Research Articles (Development Studies)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10413/6665

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Adaptation to the impacts of climate Change on agriculture in eThekwini: a literature review.
(University of KwaZulu-Natal., 2016-09-14) Shezi, Nokubonga.; Ngcoya, Mvuselelo.
The eThekwini Municipality has shown strong innovative strategies and activities on climate change adaptation. Putting the improvement of the quality of life of its urban poor remains the main goal in the official planning systems of the municipality and its counterparts. In this era of the changing climate affecting agricultural activities across the world, both small-scale and commercial farmers are adjusting their practices. Commercially, farming has had to adapt to diversified land use plans as well make choices of inputs which would be resilient and work within forecasted conditions. There is also evidence of shifting public policy to adapt to forthcoming changes. The Municipality has designed a food security strategic plan that intends to complement its climate change policy documents. Certainly, the Municipality’s food security vision declaration aims to guarantee that eThekwini population has a strong and resilient food security status. Urban agriculture is one of eThekwini’s policies supporting urban agricultural programmes and activities, although this policy is complemented with the rural agricultural policy (under the rural area-based management). These include the organic and sustainable agricultural initiatives, essential food sovereignty, food security, economic empowerment and environmental sustainability for eThekwini residents and the Municipality’s green leadership, which is mainly responsible for implementing approaches to aid poor citizens to adapt to climate change.
Cookie cutter cooperatives in the KwaZulu-Natal school nutrition programme.
(Taylor and Francis., 2013-06-04) Beesley, Alan.; Ballard, Richard James.
This article examines an initiative by the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government to increase the income opportunities emerging from the school feeding programme. Since the inception of the programme, small medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) had been enlisted to provide schools with ingredients. However in 2006, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government replaced some SMMEs with women’s cooperatives. By 2009, 12 of the original 42 cooperatives had collapsed, and some schools being serviced by these cooperatives complained of unreliable delivery of ingredients. This article examines the interface between policy and implementation through a case study of four cooperatives in one district. Our data suggests that some cooperatives struggled to take root as a result of a variety of factors which we discuss under the themes of viability, membership and skills. The top down creation of these cooperatives according to inflexible guidelines also resulted in significant problems.
Early childhood development and South Africa: a literature review.
(University of KwaZulu-Natal., 2016-08-01) Mbarathi, Nduta.; Mthembu, Mbali Emerald.; Diga, Kathleen.
Early Childhood Development (ECD) has become a priority sector within South Africa, particularly in respect to ensuring equity and high quality of care for the youngest members (ages 0 to 5 years old) of the population. South Africa is also burdened with high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment as well as unequal levels of service delivery and public provision of infrastructure. Given the recent development and request for feedback on the provisional ECD policy, there would be a benefit to examine the current state of this draft policy, its respective white papers, and its national and international mandates as well as to understand their relationship to South Africa’s context of poverty. Furthermore, child poverty remains a major concern in the country, particularly in respect to the geographical and living conditions where children live, study and play. This paper wishes to bring to light literature on poverty and, from a multi-dimensional lens, understand how early childhood development provision, whether it be through its programming or the physical centres themselves, are affecting the lives of children, particularly those within households living in urban poverty. ECD are intended to provide children with a safe facility to stay and with some standards of conditions which would allow children to learn and improve their skills. ECD also provides parents with the ability to leave their children in safe places so that they can work or learn. The proximity of ECD centres, their costs, the staffing and their physical conditions influence the choices of parents to leave their children at an ECD centre. The ECD centres within informal settlements are also explored in this paper, given the need for further understanding of such physical infrastructures within a municipality’s planning. Planning for ECD centres within the ‘grey areas’, such as informal settlements or those located in traditional land, can be problematic, especially for ECD managers or principals in gaining access to much needed ECD resources through the appropriate departments. Those parents who have limited and erratic income stream are provided with inadequate choices which may put a mother and/or father in difficult situations of child care. The ECD policy would benefit poor households, particularly those living within informal settlements, through understanding the conditions of the poor and their limitation of choices in ECD centres. In understanding their limitation, government could help provide a more meaningful policy which caters to their needs.
Economic empowerment in firms : evidence from the eThekwini medium & large firm survey.
(University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2017-09-13) Olivier, Stephen.; Bracking, Sarah Louise.
Abstract not available.
Exploring the informal business sector in Clairwood, Durban, South Africa,
(University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2017-09-13) Tshabalala, Ayanda.; Diga, Kathleen.; Bracking, Sarah Louise.
