Improving food security in the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal province,South Africa: Too little,too slow

Food insecurity is still remarkably high in the poorest areas of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Many rural households struggle to have sufficient access to the food they need or prefer. This article explores the extent of food access insecurity and assesses the perceived impact on food security of an Empowerment for Food Security Programme that was launched in the Province in 2007. One of the programme aims was to improve agricultural practices in community gardens, home gardens and broiler production. Data were collected among 390 beneficiary households involved in these agricultural projects in 2010. Findings confirmed that experience-based food insecurity levels were still high, despite the agricultural support programme and the government income transfers. Nevertheless, respondents attribute an improved dietary diversity and better access to resources to the programme.     

The Impact of Public Works Programme on Child Labour in Ethiopia

Given the conventional wisdom that poverty and associated income shocks are the fundamental causes of child labour, from a policy perspective, there is a perception that social safety net programmes can play a vital role in reducing child labour. While there is extensive evidence that shows the prevalence of child labour is low among beneficiaries of conditional cash transfer programmes, the impact of workfare programs on child labour has been rarely investigated in the economics literature. This paper addresses the issue by evaluating the impact of the public works component of the Productive Safety Net Programme implemented in Ethiopia in 2005. The programme aims to help poor households to build assets and develop resilience to shocks through employment in public projects. Results from child fixed effects estimations show that children in programme beneficiary households are significantly less likely than their counterparts in non‐beneficiary households to be involved in child labour. The findings suggest that, if well targeted, even safety net programmes that do not primarily target child outcomes can be useful in addressing child labour problems.     

Experiences with and the viability of a recycling pilot project in a Cape Town township

This paper documents the experience with an NGO-initiated recycling programme in Hangberg Township, Cape Town. The 11-week trial project achieved 70% sign-up but suffered substantial drop-out. The NGO’s attempt to brand block leaders as ‘eco-heroes’ was unsuccessful and there were concerns about the distribution of project benefits. The project diverted 26% by mass of the estimated solid waste refuse stream of 2.5 kg per person per week and made R1752 from selling 1.965 tons of recycling. Some 970 kg of compostables were diverted but not processed as part of the project. Project accounts revealed a benefit–cost ratio of 0.123 in which the sale of recyclables and landfill costs avoided were the only benefits and wages and consumables the main costs. While a more equitable distribution of benefits could improve the cost–benefit ratio, there are other good reasons for donors to fund projects of this nature.     

The identification of towns in the Free State for an urban upgrading and development programme: A proposed method for consideration

This article describes how small towns in the Free State were assessed for a German‐South African urban upgrading and development programme. The assessment first determined where the programme would have a significant impact on the recipient community and, secondly, where it would have a high probability of success. Two criteria were used: quantitative (settlement types, demographic and economic trends, financial and management capacity and performance, and access to services and housing) and qualitative (level of community‐based participation in existing projects, the spirit of the place, economic potential and delivery record in terms of projects). These criteria reduced the number of appropriate towns to eight. A provincial steering committee (representing the political dimension) was appointed to incorporate the towns into the programme. They are representative of towns across the province, as well as a variety of settlement types. This method can be considered on a provincial or regional basis elsewhere for evaluating and ranking small towns for development support.     

Nutrition education tools for primary school children in the Vaal region

South Africa's high prevalence of malnutrition severely affects children's well-being and ability to learn. According to the World Bank, malnutrition is found in households from all spheres of life, since caregivers are not well informed about healthy food choices and feeding practices. A long-term solution to the problem is to encourage people to grow food and improve their incomes, but a quicker solution is to provide health and nutrition education and services to encourage healthy food choices. This paper describes the development of nutrition education tools (NETs) as part of a nutrition education programme for primary school children (Grades 1 to 3) from low-income households in South Africa. The study used the Food and Agriculture Organization's framework for nutrition education to develop simple, cost-effective, appropriate and applicable NETs.     

