published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

The research found that MRPO is helpful for environmental protection and poverty alleviation in rural areas. The poor get pay through working for the project of MROP, but it is too little to help them move out of poverty. However, owning some forestry land may give them sustainable income and help them move out of poverty. The project can raise the public environmental consciousness, and improve the natural environment observably, but do not work well in pollution reduction. / The study identified different types of public participation and asset ownerships which have different impacts on the success of the program. There were two participation modes (market-oriented participation and official-led participation) and two types of asset ownership (household ownership and the common ownership). We found that market-oriented participation and household ownership was more effective for poverty elimination and environmental protection than official-led participation and the common ownership. This study suggests that for improving the performance of the program, NGOs should use market-oriented participation when implementing the program, and distribute the asset ownership of the project's outcomes to the poor family when the program is finished. Finally, this study puts forward some specific recommendations in relation to social welfare policies, social work practice, and project implementation to promote the development of NGOs in environmental protection and poverty alleviation in China. / This paper is a case study on an environmental and poverty alleviation program, namely Mother River Protection Operation (MRPO), launched by China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF) in 1999. CYDF hopes to address environmental concerns and alleviate poverty through the implementation of this program in poor rural regions of China. The study, based on a survey of 833 persons in four projects of MROP and interviews with 25 farmers and project staffs, evaluated the performance of the program, and analyzed the factors influencing the program outcomes. The four projects respectively lie in four provinces of China, which are Hebei province, Mongolia province, Sichuan province and Guangdong province. / 劉洲鴻. / 顯微膠片卷端, 作者名誤作"ZHOUHONG, Liu" / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2007. / 參考文獻(p. 438-461). / Xian wei jiao pian juan duan, zuo zhe ming wu zuo "ZHOUHONG, Liu" / Adviser: Kwong-Leung Tang. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-11, Section: A, page: 4867. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2007. / Can kao wen xian (p. 438-461). / Liu Zhouhong.

The dissertation examines the experience of the landless in the ancient Near East as expressed in the book of Lamentations. Land theology has focused on land loss but not on the people who lost it. Similarly, the interpretation of Lamentations has focused on human suffering or on God’s absence not on land loss neither on the landless. This study investigates the phenomenon of landlessness in the Near Eastern world (over the span of 6th and 7th centuries BCE) and how people reacted to such experiences. They lamented over the destruction of shrines, homes, towns and land. Land loss is a prominent feature in city laments. Lamentations relied on these kinds of lament to express the Judeans’ land loss experience. The Zion theology which had granted an unconditional blessing of protection and stability to Jerusalem and to its people, completely failed on the Babylonian invasion in 587 BCE. The ‘landless genesis’ of the nation from the period of the ancestors (Cain and Jacob) remains in the memory of Daughter of Zion and of the deported man as they lament over the loss of Jerusalem. / Theology / M. Th. (Old Testament)

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / MA / Unrestricted

Ph.D. (Sociology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This study focused on the development of the Portable Practical Educational Preparation process from its inception in 1967 through fiscal 1981, and the historical-organizational phases it passed through as it evolved into its present configuration. The history of this unique organization, serving the migrant and rural poor in Arizona, was traced. PPEP, Inc, as a non-profit community-based organization whose fundamental philosophy is self-help, has been involved in many social and educational missions. Over the time period to be covered by this investigation, PPEP has served some 55,000 individuals in such diverse areas as adult basic education, classroom training, on-the-job training, social services, and self-help community projects. PPEP, Inc. has developed from an obscure beginning in a school on wheels, "La Tortuga", a converted 1957 Chevrolet 35-passenger bus, to Arizona's largest multi-funded non-profit service agency whose practical achievements have drawn international attention. Today, a comprehensive umbrella of services to low-income rural people has been realized through a network of community-based aides with professional and technical support staff. The PPEP philosophy includes the following: (1) To involve those who are less fortunate in carrying out meaningful programs to eliminate rural poverty; (2) To help overcome the problems faced by rural people by mobilizing public and private resources in support of these programs; (3) To plan, coordinate and evaluate both short- and long-range strategies for overcoming poverty and underdevelopment in rural communities.

