Thesis (M. Sc. (Environmental Science))--Rhodes University, 2004.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, November, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Sc.Agric.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008. / Full text also available online. Scroll down for electronic link.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Economics, December 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 204-209).

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.

Despite the establishment of local municipalities, rural villages are still under-developed. Under-development is an economic situation in which there are persistent discriminatory customary laws, high inequality, low levels of income and employment, low consumption, high dependence, weak community structures, little or no access to resources and inadequate services. Rural communities have not reached a satisfactory stage of economic development. This is due to the fact that these communities start from a low developmental base. They require assistance from government and other development agencies, such as Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in order to achieve economic stability and a sense that they are living a meaningful life. The fundamental purpose of this study is to gain better understanding of rural livelihoods, and unpack efficiency of policy interventions that assist people in rural areas to pursue livelihood strategies that could help them to reduce poverty. The study mainly used documents from Statistics South Africa and Integrated Development Plan (IDP) documents from Elundini Local Municipality that made it possible to access socio-economic information about the village. The study found that, education levels, hawkership, welfare grants, Expanded Public Works Programme, livestock production and migration are strategies that determine livelihood in Makhoaseng village. The socio-economic conditions such as low levels of education, age, lack of access to basic infrastructure have effect on poverty and kind of livelihoods pursuit in different households. These conditions hinder people in the village to meet their basic needs. On the hand, the agricultural sector has a potential to boost Local Economic Development (LED) in the village. Lack of financial and social support from the government and private sector causes deficiencies in agricultural sector. Moreover, the village has weak structures with strong patriarchal norms. This confirms the need for holistic support from the government because few private sectors are willing to invest in such village. The implications are that, without community interest in education, attainment of better educational qualifications, skills and jobs will remain a challenge in the village. Other sectors of the population such as women will remain disadvantaged if community structures do not abandon patriarchal norms. Rural people are not waiting for government or development agencies to come up with interventions but they are engaging in some economic activities such as hawkership and wool production that enable them to go out of poverty. The government must partner with Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to support community economic initiatives. On-farm activities ought to be intensified by venturing into mutton and beef production in the village. Government and development agencies must support women hawkers by developing them as cooperatives and explore other economic opportunities such as stone brick making and thatch for roofing. Low levels of education worsen the low living standards and create high dependency in the village. These conditions force the majority of the households in the Makhoaseng village to pursue involuntary livelihood strategies, while very few pursue deliberate livelihood strategies.

This study investigates the causes of poverty among the residents of Thika District in Kenya over the period 1953-2000. Using the articulation of modes of production perspective, the study traces the dynamics of poverty to the geography, history and politics of Thika District. The thrust of the argument is that livelihoods in the district changed during the period under investigation, but not necessarily for the better. Landlessness, collapse of the coffee industry, intergenerational poverty, and the ravages of diseases (particularly of HIV/AIDS) are analysed. This leads to the conclusion that causes of poverty in Thika District during the period under examination were complex as one form of deprivation led to another. The study established that poverty in Thika District during the period under review was a product of a process of exclusion from the centre of political power and appropriation. While race was the basis for allocation of public resources in colonial Kenya, ethnicity has dominated the independence period. Consequently, one would have expected the residents of Thika District, the home of Kenya’s first president, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, to have benefited inordinately from public resources during his rule. Kenyatta’s administration, however, mainly benefited the Kikuyu elite. The study therefore demonstrates that during the period under examination, the Kikuyu, like any other Kenyan community, were a heterogeneous group whose differences were accentuated by class relations. Subaltern groups in Thika District therefore benefited minimally from state patronage, just like similar groups elsewhere in rural Kenya. By the late 1970s, the level of deprivation in rural Kenya had been contained as a result of favourable prices for the country’s agricultural exports. But in the subsequent period, poverty increased under the pressures of world economic recession and slowdowns in trade. The situation was worse for Kikuyu peasants as the Second Republic of President Daniel Moi deliberately attempted undermine the Kikuyu economically. For the majority of Thika residents, this translated into further marginalisation as the Moi regime lumped them together with the Kikuyu elite who had benefitted inordinately from public resources during the Kenyatta era. This study demonstrates that no single factor can explain the prevalence of poverty in Thika District during the period under consideration. However, the poor in the district devised survival mechanisms that could be replicated elsewhere. Indeed, the dynamics of poverty in Thika District represent a microcosm not just for the broader Kenyan situation but also of rural livelihoods elsewhere in the world. The study recommends land reform and horticulture as possible ways of reducing poverty among rural communities. Further, for a successful global war on poverty there is an urgent need to have the West go beyond rhetoric and deliver on its promises to make poverty history.

M.Comm. / This dissertation examines the role of land reforms in the alleviation of rural poverty. A three-pronged approach is adopted in the background study process. This includes a review of the South African land reform programme, a review of international experiences in land reforms, and finally, a focused study of the Uitkyk community of the North West Province. Chapter 1 lays the framework for the study and ends up with the fundamentals of the South African land reform programme. Chapter 2 examines experiences in land reforms in three other countries namely, Brazil, China and Zimbabwe. Based on the comparability of these countries to South Africa in various respects, lessons are drawn from their experiences for South Africa. Chapter 3 traces the origin and evolution of the land question among the Uitkyk community and their subsequent quest for restitution. Chapter four presents empirical evidence from a field survey, with subsequent analysis thereof. Finally, Chapter 5 summarises the lessons drawn from the Uitkyk and South African experience and the international experience. It also offers some tentative recommendations for the South African land reform programme. Two fundamental approaches to land reforms are recognised in this dissertation. These include the government-assisted approach and the market based approach. It is difficult to find any pure form of either approaches anywhere on a national scale. However, at different time periods, countries may tend to prefer one approach over the other. After the 2005 National Land Summit, there is growing , momentum for South Africa to switch from a predominantly market-based· approach to a more government-assisted programme. For a land reform programme to be effective, it must go beyond changes in access to resources to actual economic development. Such development is indicated by changes in income, employment, nutrition and education. The evidence from this dissertation suggests that within the Uitkyk community, land reforms may so far have resulted in change in access to land, but not so much in economic development. To advance the goals of land reform, South Africa will have to carefully consider the tradeoffs between two seemingly conflicting goals of land reform, namely, efficiency and equity, Both community and individual beneficiaries of land grants must also take greater responsibility in translating the change in land access to more wealth and better living conditions.

M.Ed. / Poverty is a serious concern all over the world. This phenomenon hinders development, particularly in rural areas where the majority of families are living below the poverty line. In many rural communities the RDP programme did not reach the majority of people. The study is aimed at finding out the extent, perceived causes and consequences of poverty in Homu A and Homu C near Giyani. The families regarded as the more impoverished in the two villages were selected as participants of the study. One member from eight families in each village was interviewed in this qualitative study. The collection of data was made through survey interviews as suggested by Silverman (1993), observations, and the recording of artefacts on poverty. A literature review was conducted to construct a theoretical framework for the inquiry. The findings show that many people in these areas are extremely poor. They are physically, socially and psychologically affected by poverty. They are helpless because they believe there is nothing they can do to develop themselves and their villages. Their helplessness hampers development of these communities. The findings also indicate that there is a need for informal and non-formal programmes to educate and empower the community members to combat poverty. These programmes should be linked with income generating projects to equip the community members with skills needed for the economy.