基于农户感知的森林碳汇扶贫效应分析

伴随着集体林权制度改革的深化和森林碳汇项目时间的深入,项目实施区域农户在森林碳汇项目实施、持续发展中的主体作用日益突出。农户对实施森林碳汇项目开发的价值评判决定其行为态度,在实现应对气候变化与减贫双赢中起着关键性作用。文章借鉴感知价值理论构建了农户森林碳汇扶贫效应感知价值理论模型,基于典型民族地区抽样调查数据,运用结构方程模型实证检验了农户对森林碳汇项目开发扶贫效应感知价值与其支持项目后期运营意愿的关系。研究结果显示,（1）大规模造林再造林项目开发取得较为明显的扶贫效应,包括正面影响和负面影响。（2）农户对森林碳汇扶贫开发利大于弊的赞成率为72.56%,农户愿意支持森林碳汇项目后期运营的赞成率为69.82%,利大于弊的感知价值对农户支持项目后期运营的意愿具有显著正向作用。（3）感知利益和感知风险直接影响森林碳汇扶贫效应感知价值。其中,感知利益具有显著正向影响,影响程度依次为感知经济利益 > 感知社会利益 > 感知生态利益,农户对触及自身切身利益的森林碳汇扶贫开发经济利益感知最高,尤其是对森林碳汇项目开发对外来投资引入的最为敏感。感知风险具有显著负向影响,影响程度依次为感知情境风险 > 感知心理风险 > 感知经济风险,鉴于长期、大面积的林业生态建设衍生负面影响日趋扩大和农户对近期、客观风险感知的敏感性使得农户对情景风险的感知最为强烈。     

A step change or a step back? the thames gateway and the re-birth of the urban development corporations

The delivery of the government's Sustainable Communities: Building for the Future proposals in the Thames Gateway area will be spearheaded by two new Urban Development Corporations (UDCs). During the 1980s and 1990s, UDCs were at the forefront of property-led regeneration in Britain and their impacts were extremely controversial. For some they represented a necessary institutional form that successfully facilitated and delivered regeneration to areas with chronic social and economic problems. For others they embodied a broader Thatcherite programme that marginalised local authorities and local communities from the heart of development planning. This paper examines their reintroduction and compares and contrasts the new agencies with those that existed in earlier decades. It argues that although the new UDCs will have broadly similar powers, the political contexts in which they are being established differ markedly. They are now expected to embed themselves into regional and national strategic development agendas and work in development partnerships with local authorities and local communities. The paper outlines the possible political and practical impacts that they will have and what their emergence tells us about the nature of Labour's broader modernisation agendas for local governance.     

The personal and social benefits of urban agriculture experienced by cultivators on the Cape Flats

Urban agriculture is considered a grassroots solution to food security in Africa. Research consistently supports this belief, and in South Africa urban agriculture is promoted by national and local government. One city supporting urban agriculture is Cape Town, the only South African city with an urban agriculture policy. Although many questions remain regarding the sustainability of non-governmental organisation (NGO)-supported urban agriculture projects in Cape Town and their contribution to food security, this study argues that one must look beyond economics and the physical benefits of urban agriculture to the personal and social benefits. By capturing the lived experiences of cultivators on the Cape Flats in Cape Town, the study shows that urban agriculture not only contributes to food security but builds social capital, which improves livelihood strategies and interpersonal relations. This is especially the case where urban agriculture projects are facilitated by NGOs that fund, train and oversee cultivators in these impoverished communities.     

The impact of a labour-intensive road construction programme in the Vhembe District,Limpopo Province

This study investigates the distributional impacts of labour-intensive projects under the Gundo Lashu programme in the Limpopo province. The aim was to evaluate infrastructure effectiveness of the Extended Public Works Programme, focusing on the interface between road investment and economic development as the central premise. The objective was to evaluate the impact of the programme on the participants and their communities. Specific areas of impacts investigated are mobility, income, work opportunities, poverty reduction, sustainable livelihoods and opening of access to market opportunities. A matched case–control study design was adopted. The study found that the programme had achieved its objectives related to the total number of jobs created and the total road length constructed. However, the programme showed mixed results on communities' socio-economic outcomes and the impacts of the programme on poverty and sustainable livelihoods.     

Does Community Participation Produce Dividends in Social Investment Fund Projects?

