Restricted electricity use among poor urban households

For a variety of reasons, this article argues, electricity must be seen by policy‐makers in South Africa not as the sole provider of all future household energy needs, but rather as one component of an energy mix which includes such ‘transitional’ fuels as coal, gas and paraffin. The reasons for this are that electricity is expensive for poor households; it is subject to power failures and disconnections for non‐payment; the poor find it difficult to monitor and to control their consumption; appliances are expensive and several are required to make best use of electricity; people prefer other fuels because they are familiar and have strong personal and cultural associations, and because Eskom is not trusted owing to its past ties to illegitimate local authorities and misunderstanding of electricity and how its use is monitored and charged for. Further, it is mistaken to equate ‘development’ with total electrification: most developed countries have fuel mixes which include gas and coal, particularly for cooking and heating. Accepting an affordable fuel mix for the poor in particular would focus attention on the problems currently associated with paraffin, gas and coal, namely fires, poisoning and air pollution.     

Measures of appropriateness: the resource requirements of anaerobic digestion (biogas) systems

Anaerobic digesters have a potential for providing fuel, fertilizer, and a sanitary means of waste disposal in rural areas of less developed countries. Despite these potential benefits, digesters have had a disappointingly low success rate in many LDCs. Poor economics may explain these failures in some cases but poor fits between digesters and local conditions - a lack of appropriateness - can also be a useful indicator.Using a detailed accounting framework, we disaggregate anaerobic digestion systems into five subsystems, analogous to the subsystem components of the nuclear power fuel cycle. Relying on published information from India and China, we compare 38 fixed-and floating-dome digester models and note qualitative and quantitative differences in their uses of construction and operating resources. Environmental and social resources used in the subsystems are also discussed. A tentative ‘specifications plate’ for anaerobic digestion systems is proposed. This provides quantitative measures of the appropriateness of particular systems in different settings.     

Strategic Development Outlook for the Energy Complex of Russia

The article discusses the long-term development of the energy complex and its role in the Russian economy in the context of the restructuring of world energy markets and considering the draft Energy Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period through to 2035. Using the SCANER modelling and information complex, representative scenarios for the evolution of world energy markets have been developed, as well as relevant scenarios for the development of Russia’s economy and energy, including the dynamics of domestic consumption of major fuels and energy in view of energy conservation, as well as effective volumes and directions of basic fuel exports. Based on this, the dynamics of extraction and processing of basic fuels, the use of renewable energy resources, and electricity production by various types of power plants are optimized, and the necessary capital investments and returns on the dynamics of domestic prices for fuel and energy are determined. Changes in the main macroeconomic indicators of the contribution of the energy complex to the development of the Russian economy, corresponding to these scenarios, indicate a possible relatively rapid decrease in its dependence on energy exports.     

Crafting a livelihood: local-level trade in mats and baskets in Pondoland,South Africa

The contribution of natural resources to the livelihoods of the rural poor is widely acknowledged, yet not much is known about trade in these resources. This article investigates local-level trade in plant-based mats and baskets in Khanyayo Village, Pondoland, Eastern Cape, focusing on the social aspects of harvesting, resource tenure and trade in Cyperus textilis and products made from it. It explores the way the mat and basket trade contributes to the livelihoods of the rural poor and argues that crafting is mainly the domain of very poor or widowed women, who use it to supplement their diverse and multiple livelihood strategies. Although its cash contribution to the total household income is minimal, crafting is seen by local people as extremely important. However, mat and basket traders face a number of internal and external struggles, which must be understood by policy makers if crafting is to contribute to the fight against poverty in rural areas.     

