Government-sponsored community development projects as poverty alleviation tools: evidence from Mdantsane, East London
- Authors: Gedze, Ntombebhongo
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Economic development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Poverty -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agriculture and state -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Eastern Cape -- South Africa , Poverty alleviation , Community participation , Mdantsane Township
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , M Soc Sc (Rural Development)
- Identifier: vital:11948 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1005995 , Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Economic development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Poverty -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agriculture and state -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Eastern Cape -- South Africa , Poverty alleviation , Community participation , Mdantsane Township
- Description: The study investigates whether government-sponsored community development projects in the township of Mdantsane, Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa, have achieved the intended goal of alleviating poverty among the beneficiaries. The specific outcomes of poverty alleviation are: improved income, acquisition of new skills, reduced dependence on welfare grants. Four urban farming projects were selected, namely: Buffalo City Organic Producers, Sakhisizwe Nursery, Lusindiso Farmer’s Trading Co-operative and Mbombela Co-operative. Focus group discussions and a mini survey were conducted with project beneficiaries, while relevant government officials were interviewed. Conceptual insights were drawn from community development theory. The findings showed that the broader context within which the projects occurred was characterised by a pro-poor social policy, relative availability of resources with which to translate it into action, and a measure of entrepreneurial potential amongst community members. However, while one of the projects showed some promise (in the sense that beneficiaries acquired new skills and had a generally positive attitude despite not enjoying any improved income status), all the others appeared doomed and trapped in dynamics such as: excessive government control of the management of the initiatives, ineffective project monitoring, and the mischaracterisation of the initiatives by both the government and the beneficiaries. A distorted sense of ownership and perverse community participation seemed to prevail, which in turn robbed the initiatives of their poverty alleviation potential. The study thus concluded that specific benefactor-beneficiary dynamics are crucial for the success of a given anti-poverty intervention. A robust pro-poor social policy, availability of resources with which to translate it into action, and local entrepreneurial potential do not in themselves bring about success; they must operate in a certain way and be undergirded by certain principles for them to become a powerful mechanism for alleviating poverty. It is against this background that the researcher offers some recommendations.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Gedze, Ntombebhongo
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Economic development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Poverty -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agriculture and state -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Eastern Cape -- South Africa , Poverty alleviation , Community participation , Mdantsane Township
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , M Soc Sc (Rural Development)
- Identifier: vital:11948 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1005995 , Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Economic development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Poverty -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agriculture and state -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Eastern Cape -- South Africa , Poverty alleviation , Community participation , Mdantsane Township
- Description: The study investigates whether government-sponsored community development projects in the township of Mdantsane, Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa, have achieved the intended goal of alleviating poverty among the beneficiaries. The specific outcomes of poverty alleviation are: improved income, acquisition of new skills, reduced dependence on welfare grants. Four urban farming projects were selected, namely: Buffalo City Organic Producers, Sakhisizwe Nursery, Lusindiso Farmer’s Trading Co-operative and Mbombela Co-operative. Focus group discussions and a mini survey were conducted with project beneficiaries, while relevant government officials were interviewed. Conceptual insights were drawn from community development theory. The findings showed that the broader context within which the projects occurred was characterised by a pro-poor social policy, relative availability of resources with which to translate it into action, and a measure of entrepreneurial potential amongst community members. However, while one of the projects showed some promise (in the sense that beneficiaries acquired new skills and had a generally positive attitude despite not enjoying any improved income status), all the others appeared doomed and trapped in dynamics such as: excessive government control of the management of the initiatives, ineffective project monitoring, and the mischaracterisation of the initiatives by both the government and the beneficiaries. A distorted sense of ownership and perverse community participation seemed to prevail, which in turn robbed the initiatives of their poverty alleviation potential. The study thus concluded that specific benefactor-beneficiary dynamics are crucial for the success of a given anti-poverty intervention. A robust pro-poor social policy, availability of resources with which to translate it into action, and local entrepreneurial potential do not in themselves bring about success; they must operate in a certain way and be undergirded by certain principles for them to become a powerful mechanism for alleviating poverty. It is against this background that the researcher offers some recommendations.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Community participation in selected public schools of Komani, Eastern Cape
- Authors: Sondlo, Oyisa
- Date: 2023-04
- Subjects: Community participation , Common schools , Chris Hani District, Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , Thesis
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/61578 , vital:71379
- Description: This study is located in Mlungisi Township of Komani in the Eastern Cape - where the aim was to closely examine the role played by this community to build and govern its public schools. The study selected the three biggest schools in the area to examine how the community’s involvement in them has surfaced from their founding up to the present times. The study found that through these three schools, this community managed, under apartheid, to take initiative by mobilising itself for self-development by building these schools and infusing them with a liberation curriculum that was required for the conditions of oppression and resistance at the time. This community in essence turned the intentions of Bantu education around by using these schools as sites of alternative education that was delivered by its own activist teachers to conscientise the student youth about community struggles. Black people in this community used these schools as emancipatory spaces to connect student struggles with community struggles to build community power. In the post-apartheid epoch, much of these traditions and levels of community participation have dropped because of new precarious economies and labour conditions that keep the adult population busy. As a result, present-day community participation is not as politically intentional as it was under apartheid. Theoretically, the study applied Paulo Freire’s Critical Community Pedagogy. Methodologically, the study utilised critical qualitative oral histories and semi-structured interviews. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, School of Governmental and Social Sciences, 2023
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023-04
- Authors: Sondlo, Oyisa
- Date: 2023-04
- Subjects: Community participation , Common schools , Chris Hani District, Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , Thesis
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/61578 , vital:71379
- Description: This study is located in Mlungisi Township of Komani in the Eastern Cape - where the aim was to closely examine the role played by this community to build and govern its public schools. The study selected the three biggest schools in the area to examine how the community’s involvement in them has surfaced from their founding up to the present times. The study found that through these three schools, this community managed, under apartheid, to take initiative by mobilising itself for self-development by building these schools and infusing them with a liberation curriculum that was required for the conditions of oppression and resistance at the time. This community in essence turned the intentions of Bantu education around by using these schools as sites of alternative education that was delivered by its own activist teachers to conscientise the student youth about community struggles. Black people in this community used these schools as emancipatory spaces to connect student struggles with community struggles to build community power. In the post-apartheid epoch, much of these traditions and levels of community participation have dropped because of new precarious economies and labour conditions that keep the adult population busy. As a result, present-day community participation is not as politically intentional as it was under apartheid. Theoretically, the study applied Paulo Freire’s Critical Community Pedagogy. Methodologically, the study utilised critical qualitative oral histories and semi-structured interviews. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, School of Governmental and Social Sciences, 2023
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023-04
- «
- ‹
- 1
- ›
- »