Social investment funds (SIFs) aim to strengthen local capacity for design, implementation, and maintenance of social and economic infrastructure projects and to increase community participation in ways that will promote their sustainability and effectiveness. We explore key features of recent SIFs, intended to promote decentralized, participatory decision-making, and management of projects, in SIF-led education projects in Honduras. We investigate empirically whether efforts to implement a participatory approach improve the outcomes of these projects and community members’ perceptions of their effectiveness. The findings identify elements of the participatory methodology which were associated with increased household and community participation and better household opinions of the projects and also show a link between participation and the probability of children’s regular school attendance.     

Food poverty,hunger and household production in rural Eastern Cape households

More than two decades since the advent of democracy in South Africa, the place of small-scale agriculture in rural development, poverty alleviation and food security remains ambiguous and highly contested. However, there is now some new evidence that official income poverty estimates in South Africa may be underestimating the contribution of rural, land-based livelihoods when measuring household well-being. This paper aims to explore this possibility further by identifying how household production activities are associated with improved food security among rural Eastern Cape households in the former homelands. The analysis is based on data from Statistics South Africa’s 2008/9 Living Conditions Survey and its annual General Household Surveys. In adopting a food poverty lens, the findings suggest that hunger levels are lower among farming households in the Eastern Cape even though a higher percentage of these households (relative to non-farming households) live below the national food poverty line. The paper concludes by discussing some implications for policy.     

Performance of land reform projects in the North West province of South Africa: Changes over time and possible causes

Anecdotal evidence as well as selected studies on the performance and progress of South Africa’s land reform programme generally present mixed to rather negative results. Few longitudinal studies exist on the progress of redistributed farms, resulting in an incomplete picture of the performance and progress of land reform projects. In this article, we report on the progress and performance of a group of land reform projects in the North West province of South Africa over five years. As part of a comprehensive audit of land reform projects in the North West province, 43 farms were studied in 2005 to assess their performance, based on their production status. Five years later, in 2010, 37 of these farms were visited again to review their progress. The results indicate that the production status (and thus performance) of land reform projects is not static. Although some projects either improved or maintained their initial production status, the overall trend shows deterioration in performance. Numerous factors are responsible for the decline, including group characteristics where farms are owned by groups of beneficiaries. This article is thus the first to use two surveys of a group of land reform projects to show the true status of farms in their post-transfer phase in South Africa.     

Nelspruit and Dolphin Coast: Lessons from the first concession contracts

South Africa's first two long‐term concession contracts for water and sanitation were signed in early 1999. These complex public‐private partnerships (PPPs) in Nelspruit and Dolphin Coast will use private sector management expertise, as well as huge amounts of private capital investment, to address service delivery challenges in both areas. Especially important will be the extension of essential services to previously disadvantaged residents of both municipalities. The processes of preparing and negotiating these deals have been long and difficult. Councillors and officials have had to overcome a series of obstacles on their way to closing the deal, including fundamental misunderstandings about how such projects work on the part of unions, the general public, other government officials and even some members of South Africa's financial services community. This article provides an account of how and why these PPP projects were developed, and offers some of the key lessons learned regarding how to improve the process in the future.     

Reformulating US food aid policy for development

One of the most fundamental questions emerging from recent scrutiny of US foreign assistance efforts is whether the PL 480 food aid programme is making a significant, positive contribution to the economic and social development of poorer nations. Despite the validity of certain past criticisms of food aid as a development vehicle, it is the premise of this paper that US food assistance CAN have a positive developmental impact but that this will require reformulation of policy goals, redesign of programme components, and reorganization of administrative structures. Seven basic policy and programme design questions are addressed herein: What should be the goals of food aid? Who should receive food aid? How much aid should be given? Which kind of food should be given? Under what terms should food aid be given? What delivery systems should be used? How should the aid effort be organized? It is argued that the current (but temporary) respite from serious food deficits in many developing countries has provided an ideal opportunity for the US Government to reevaluate the current PL 480 programme and to incorporate the above concerns into a rational and comprehensive, developmental food aid policy.     

Reflections on per diems in international development projects: Barriers to and enablers of the project cycle

The concept of what a per diem is and who should receive one is a complex idea that, within the development context, can either support or hinder the achievement of development projects’ goals. This paper seeks to explain the evolving nature of per diems and their use within the development context; explore how they serve as barriers or enablers in achieving project goals; and touch on their impact on the development project cycle. Through a 3-year-long internationally funded development programme in Malawi and South Africa, the authors compare lessons drawn from their experience with existing literature to determine the practicalities of paying per diems and address the question: To what extent do per diems support or hinder international development projects?     