This paper aims to investigate alternative measures of value amongst marginalised citizens in South Africa. More specifically, the objective of this study is to understand the value of informal business within the under privileged area of Clairwood, Durban. The rationale is to explore the under-reported economic activities and advantages of micro enterprises operated by low income households. These livelihood and small enterprise activities are at risk by changing infrastructural developments which threaten displacement to this community, which is based within an industrial complex. This study highlights the contribution that informal traders make to the city and re-imagines sustainable development in the urban low-income context. This locally driven micro economy provides sufficient resources to raise many out of poverty. Clairwood is one of these unique scenarios: a mix of formal, yet declining manufacturing industries, surrounded by complementary micro informal businesses, as well as formal to informal dwelling settlements. These characteristics somehow work symbiotically and in harmony to support each other, benefiting residents’ financial and work needs. Findings show that Clairwood residents are not necessarily unsupportive of economic activities in their community, but that they are concerned about the encroaching and non-participatory nature of national infrastructure and specifically port sector imperatives which further debilitate their efforts to preserve their heritage and economic livelihoods. Worryingly, residents feel continuously framed as uncooperative and unable to participate. Such perceptions miss the true value of the economic and participatory contributions of the local community of Clairwood. This study offers an alternative that hears the voice of this diverse community and allows them to express their values, further contributing to an alternative vision of low carbon, sustainable development.
Geographies of development II: cash transfers and the reinvention of development for the poor.
(Sage., 2013) Ballard, Richard James.
Since the mid-1990s, a number of governments in the global South have instituted programmes which provide regular cash grants to poor people. The results of cash transfer programmes have been impressed those searching for ways to improve welfare: the depth of poverty has been reduced, more children are being educated and vaccinated, and the poor are more likely to get jobs and start enterprises. Advocates of social democracy are hopeful that this heralds the possibility of comprehensive social protection. Experiments in welfare in the global South do not, however, inevitably signal an epochal shift to a postneoliberal era. They form part of an increasingly heterodox approach which combines an enduring emphasis on liberalised economic growth with bolder biopolitical interventions for the poor.
Geographies of development: without the poor.
(Sage., 2012) Ballard, Richard James.
Some contemporary narratives of development give privileged status to middle classes in the global South. In the face of intractable poverty, policy makers take heart from the success stories of ordinary people who have, over generations, realised and consolidated the gains of development and who embody society at its most functional. Their presumed virtues are their self‐sufficiency, their ability to articulate with the global economy, their buying power, and their good sense as responsible citizens. This, the first of three reports on geographies of development, reflects on recent research that interrogates the privileged status of middle classes in some narratives of development. As this burgeoning literature suggests, celebratory narratives elide the complex circumstances that make and unmake middle classes. Furthermore, middle class gains do not automatically translate into development for others. Indeed, efforts to centre the middle class threaten to displace, and justify the displacement of, economically marginalised groups seen as surplus to development.
Households and labour migration in post-apartheid South Africa.
(2010) Posel, Dorrit Ruth.
This study compares measures of labour migration and remittance receipt in the National Income Dynamics Study with measures generated using earlier national household surveys conducted in South Africa. Household survey data suggest that although the temporary migration of individuals for employment reasons remained a persistent feature of the first decade post apartheid, the extent of labour migration and remittance receipt has fallen significantly in recent years. The study also considers how differences in the collection of information on labour migration may affect the comparability of measures across the surveys.
Investigating the well-being of rural women in South Africa.
(2010) Casale, Daniela Maria.
In this Focus piece we explore differences in the well-being of men and women in rural and urban areas. We use quantitative data from a nationally representative household survey in 2008 to measure income poverty and access to services in the households that men and women live in. In addition, we complement this analysis with a range of subjective measures of well-being collected in the survey, which allow us to identify differences in the lived experiences of men and women within their households. We find that, according to both the objective and subjective measures of well-being that we explore, African women living in rural areas are the most disadvantaged group in South Africa.
Is there evidence of a wage penalty to female part-time employment in South Africa?
(2008-09) Posel, Dorrit Ruth.; Muller, Colette Lynn.
