The challenges of globalisation for development in southern Africa

The world is currently engaged in a process of globalisation, as is reflected in the growth of world trade, unification of capital markets, internationalisation of production, distribution networks and the mega-revolution in information, communications and technology. Globalisation presents both opportunities and challenges for developing countries, especially the southern African region. It also demands that the region becomes competitive in attracting investment, applying new technology, and producing goods and services that can compete efficiently on the global market. The main purpose of this article is therefore to consider whether southern Africa is likely to enter a global community successfully, and be prosperous in the process.     

Satellite and resource accounting as tools for tourism planning in southern Africa

The potential for improvements to tourism planning through development of tourism satellite accounts (TSAs) to measure economic activity, and tourism asset resource accounts (TARAs) to measure the natural asset base, was studied in southern Africa. It was concluded that economic efficiency in tourism development would be enhanced if all the countries pursue plans to develop TSA, TARA and economic models for tourism planning. Basic TSA, including consumption, production, supply and use, employment and capital tables are required. TSA development should take place step by step, with specific data collection surveys and agreements between the stakeholders. Surveys should be focused on both tourists and the suppliers of tourism products, and should be carried out by central tourism agencies in collaboration with national accounting agencies. TARAs should involve both physical accounts for specific resources, such as water or wildlife, as well as land accounts for general tourism activity and potential. TSAs and TARAs should be integrated with input-output/social accounting matrix modelling tools. Countries should match the rigour of their TSA and TARA development with their anticipated capacity for analysis and planning. Donors could assist in the process, especially in a regional context.     

HIV/AIDS in the transport sector of southern Africa: Operational challenges,research gaps and policy recommendations

The transport sector is an integral element of southern Africa's economic development. The impact of HIV/AIDS on the region is therefore a major cause for concern. Using a method of triangulation, we used the findings of a comprehensive literature review, a stakeholder questionnaire and a United Nations regional workshop to take stock of the existing evidence linking HIV/AIDS to the transport sector. This paper outlines the strategies used to address HIV/AIDS by a range of stakeholders in the road, maritime, aviation and railway transport sectors. It highlights regional, national, and intervention-specific good practice examples in the field, suggesting key research gaps and putting forward policy recommendations for the region. As a result, national action plans will hopefully be able to benefit from this knowledge-sharing, enhanced regional cooperation and implementation of more effective responses to the epidemic in this critical sector.     

Youth and development in Southern Africa: Achievements and challenges for the social sciences

This article highlights the role played by social scientists and social science research in the field of youth and development in southern Africa. It examines in particular the research being done into teenage pregnancy and motherhood, and HIV/AIDS. The author concludes by emphasising the necessity for social scientists and people in authority to work together to identify relevant areas of concern on which to concentrate research in future.     

Some poor and invisible women: Farm labourers in South Africa

This article presents the results of a prevalence survey carried out in 1994 to assess the socio‐economic significance of waged farmwork in parts of the Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga). The survey was designed to shed light on the question of how many rural households depend for their survival on the availability of wage employment opportunities for women on farms. The results support the view that economists and statisticians in South Africa have paid insufficient attention to the importance of unrecorded, or statistically ‘invisible’ agricultural wage employment to the rural population. In particular, the importance of women's work as waged farm labourers has not received the attention it deserves for policy purposes. Women's wages and working conditions on all types of farms are probably the critical determinants of the standard of living of many tens of thowsands of households in Mhala and Mapulaneng, and of many millions of the poorest households in South Africa as a whole.     

Constraints facing tourism entrepreneurs in South Africa: a study in the Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces,South Africa

The current study is an investigation into tourism entrepreneurship of small, medium and micro enterprises in Gauteng and Mpumalanga. Through Principal Factor Analysis, the paper identifies a three-factor instrument that could be used as a diagnostic tool to investigate how government policies and support, the tourism industry's products and services, and perceptions about South Africa could advance or constrain the development of small, medium and micro tourism in South Africa. Such a tool can be used to identify problematic areas in order to take remedial action to manage sustainable tourism in South Africa and prevent the leakage of profits.     

