les Systèmes Multi Agents (SMA). De nombreuses solutions ont été proposées pour remédier aux problèmes de communication, de coordination et d’interaction entre les Agents. Cependant, il n’existe aucune en mesure de traiter, à la fois les aspects structurels et comportementaux, du moins à notre connaissance. La thèse s'intéresse à la problématique de modélisation formelle et de vérification automatique et semi-automatique de propriétés pour les Systèmes Multi Agents. Plus précisément, l'objectif consiste à proposer un nouveau modèle formel original basé sur les réseaux de Petri, les Réseaux de Petri à Agents (RdPA), qui permettent d’exprimer de manière consistante et plus précise les systèmes Multi Agents. Il s’intéresse de plus à l’extension de ce modèle aux fins de modéliser la migration des agents dans le cadre des systèmes à agents mobiles. Cette classe de modèle permet de s’intéresser à la vérification formelle de propriétés classiques comme notamment la vivacité ou l’absence d’interblocage dans le cadre des Systèmes Multi-Agent. / Petri nets (PN) are currently the most promising approaches to model and to verify complex systems such as Multi Agent Systems (MAS). Several solutions have been proposed to solve the problems of communication, coordination and interaction among Agents. However, to best of our knowledge, none of this solution has able to handle both aspects: structural and behavioral. The thesis focuses on the problem of formal modeling and automatic and semi-automatic verification of properties in Multi Agent Systems. More specifically, the objective is to propose a new original formal model based on Petri nets, Agents Petri nets (APN), which express consistently more accurate a Multi Agent Systems. There is growing interest in the extension of this model for modeling the migration of Agents within the mobile Agent systems. This class of model allows focusing on the formal verification of classical properties such as alertness or absence of deadlock in the context of Multi Agent Systems.