In this paper, we investigate female part-time employment in South Africa. Using household survey data for South Africa from 1995 to 2004, we show that women are over-represented in part-time employment, and that the growth in part-time work has been an important feature of the feminisation of the labour force. In contrast to many studies of part-time work in other countries, however, we find evidence of a significant wage premium to female part-time employment. The premium is also robust to fixed effects estimations using Labour Force Survey panel data from 2001 to 2004, where controlling for unobservable differences increases its size. The premium persists with different hourly thresholds defining part-time employment and when we account for possible reporting errors in hours worked.
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.
Monitoring the impact of land reform on quality of life : a South African case study.
(2002) May, Julian Douglas.; Stevens, Thilde.; Stols, Annareth.
This paper outlines the approach that is utilized by the Monitoring and Evaluation directorate of the Department of Land Affairs (DLA) in South Africa in assessing the quality of life for the land Reform beneficiaries. The paper begins with an overview of the three Land Reform programs in South Africa. The paper then moves on to outline the original design for monitoring and evaluating the quality of life for land reform beneficiaries. It then proceeds to detail the current Monitoring and Evaluation design being utilized, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. The last section discusses some of the findings of the quality of life study undertaken in 1999.
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.
A review of contested perspectives on climate change finance.
(University of KwaZulu-Natal., 2016-09-12) Lombo, Mandy.; Ntombela, Siyabonga Sibusiso.; Okem, Andrew Emmanuel.; Bracking, Sarah Louise.
There is an overwhelming consensus that climate change is a reality that requires urgent attention through mitigation and adaptation strategies. A slow rise in aggregate funding and investment towards projects which incorporate adaptation with respect to the consequences of climate change or mitigation of the known causes of climate change has occurred globally. This illustrates the increased intention of the public and private sectors to find appropriate interventions which work towards the lowering of carbon emissions or finding ways for the public to adapt their current behaviour to the eminent changes of climate. In this report, we present a critical review of literature on climate change financing. The review engages the meaning, sources and monitoring of the flow of climate finance. We also present discourses on issues related to the evaluation of the social impacts of climate finance on intended beneficiaries. These debates are contextualised in eThekwini Municipality’s approach to climate change adaption and mitigation. We note that there are many concerns regarding climate change finance that require further attention. These issues range from whether or not climate finance should form part of official development assistance (ODA), how funds should be distributed and who should climate change initiatives benefit. These issues could hamper the implementation of many useful strategies and much needed finance could end up funding projects that are not for public benefit. Furthermore, there is a conspicuous absence of appropriate and standard criteria for projects to meet in order to qualify as a climate change initiative. The lack of explicit requirements for projects to provide co-benefits to communities remains an unsettling problem and allows for substantial room for funding of unsuitable and in some cases, non-existent climate change projects. Much work still needs to be done to setup the identification criteria and measurement frameworks to help with issues of transparency, accountability and tracking of climate finance. This is especially needed in developing countries in order to curtail the misuse of climate funds in all tiers of government. There is also an urgent need to create a system that will govern, prescribe and monitor the use of climate funds for the betterment of the eco-systems, non –human species and humans.
Revisiting informal employment and segementation in the South African labour market.
(2008) Heintz, James.; Posel, Dorrit Ruth.
This study revisits the definition of informal employment, and it investigates the puzzle of high open unemployment co-existing with relatively limited informal employment in South Africa. We estimate earnings equations using data from the September 2004 Labour Force Survey and present evidence of persistent earnings differentials not only between formal and informal employment, but also between types of informal employment. These persistent earnings differentials are suggestive of complex segmentation in the South African labour market and challenge the presentation of informal employment as an undifferentiated residual with no barriers to entry or mobility.
The male marital earnings premium in the context of bride wealth payments: evidence from South Africa.
(2010) Casale, Daniela Maria.; Posel, Dorrit Ruth.
This study explores the nature of the male marital earnings premium in the context of a developing country in which the payment of bride wealth is practiced. We use data from the South African Labor Force Survey of September 2004 and the Labor Force Survey Panel (2001–4), the first national panel available in South Africa. We show that a robust and positive premium to marriage in cross‐sectional estimations is substantially reduced after controlling for individual fixed effects. Furthermore, we find evidence of an additional source of endogeneity created by the positive selection of men into marriage with faster earnings growth in the initial periods of the panel. Our results are to be expected if the payment of bride wealth or ilobolo, by a prospective husband to the bride’s family, is a significant constraint to marriage among black men in South Africa.
The potential for using remote sensing to quantify stress in and predict yield of sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrid)
(2010) Abdel-Rahman, Elfatih Mohamed.

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