Browsing by Author "Rogan, Michael J."

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Dilemmas in learner transport : an impact evaluation of a school transport intervention in the Ilembe District, KwaZulu-Natal.
(2006) Rogan, Michael J.; May, Julian Douglas.
The journey to school for a significant number of South African learners is characterised by long travel times, unsafe modes of travel and exposure to weather and traffic related dangers. A review of the literature suggests that poor access to schools impedes both the accumulation of human capital and the right to a basic education. This research, conducted in a peri-urban municipal district near Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, is an impact evaluation of an existing school transport intervention. The intervention consists of an arrangement between a school in the llembe District and several locally managed transport providers. The intervention has two parts: first, school officials have negotiated a reduced taxi fare for learners travelling to and from the school and, second, the school has arranged for the local bus company to synchronise its schedule with the start and finish of school each day. The overall objective of the intervention is to reduce the travel times and walking distances of the learners attending the school. The approach of the study is to employ an appropriate evaluation methodology to assess the intervention and to interpret the findings in a rights based context. Impact evaluation is a rigorous methodology that aims to reliably test the effectiveness of interventions, policies and programmes. The findings from the study suggest that, if "scaled up", a similar intervention could potentially improve travel times, reduce excessive walking distances, improve the safety of travel to schools and curb the rates of absenteeism in the nation's schools. The study, however, also uncovers several impediments to the implementation of such an intervention within the existing policy environment.
The feminisation of poverty and female headship in post-apartheid South Africa, 1997-2006.
(2011) Rogan, Michael J.; Posel, Dorrit Ruth.
A large and growing body of scholarship has suggested that income poverty has recently decreased in post-apartheid South Africa. Evidence for an overall drop in poverty rates notwithstanding, there has been very little work which has examined the gendered nature of poverty. There have, however, been important changes over the period which might suggest that poverty trends have been gendered. On the one hand, for example, the post-apartheid period has seen the expansion of several grants to support the care-givers of children and the elderly as well as employment growth for women. On the other hand, this same period has been characterised by declining marital rates, rising rates of female unemployment, and women increasingly overrepresented in low-wage work, changes which would be expected to have negative implications for women's economic well-being. This thesis uses nationally representative household survey data from the October Household Surveys (1997 and 1999) and the General Household Surveys (2004 and 2006) to investigate gendered trends in income poverty in several different ways. It examines first, whether females are more likely to live in poor households than males, and whether this has changed over time; and second, how poverty has changed among female- and male-headed households. The thesis also considers why females and female-headed households are more vulnerable to poverty and why the poverty differential between males and females (and female- and male-headed households) may have widened over time. Given the criticism of headship based analyses of income poverty, the thesis also investigates poverty and female headship in greater detail by adopting several alternative definitions of female headship that are commonly used in the literature.
Gender, earnings and employment in post-apartheid South Africa.
(2014) Mabhena, Rejoice.; Rogan, Michael J.
This study looks at gender earnings differentials in post-apartheid South Africa. The main aim of this study is to illuminate the broad employment patterns of both men and women in South Africa’s labour market. This study then extends the analysis to consider the gender earnings differentials within formal wage work and self-employment as well as in informal wage work and self-employment using the National Income Dynamic Study (NIDS). NIDS is a nationally representative survey with 28 255 individuals and 7 305 households. This study found that a higher percentage of women than men are found within informal types of work. Women were found to be over-represented in low paying occupations such as in elementary work, in clerical jobs and in private households where they are likely to be employed in domestic work. This study then estimated the mean earnings for both men and women within these different sectors of work and it found that women on average earn less than men even after adjusting for hours of work. A greater gender wage differential was found to exist in informal types of work than in wage employment. In trying to explain this differential, there are a number of factors that may be used and one of such factors could be different human capital endowments between men and women. This study also found that the gender wage differentials can also be explained by where women work as well as the number of working hours women spend at work in comparison to men. However this study only managed to explain part of the gender wage differential. Due to self-selection and unobservable differences, part of the gender wage gap remains unexplained as the characteristics that cause women and men to select certain types of employment is beyond the scope of this study.
Learning and doing : exploring the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in fostering learning and education amongst youth in rural KwaZulu-Natal.