Energy,environment and the rural poor in South Africa

The lack of adequate energy services imposes heavy social and environmental costs on poor rural households. The rural energy‐environment interface, however, is prone to oversimplistic analyses, especially in the case of the ‘fuelwood problem’, and to a lack of research. International experience suggests that deforestation is not necessarily an ‘energy problem’ resulting from the cutting of trees for fuelwood ‐ and therefore that it may not have an energy solution, like planting more trees for firewood. Instead, wood scarcity must be understood under multiple use of wood resources, and policies need to be multifaceted if they are to succeed. South African studies show that wood is becoming increasingly scarce in many areas; here fuelwood collection may contribute to deforestation more than suggested by international experience. In addition to the environmental effects of increasing wood scarcity and its social costs, borne largely by women, another serious problem arises from indoor air pollution caused by wood fires with social and health costs largely unaccounted for to date.     

我国西南地区旅游扶贫战略研究

分析了在旅游资源比较丰富的我国西南贫困地区实施旅游扶贫战略的重要性,提出了我国西南地区旅游扶贫的五大战略,为我国西南地区各级政府以及旅游部门有效开展旅游扶贫工作提供新思路。     

The implications for suppliers of the spread of supermarkets in southern Africa

ABSTRACT

The growth of supermarkets in southern Africa opens local and regional markets to suppliers through participation in supermarket supply chains. Supermarkets in the region provide an important route to market for processed foods and household consumable products. Through a regional value chain lens, this article provides an assessment of the implications of the growth of supermarkets for the participation of suppliers in Botswana, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The research finds that, while supermarkets provide important opportunities for suppliers, they also exert considerable buyer power that limits supplier development and upgrading. High private standards, onerous requirements and costly trading terms negatively affect supplier participation in value chains. Long-term investments are required to build the capabilities of suppliers to meet supermarket requirements in terms of quality, consistency, volume and cost-competitiveness.     

The impact of tourism on poverty in South Africa

This paper evaluates the potential impact of tourism on poverty in South Africa on the basis of recent survey data on international tourism spending patterns. It looks at three scenarios, using an applied general equilibrium model. The main finding is that the poor benefit very little in the short term from additional tourism income. A further finding is that domestic and international tourist expenditure affect the economy differently; both markets are therefore important. In essence, the research confirms that tourism receipts can be used as a tool to alleviate poverty, but in South Africa this must be supported by policies that focus on the labour market and human resource development.     

Unpacking tourism SMMEs in South Africa: structure,support needs and policy response

Small enterprise (SMME) support policy in post-apartheid South Africa has traditionally involved support initiatives in the form of ‘generic’ packages that overlook the specificities of particular sectors. In this article the specific issues concerning SMME development in tourism are investigated. Against a backcloth of a review of international scholarship on tourism small firms, the article presents findings from recent empirical investigations into the progress and problems of tourism SMME development in South Africa. Within the international scholarship and policy debates on tourism, it is argued that the South African experience is particularly distinctive in two respects: (1) the support of particular groups of tourism SMMEs linked to objectives of transformation and (2) the introduction of dedicated tourism-specific support programmes for SMME development.     

Urban water security in Africa: The face of climate and development challenges

ABSTRACT

Resilience has been promoted as an important objective for the global development community, in part, as a response to concern about the potential impacts of climate change and related risks. A review of the challenges of achieving water security in urban areas of developing countries suggests that a specific focus on resilience may distract communities from more effective interventions. It would be more useful to support relevant institutions to address current service delivery priorities. This will better enable them to manage future climate change and the challenges that this may bring.     

Financial,corporate and tax harmonisation for capital market development in southern Africa

An integrated capital market can significantly improve prospects for a region which seeks to accelerate its development but is critically short of the requisite capital The function of a capital market is the transformation of savings by private individuals into investment capital required by business concerns. However, the processing of transformation requires mediation between their respective interests through an effective mechanism for facilitating access to the market for capital It also requires allocational efficiency so that capital investment is directed where it is most useful and provides the best yield.

This article considers the measures that should be adopted to facilitate harmonisation leading to the growth of a regional capital market which is necessary for regional integration. It reviews trends in capital controls, corporate and financial regulatory practices and tax regimes and discusses the implications for capital mobilisation and investment. The regionalisation of capital would call for considerable convergence and coordination of policy and practice in capital control, regulatory requirements and fiscal systems.