The effects of state-subsidised housing on poverty in Cape Town

Property rights are widely thought to have considerable direct and indirect effects on urban poverty. However, few studies have been conducted and the evidence supporting these claims is scarce, especially in Southern Africa. This article examines effects of property rights in South Africa through a case study of subsidised housing for poor people in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. A difference-in-differences estimation strategy is employed. Results show that housing subsidies are associated with better physical health and (counter-intuitively) more teenage pregnancies. Improvement in health is attributed to better housing quality and environment while increase in teenage pregnancies is attributed to increased privacy. Effects of titling extend to social effects, which have been understudied in the literature. Since titling showed no effect by most measures, it is likely that poverty is driven so strongly by factors such as unemployment and poor location of housing projects that property rights make little overall difference to poverty.     

The gear legacy: did gear fail or move South Africa forward in development?

This article describes the economic and development policy legacy of the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (Gear) programme. It considers the arguments for and against Gear, and attempts to answer the question whether or not the programme has moved us forward in development. The economic legacy is described as dismal development outcomes but excellent macroeconomic policy outcomes. The policy legacy is described as continuing with Gear in some respects, but also incorporating a shift in development strategy that takes into account critique of Gear from the left and proposes a more active and direct role for the state in employment creation. This shift is seen as positive because the key challenge in the post‐Gear period is how to use the state more effectively to create jobs and provide income for the poor. The overview of the arguments for and against Gear finds most of the former to be thin. Moreover, it highlights conceptual flaws in the strategy that explain why it failed to produce the promised employment creation and poverty reduction by the end of the programming period (1996–2000). However, there is no clear answer to the question of whether or not Gear has failed – would an alternative policy have produced better outcomes in the period? Also, Gear has improved the private investment climate and produced better resource and institutional conditions for government to play a more active role in pushing future development. Whichever way it is argued, a key point that emerges is that development prospects will remain gloomy if the government reverts back to the strategy of relying largely on the private sector to reduce poverty, and fails to do more itself via effective income support programmes for the poor.     

Design and implementation of the Expanded Public Works Programme: Lessons from the Gundo Lashu labour-intensive programme

This article examines the design and implementation of the Expanded Public Works Programme, drawing from the lessons of the Gundo Lashu programme on labour-intensive construction in the road sector. The aim of the study was to examine major barriers to the design and implementation of the programme. The article is based on the analysis of data that were gathered from the Gundo Lashu programme. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire, face-to-face interviews with the project participants as well as reviewing key secondary data from the project documents. The study found that the projects under the Gundo Lashu programme have clearly demonstrated the importance of labour-intensive approaches, especially in the road sector. However, these projects were constrained by a wide range of challenges, ranging from a lack of community participation to poor product quality and inadequate planning for sustainable financing.     

Cost - effectiveness analysis in practice: A case study of domestic water supplies in an African country

British aid policy calls for a large proportion of the programme to go to the poorest people in the poorest countries. This case study illustrates ways in which project selection and appraisal can aid this aim for projects whose output is non-tradeable and non-marketed but which may often be important to a poverty-focused programme. It attempts to demonstrate a framework by which such projects can consistently be examined paying particular attention to their objectives, the nature of their beneficiaries, and the recurrent budgetary implications for the host Government.     

Measuring the growth potential of towns in the Western Cape,South Africa

Urban settlements in the Western Cape sustain regional development and are vital to the national spatial economy, but because not all contribute or participate equally they do not grow at the same rate – some flourish while others decline. The Provincial Administration of the Western Cape therefore commissioned a study to evaluate and monitor their functions and performance. This paper assesses the study's methodology and procedures. It describes the variables used and explains how the raw data were transformed into comparative indices and combined into a single composite development potential index. It evaluates the sub-indices and the composite index by mapping the results and uses multivariate statistical techniques to explore the logic and validity of the results. It confirms that the indices created for measuring urban growth potential were well chosen and constructed, laying a sound theoretical and methodological base for future decisions about public investment in rural towns.