(2014) Harber, Inger May.; Rogan, Michael J.; Attwood, Heidi Elaine.; May, Julian Douglas.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) offers an abundance of opportunities for innovation and development in the ways that information is stored, transmitted and received. As such, ICT has the potential to act as the catalyst to fundamentally shift our pedagogic paradigm. As ICT adopts an increasingly pivotal role in society, questions of usage, accessibility and need of ICT become pertinent. The spread of ICT globally has not been even. This phenomenon is often referred to as the ‘digital divide’ and differentiates between those who do, and those who do not have access to or make use of ICT.The work of Roxana Barrantes and Mark Warschauer, among others, urges us to consider the divide as more than just the binary division between the physical presence and absence of ICT. They argue that accessibility of ICT is a matter of a number of intertwining and complex socio-economic factors, including supply, demand and capability. When one considers these factors in the South African context, one cannot deny that there are a multitude of barriers disenabling access to, and use of, ICT. Such barriers include illiteracy, cultural values, poor service delivery (especially electricity), the high cost of accessing ICT, widespread inequality and poverty, and a wider schism between national legislation and on-the-ground-delivery. The Community-based Learning ICT and Quality of life (CLIQ) project was established with the aim of identifying whether after a needs-based training program, access to ICT could improve the well-being of the participants. Drawing on data from the project, as well as data collected in independent research, this dissertation focuses specifically on the experience of youth living in eSicabazini, a rural community in KwaZulu-Natal. The experiences of the youth are utilised in the exploration of the role of ICT in fostering learning and education amongst youth in a rural community. The findings suggest that the ability to store, transmit and receive information is vital in today’s society. They also find that increasingly, the formal education system has been unable to meet the needs of the people living in South Africa. As such, alternative systems for knowledge building and skills development are necessary, and ICT offers a potential catalyst for such alternatives to thrive; such alternatives could support existing structures or run in parallel. In order to access and use ICT, however, a number of factors need to be in place. While this dissertation highlights some of the ways in which ICT could foster education and learning, such results are often impeded by external or peripheral circumstances or influences beyond the control of those affected.
Missing opportunities for preventing unwanted pregnancy: a qualitative study of emergency contraception.
(BMJ Publishing Group, 2010) Maharaj, Pranitha.; Rogan, Michael J.
BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY:High levels of unplanned pregnancy among young people are a huge public health problem in South Africa. However, use of emergency contraception (EC) remains low. Studies suggest that providers constitute an important link to increasing access to EC use. The aim of the study was to provide greater insights into the attitudes of providers towards EC in order to better understand factors influencing uptake. The study drew upon 30 in-depth interviews with providers at private and public health facilities in Durban, South Africa. RESULTS: The results of the study highlight several barriers to the provision of EC in both public and private health facilities. The cost of EC products in commercial pharmacies is likely to be a major barrier to use for many women. In addition, providers in both public and private facilities are often reluctant to provide EC over the counter because they feel that the use of EC is likely to discourage regular use of contraception and increase the risk of unprotected sexual intercourse and, as a result, contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. In addition, they reported that they do not have an opportunity to counsel women about EC because of time constraints. Providers in both the public and private sectors also demonstrated a level of uncertainty about the clinical effects of EC pills and on the regulations surrounding their provision. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Despite relatively progressive legislation on EC provision and the widespread availability of EC products in South Africa, providers in pharmacies, family planning clinics and public health clinics need more training on EC provision. Interventions should aim to educate health providers on both the clinical and social aspects of EC provision.
Promoting and prioritising reproductive health commodities : understanding the emergency contraception value chain in South Africa.
(Women's Health and Action Research Centre (WHARC), 2010) Rogan, Michael J.; Nanda, Priya.; Maharaj, Pranitha.
Use of emergency contraception is low in South Africa despite high rates of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. Existing studies have demonstrated that women access emergency contraception from commercial pharmacies rather than from public health facilities at no charge. Research has also demonstrated that awareness of emergency contraception is a key barrier to improving uptake, especially in the public health sector. This study investigates the low use of emergency contraception in South Africa and employs a qualitative value chain analysis to explore the role of market and regulatory structures in creating an enabling environment for the supply and promotion of emergency contraception. The results suggest that there are several ‘market imperfections’ and information barriers impacting on the effective supply of emergency contraception to women who are dependent on the public health sector for their health care. Balancing commercial interests with reproductive health needs, it is argued, may form a crucial part of the solution to the low uptake of emergency contraception in South Africa.