An empirical analysis of factors affecting the growth of small-scale poultry enterprises in KwaZulu-Natal

Small-scale commercial poultry enterprises are often promoted and used by the government and non-governmental organisations in development projects to generate income and to improve food self-sufficiency and alleviate malnutrition, as poultry is an excellent source of protein. This study shows that the majority of small-scale commercial poultry producers in KwaZulu-Natal come from previously disadvantaged communities and have significantly lower enterprise growth rates than larger poultry producers. The results of a block-recursive regression analysis of data gathered from a sample of 123 poultry farmers in the province indicate that enterprise growth rate is constrained by poor access to credit, high transaction costs and unreliable local markets. Government policies should focus on reducing transaction costs by improving education and physical infrastructure, sponsoring training and mentoring services for small-scale commercial poultry producers, and helping these emerging entrepreneurs to formalise the business institutions needed to manage co-owned resources and to market products collectively.     

Energy consumption patterns and supply problems in underdeveloped areas in South Africa

Energy usage provides one striking example of processes and conditions of development and underdevelopment in South Africa and the concomitant inequalities in fulfilment of basic needs. Access to affordable and convenient fuels increases as households shift from underdeveloped rural and peri‐urban areas to the developed metropolitan centres. The form and quantity of fuels used by households is constrained by levels of urbanization, the availability and cost of fuels, and household income.

The energy supply problems in developing areas centre on two critical and immediate issues. Firstly, in rural areas the demand for fuelwood is exceeding supply with quite devastating social, economic and environmental consequences. A fuelwood supply and demand model has been developed which indicates the urgency for implementing afforestation programmes, although lack of sufficient suitable land implies that other energy supply strategies will also have to be considered. The second major problem is that the standard, most convenient and affordable domestic energy supply option, electricity, has still not been made available to many black townships and most peri‐urban areas. With increases in population and urbanization, the problem of adequate household energy supply is shifting to peri‐urban areas, which experience major social and economic costs as a result of dependence on costly and inconvenient fossil fuels and batteries. Electricity has been shown to be the most economical and preferred option.     

Escaping the rural energy dilemma: A process for matching technologies to local needs and resources

This paper provides a five-step process for matching decentralized energy systems with energy needs and local resources in rural areas for developing countries. This process is designed to assist planners in selecting technologies for those locations where economic development and personal survival are threatened by the rising costs and growing scarcity of traditional and fossil fuels. Analytic tools are given for each of the five steps of the process, as well as the information needed in each phase of a project. Twelve criteria are presented to characterize both the energy need and the technologies. Three of these criteria are used to facilitate preliminary technology screening, while the others address site-specific temporal, climatic, economic, social, cultural and environmental considerations of the energy need and the technological alternatives. To illustrate the process, eight decentralized energy options are characterized and examined for their fit with a set of four basic human needs.     

The Politics of Resistance: Informal banks in the Caribbean

Informal banks are as relevant as they were in slave times because they are creating financial alternatives for marginalized people. I explore this issue with an empirical study of 398 business people in the slums of Jamaica and Guyana. I use intersectionality theorizing to explain that poor women organize local banks as a form of contestation against the threat of violence, partisan and informal politics. Women from poor communities mobilize economic resources through mutual aid to resist dependence on corrupt political systems and exclusionary financial institutions. I argue that the banker ladies reorganize money markets for themselves and others. By organizing inclusive financial programs the banker ladies also build social capital through managing locally-based economic resources.     

Renewable energy and local development: Seven lessons from the mining industry

Having long depended on fossil fuels for energy generation, South Africa is now investing in renewable energy. Like its mining operations, its renewable energy plants will have local implications. Renewable energy companies are therefore required by government to engage with communities to contribute to socio-economic development. We present seven lessons we believe the renewable energy sector can learn from the mining industry. We argue that the new industry must: manage social disruption, understand community complexities, create responsive institutions and the capacity to support industry practice, employ trained community practitioners, be clear about the aims of local development, encourage economic diversification in remote areas and, importantly, in view of problems caused by downscaling in the mining industry, plan for the possible closure of projects. Renewable energy projects could then serve and shape local development.     

