Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA (DVS)http://hdl.handle.net/11394/31262024-01-25T23:10:23Z2024-01-25T23:10:23ZA study of social constraints and economic survival strategies of female heads of households operating in the informal sector of Katutura, Windhoek, Namibia.Seibes-Bock, Barbarahttp://hdl.handle.net/11394/96242023-02-24T00:03:41Z2004-01-01T00:00:00ZA study of social constraints and economic survival strategies of female heads of households operating in the informal sector of Katutura, Windhoek, Namibia.
Seibes-Bock, Barbara
This exploratory study investigated the survival strategies, needs, problems, coping mechanisms, possible solutions and future prospects of the female heads of households who lived and operated in the informal sector in the Damara suburb in Katutura, Windhoek. A questionnaire with both closed (quantitative) and open ended (qualitative) questions were administered to 30 female heads of households by the researcher in face to face interviews after snowball sampling. The questions covered three main categories: personal information on the heads of households, the types of business activities they were involved in and their household situation. The quantitative data collected were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel. A striking feature was that the vast majority of the female heads of households interviewed formerly employed as domestic workers, with low social status and poor living and working
conditions. Their opportunities in the formal sector were severely limited due to their low qualifications. About 7O%o of the heads of households interviewed were engaged in retail trading businesses: selling of mostly cooked foodstuff, various small grocery items, trading
beverages and liquor. They earned, on average, N$10-50 (Namibian dollar) per day, from which they covered their household expenses on a day-to-day basis and bought stock in small quantities to resell. Only a small number of women used unique skills to generate an income: dressmaking (13%) and providing services (10%). The women who sold liquor generated more income than women in the other categories. The major common problem reported was a lack of money and stock, followed by food shortages, indebtedness and child discipline. The study also used the following three theories to discuss and describe how women operating in the informal sector were affected by the principles of the said theories. The IMF World Bank neo-liberal approaches required Government to cut back on social spending to create wealth through economic growth. Since the informal sector activities took place outside the mainstream economy, those measures did not benefit these heads of households. Marxist theory explained how class structures contributed to women's poverty, while the theory on feminisation of poverty explained how women in particular bear the burden of poverty more than men do.
Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS)
2004-01-01T00:00:00ZDynamics of Poverty traps in Kenya: Modelling Food Security, Population Growth and the Poverty TrapMomanyi, Eric Omwanzahttp://hdl.handle.net/11394/92972023-08-26T00:07:10Z2010-01-01T00:00:00ZDynamics of Poverty traps in Kenya: Modelling Food Security, Population Growth and the Poverty Trap
Momanyi, Eric Omwanza
Rural poverty accounts for 630/o of poverty worldwide. Land has been identified as a key productive asset in the hands of the rural poor. Through this land, the poor are able to produce food for their growing population numbers and sale of surplus to invest in more productive
assets. This research project built a System Dynamics model to track the dynamic linkages between changes in the population, food available and land, and its impact on poverty traps in rural Kenya. The model was fitted with Kenyan population data from 1980 to 2005 and rural
poverty headcount data for Kenya over the same period. Parameter values were estimated from several assorted publications. The model was used to test the policy implications of increase in land productivity and wage rates on poverty traps in rural settings. Preliminary
results indicate that there is need to ensure the poor benefit from efforts of increasing land productivity for it to have a desirable poverty reduction impact. Furthermore, it emerged that demographic changes need to be monitored carefully to achieve a desirable and sustainable
population-ecosystem equilibrium that enables the rural poor improve their livelihoods.
Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS)
2010-01-01T00:00:00ZGesondheid in ontwikkelingsperspektief: 'n gevallestudie van LoxtonWaterboer, Hannes Matthewhttp://hdl.handle.net/11394/85552021-11-03T00:01:40Z1992-01-01T00:00:00ZGesondheid in ontwikkelingsperspektief: 'n gevallestudie van Loxton
Waterboer, Hannes Matthew
Die doel van die navorsingsprojek is om die gesondheidsvoorsiening en -benutting van In klein landelike gemeenskap te ondersoek. Dit is egter nie moontlik om na die gesondheidsituasie van die inwoners in isolasie te kyk en terselfdertyd In volledige beeld van die gesondheid van die inwoners te kry nie. Die gesondheid van die individu, en die gemeenskap in die breƫ, is onlosmaaklik gekoppel aan die algemene welstand van die individu en die gemeenskap (Botha; 1984:2; Wilson & Ramphele; 1989:292). Van die siektes wat deur die armes ondervind
word, kan direk of indirek na hul ekonomies-maatskaplike omstandighede teruggevoerword. Die armoede-verskynsels kan dus nie gekompartementaliseer word nie, maar daar moet noodwendig na die globale lewensopset van die teikengroep gekyk word as een aspek van die totale probleem uitgelig en bestudeer wil word. wilson en Ramphele (1989:4) het vier redes uitgesonder waarom
In studie van die armoede-vraagstuk belangrik is:
* die skade wat armoede aan die individu rig;
* die negatiewe ekonomiese impak wat armoede op die individu het;
* armoede is die manifestasie van groot ongelykhede, en
* armoede is In simptoom van In dieperliggende probleem.
Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS)
1992-01-01T00:00:00ZDoes the Emperor have any clothes? The diffusion of Japanese Manufacturing Techniques to Enterprises in South AfricaLomofsky, Denahttp://hdl.handle.net/11394/78572021-02-23T00:02:02Z1997-01-01T00:00:00ZDoes the Emperor have any clothes? The diffusion of Japanese Manufacturing Techniques to Enterprises in South Africa
Lomofsky, Dena
The objective of this research is to investigate the factors at plant level which impact on the diffusion of Japanese Manufacturing Techniques to enterprises in developing countries generally, and South Africa specifically. This informs the development of meaningful supply-side measures to improve the competitiveness of South African manufacturers. This has been achieved through both a thorough examination of the literature and through field research. The field research documents the implementation experiences in fifteen South African plants which participated in the Shopfloor Best Practice workshops of the Manufacturing Roundtable (MRT). I chose to examine these examples of transfer as I was a participant researcher, attached to the MRT. The central question which guided my research is what are the factors which affect the depth of systemic adoption of Japanese Manufacturing Techniques on the shopfloor in South Africa, and what this indicates for the breadth of diffusion of the techniques across the manufacturing sector as a whole. The research argument is that for sustainable adoption both social and technical aspects of Japanese Manufacturing Techniques need to be addressed. Focusing on the technical aspects only and presenting a universally applicable model obscures the realities of transfer, as the embeddedness of the techniques in the social and institutional context is ignored. The point of departure for analysis in this thesis is thus real examples of transfer, as opposed to a
universally defined and abstracted model. The experience and opinions of the workshop participants, and those of managers in their plants, have been gathered through individual in-depth interviews and site visits. The evidence indicates that there are many factors both internal and external to the firm which are likely to constrain significantly the ability of some firms to move in the systemic direction. These include the poor primary education of much of the workforce, poor management skills, wage and social inequality and a lack of participation in the workplace. It becomes apparent that the process of diffusion amongst South African manufacturers is not likely to be rapid or steady, and that the most likely path is one of uneven diffusion.
Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS)
1997-01-01T00:00:00Z