Rural people in South Africal/KwaZulu-Natal makes up a large portion of the total population. They depend on a wide range of activities for living. Besides farming, they also engage in petty trade and wage work in towns and cities. Pensions (public welfare) and remittances also contribute a share to the household budget. Total cash earnings, however, are not enough to enable the majority of rural residents to escape poverty. This study attempts to present a case that the agriculture sector (farming) could contribute more towards improving the living conditions of these people. The argument centers on two facts: the fact that KwaZulu-Natal enjoys a plenty of agricultural natural resources and the second is that farming activity as a sector has certain characteristics worthy of consideration. Findings indicate two things: it establishes the low (measured) income flow from agriculture arrived at by previous studies but at the same time points out to the expansion in farming activities. Comparatively, income derived from farming still compares poorly with others as it was five years ago (1993-1998). The second point which may appear odd is that, consistent with findings by other sources, the number of people or households practicing farming is steadily increasing over time in contrast to other activities such as informal sector, migrant labor and income sources such as remittances. The study uses these facts and others to prove that the sector represents the central activity among the various components that constitute the livelihood system and that it has the potential to contribute more livelihoods as well as playing a lead role for the development of rural economy. The study recognizes the large magnitude of resources whether human or physical required and the constraints to tackle for realizing this but argues that in the absence of any realistic and feasible alternative, agriculture represents the second best route to poverty reduction in rural KwaZulu-Natal. It is also noted that the smallholder strategy in the short term can at best achieve an adequate level of household food security against hunger and malnutrition and may initiate a limited community level food and other farming related market transactions and employment. The study concludes with a number of recommendations deemed necessary to help rural producers enhance their productivity and thus livelihoods generated from the agriculture sector. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

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

This thesis deals with two related topics: core development objectives in community forestry in the Philippines, and the 'instruments' of development practice which have been used to address these objectives. The two topics have currency beyond forestry development and are at the centre of a debate about sustainable development. Community forestry aims to democratise resource access, alleviate poverty, and ensure the sustainability of forest resources. Development practice, however, has often led to contradictory outcomes. This paradox is examined from three perspectives: that of political economy, characteristics of practice, and the theory of rationalisation. ¶Four government-initiated community forestry projects in the Philippines are analysed. These projects provide an historical trend on the development and refinements of the different techniques from the early 1980s to the present. The relationship between the use of these techniques and improved outcomes in terms of the three core concerns is established. Empirical findings from the cases suggest that there is no necessary relationship between the employment of these instruments and better development outcomes. The attempt to democratise forest resource access through the use of access instruments has benefited the local elite and reinforced the government's jurisdiction over these resources. Similarly, the use of appraisal and participatory planning techniques has homogenised views of the local community and advanced a centrally determined agenda in forest management that has worked against the alleviation of poverty. Forest degradation is likely to continue, even with the incorporation of social factors into the concept of sustained-yield forest management. ¶The political economy perspective suggests that contradictory effects can be explained by the country's historical and political structure which has been shaped by an economically-driven development model and dominated by a more privileged sector. Despite genuine efforts for reform, this perspective contends that community forestry projects and related development interventions will always be influenced by political forces, and their benefits will be captured by the privileged sector. On the other hand, a focus on the characteristics of practice leads to the conclusion that contradictory effects are results of the limitations of these techniques, including their poor application. This implies that the adverse effects may be addressed through the refinement of these techniques and improvements in their application. Finally, the rationalisation thesis reveals that paradoxical effects are inherent in the use of these techniques. This perspective posits that even with the apparent shift from a state-controlled to a more participatory and decentralised approach in forest management, such as community forestry, the instrumentalist nature associated with the application of these techniques reinforces the characteristics of homogeneity, technocracy, and centralism which are inclined to produced paradoxical outcomes. ¶Both the political economy and the rationalisation perspectives provide a gloomy prognosis for community forestry. However, the recognition of the dual problems of poverty and environmental degradation in the Philippine uplands, suggests that community forestry should not be abandoned. Through a responsive mode of practice, there is room to move to improve the outcomes of the three central objectives. But responsive practice is not a panacea for all development ills. The process is bound to be slow, strategies will vary from one place to another, and success will be patchy. But because responsive community forestry practice is not amenable to central programming and control, it is more likely to result in sustainable outcomes than the present approaches.

Univ., Diss.--Göteborg, 2005.