Narratives from a wetland: Sustainable management in Lukanga,Zambia

Wetlands are a key livelihood resource in southern Africa. Historically they have been managed using local knowledge systems, but these systems have in many instances been undermined by colonial and postcolonial legal requirements. The IUCN's Ramsar initiative, supported by organisations such as BirdLife International and the WWF, seeks to protect wetland resources. This qualitative study examined the political ecology of the Kapukupuku and Waya areas of the Lukanga wetlands in Zambia, designated a Ramsar site. This designation has given rise to competing ‘narratives’ by politicians and local community leaders over how Lukanga should be managed and used, and the resulting conflict is threatening its sustainability. The paper warns that the various parties' arguments are value-laden and that power asymmetry threatens to exclude poor local communities. Policy must take power interests into account to ensure that developments in the name of the poor really do benefit the poor.     

Living in a Walking World: Rural Mobility and Social Equity Issues in Sub-Saharan Africa

Accessibility and mobility are embedded in the development nexus in far-reaching ways. Field studies of mobility among women and men in rural settlements with poor road access illustrate the frustrations and costs of living off-road. They are frequently marginalized and invisible, even to local administrations. State decentralization appears to have had little positive impact in reducing “tarmac bias” and improving rural service delivery. A range of potential interventions, from Intermediate Means of Transport to electronic communications is reviewed, and opportunities for building social capital in off-road areas through nurturing improvements in state–civil society relations are considered.     

Women and empowerment through the ‘economy of affection’ in KwaZulu‐Natal: Its significance for sustainable development

This article is an attempt to demonstrate how, in the absence of infrastructural requirements for development in the rural areas, the interpersonal relationships of women articulated through their households, kinship networks and community structures serve as indispensable mechanisms for their survival. These mechanisms are seen as part of an indigenous socio‐economic framework that is referred to here as the ‘economy of affection’. This framework is presented, through ethnographic data, as a means of facilitating moral, social and economic support among the indigent rural people in KwaZulu‐Natal. Taking cognisance of local organisational forms and resources is the best possible way to reconstruct South Africa's vast hinterland against the background of a history of development patterns, where rhetoric has played a more important role than actual substantive contributions to development of the rural poor, and where capital investments, technology and expertise of a post‐industrial nature are unlikely to spread.     

Community-based natural resource management: The role of social capital in collaborative environmental management of tribal resources in KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa

Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) has become an important tool in promoting environmental and ecological sustainability as well as improving community access to eco-system services. However, CBNRM has been criticised as a programme that is largely driven by initiatives which are exogenous to local communities, promoting the agenda of external actors. In view of this, there is now increased attention given to CBNRM programmes that are co-management driven and which seek the participation of all community stakeholders. Using existing literature and field-based data, this article explores the role of social capital in promoting the management of common pool resources in tribal areas of KwaZulu-Natal. It is argued that social capital can be a vehicle through which the accumulation of different forms of capital can be achieved and contribute to sustainable environmental management.     

Double deprivation: Public and private drug distribution from the perspective of the third world poor

Millions of the world's poor have no access to life-saving drugs. Neither the public nor private drug distribution system caters for their needs. The Third World poor suffer from the unequal distribution of limited public health resources and dangerous sales pressures in the rapidly expanding and largely uncontrolled commercial markets. They lack purchasing power to influence the dynamics of the market which is characterized by a high turnover in profitable, but inessential products and expensive brand-name drugs. Comprehensive national drug policies to rationalize both public and private sectors and improve the availability of essential drugs are urgently needed.     

Natural resources and economic growth

Summary In this century, availability of stock-renewable resources (primarily agricultural produce) and of stock-material resources (minerals except fossil fuels) will not constitute a bottleneck for continued economic growth of the industrialized countries, though their relative prices might increase somewhat. Prospects for continued material growth depend in significant measure on the future energy situation, however. During the second half of the 1980s supply problems might become acute because of limited availability of stock-energy resources and slow development of new sources (flow energy). Government policies may lessen the impact of probable shortages (energy conservation, energy price increases, reorientation of growth). Slowing down of material growth is to be valued positively.     

Clearing the ground in the Spatial Development Initiatives (SDIs): Analysing 'process' on South Africa's Wild Coast

This article, which is based on a case study of the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape, explores the challenges that confront the implementation of SDI projects. It is argued that, in order to encourage active participation of potential beneficiaries in such projects, 'the ground has to be cleared', which necessitates the delineation of the core social dynamics that go hand in hand with the technical aspects of the inputs and outputs of such projects. The two areas in which the SDI fell short of achieving its main objectives, and which this article seeks to address, are the communication and the conflict management strategies. The perception that local social dynamics are seen as a problem rather than as part of a dynamic process of development requires fresh assessment. In conclusion, emphasis should be placed on human resources, patience and willingness to learn about local dynamics, in addition to the great financial commitment in the project cycle.     

Economic efficiency of synthetic motor fuels from natural gas

In this paper we study alternative ways to meet the demand for motor fuels growing in connection with the inevitable rise in oil prices over the next decade or two. One of these is to use natural gas as a motor fuel and as a raw material for synthetic motor oils. Calculation results of the comparative effectiveness of the gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology of motor fuel production from natural gas are presented. It is shown that these technologies look economically promising in countries, which have their own sources of natural gas, especially in small and remote gas fields.     

Land-use planning to help sustain tropical forest resources

Greater use of land-use planning could help sustain tropical forest resources, particularly in countries where future alternatives have not been closed off by prior land-use allocations. Although suitable planning techniques are available, they have not been used to their full potential in tropical countries because of (1) insufficient appreciation by decision- makers, (2) limited availability of data, (3) scarcity of planning expertise, (4) cost, and (5) domination of decision-making by special interest groups. The usefulness of existing techniques can be improved by (1) increasing the timeliness and focus of analysis, (2) improving the data base, (3) encouraging public participation, (4) improving communication of findings, (5) adopting an interdiciplinary approach, and (6) incorporating better monitoring and evaluation in project implementation.     

目前我国小城镇社会福利院存在问题及对策研究——以中原地区小城镇为例

目前,我国小城镇的福利院大体分为两大部分:一是由镇政府开办的福利性社会福利院;一是私人开办,由镇民政部门统一管理的私营养老机构。由镇政府开办的福利性社会福利院存在的问题主要是:资金普遍短缺、工作人员素质偏低、硬件设施简陋和养老观念落后等;由私人开办的养老机构存在的问题主要是:工作人员素质有待提高、硬件设施相对匮乏等。因此,要积极推动小城镇福利院的社会化;加强宣传,逐步更新人们的养老观念;对福利院工作人员进行职业培训,提高素质;地方政府要加强对福利院的监督与控制。西安市慈善会在资金筹集、志愿者队伍建设等方面作了很好的探索。     

日本推动氢燃料电池汽车产业发展的机制研究

日本在实现经济社会发展全面绿色转型过程中,为突破本国资源匮乏限制的同时发挥其技术优势,高度重视氢燃料电池汽车产业的发展。日本通过中央政府的顶层设计明确氢燃料电池汽车产业战略发展目标,同时修订相关法律法规、推行中央财税激励与技术研发促进政策,引导氢燃料电池汽车产业发展;并通过建立中央与地方、地方政府之间沟通交流机制,地方政府因地制宜出台政策,促进地方氢燃料电池汽车产业能动性发展;再通过企业构建完整产业链促进应用落实,以及高校与科研院所的技术研究与人才培养,实现日本氢燃料电池汽车产业健康有序发展。中日两国氢燃料电池汽车产业在技术、市场、发展模式等领域存在极强的互补性,市场与技术共享、政府治理经验交流学习等方面合作前景广阔。日本氢燃料电池汽车产业发展的经验教训可为中国提供一些有益的启示和借鉴。