Cause of Our Poverty: Intellectual Fatigue or Resource Constraint

World Development, 1999

Using data from a national living standards survey undertaken in late 1993, this paper disaggregates and explores the economics of livelihood generation and class in rural South Africa in an effort to contribute to the ongoing and vociferous debate in South Africa about poverty and its ...

World Development, 1999

Using data from a national living standards survey undertaken in late 1993, this paper disaggregates and explores the economics of livelihood generation and class in rural South Africa in an effort to contribute to the ongoing and vociferous debate in South Africa about poverty and its alleviation. Pursuant to the suggestion of participants in a recent participatory poverty assessment, this paper analyzes what might be termed the class structure of poverty. After exploring the range of claiming systems and livelihood tactics available in rural South Africa, the paper offers a first look at who the poor are by disaggregating the rural population into discrete livelihood strategy classes. Non-parametric regression methods are used to then estimate and graphically explore the nature of the livelihood mapping between endowments and real incomes. In addition to identifying those endowment combinations that map to consumption levels below the poverty line (the asset basis of poverty), the topography of the estimated livelihood mapping helps identify the constraints that limit household's ability to effectively utilize their assets and endowments.

1997

Using data from a national living standards survey undertaken in late 1993, this paper disaggregates and explores the economics of livelihood generation and class in rural South Africa in an effort to contribute to the ongoing and vociferous debate in South Africa about poverty and its alleviation. Pursuant to the suggestion of participants in a recent participatory poverty assessment, this paper analyzes what might be termed the class structure of poverty. After exploring the range of claiming systems and livelihood tactics available in rural South Africa, the paper offers a first look at who the poor are by disaggregating the rural population into discrete livelihood strategy classes. Non-parametric regression methods are used to then estimate and graphically explore the nature of the livelihood mapping between endowments and real incomes. In addition to identifying those endowment combinations which map to consumption levels below the poverty line (the asset basis of poverty), th...

2012

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2015

In this paper, the authors contend that if the outsider-researcher involved in ICT for development really wants to make a difference and honestly address the emancipatory interests of the developing community according to local understanding, assumptions, needs and realities, that emancipation will have to occur on both sides of the “development divide”. Using a critical theoretical underpinning, the paper discusses ways in which the outsider researcher and practitioner require emancipation in order to ensure more sustainable ICT for development. By relating to three narratives on an ongoing community engagement project in deep rural South Africa, the authors reflect on particular instances that facilitated self-emancipation. Lessons learnt include the value of cultural interpreters as research partners, tactics for community entry and a self-critical approach for doing data collection and research.

2001

This paper highlights the plight of black rural areas in South Africa, in which deep poverty and weak subsistence agriculture are embedded. The apartheid policy and its numerous measures are the first causes of such a situation. Besides, the existence of a relatively well-developed non-agricultural labour market also maintains productive agricultural activities at a low level. This paper attempts to contextualize those elements in the Eastern Cape province. At province level, the paper first provides the main features of poverty and livelihood systems. Then, typological approaches are used to better understand the socio-economic diversity of local livelihood systems, beyond generic statistics. The results show that diversity is a major trait of local livelihood systems. Pensions and remittances are the pillars of livelihood systems, whereas local off-farm job opportunities remain scarce. Farming activities, although widespread, form a significant source of cash income for a small pr...

The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa

While many factors can be blamed for the slow progress in reducing poverty, contradictions in policy and practice within government are part of the problem. The post-apartheid Constitution (Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996), for example, contains clauses that seek to address poverty reduction and other racial inequalities. Section 27 (subsection 1b) of the Constitution states that 'everyone has the right to have access to sufficient food and water' and that 'the state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realization of these rights' (subsection 3). This effectively enshrines food security and poverty reduction as constitutional rights. Section 25 of the Constitution addresses not only land reform but also existing property rights. Through its three components (restitution, redistribution and tenure reform), land reform aims to reverse skewed land distribution, which is the legacy of segregation and apartheid. Its goal is to return land or offer alternative redress to people who unfairly lost their land, make land available for productive and residential purpose to the landless and provide secure land tenure rights where they did not exist. However, these two sections of the Constitution, when taken together, have a complicated relationship. Food security is broadly defined as access by all households at all times to adequate, safe and nutritious food for a healthy and productive life. Although its more than two decades into democracy, the Eastern Cape province has not been able to run away from the trappings of structural poverty. This is seen in all aspects of its The purpose of this study was to conduct an assessment of the role of civil society organisations (CSOs) in poverty alleviation, with a particular focus on three CSOs operating in the Amathole district of the Eastern Cape province. The CSOs were located in the local municipalities of Amahlathi (Ikhwezi Women Support Centre), Mbhashe (Nyhwarha Home-Based Care) and Mnquma (We Care HIV/AIDS Ministries). A combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods was used. Data were collected from 14 people either working for or associated with the CSOs using semi-structured interviews, structured interviews in which a questionnaire was administered and focus groups. Document analysis supplemented these data collection methods. The findings showed that different interventions by the CSOs played an important role in improving the well-being of community members but that the interventions did not necessarily focus directly on poverty alleviation. Where the CSOs made a direct contribution to poverty eradication, it was done by employing community members in their projects. The challenges that they experienced largely concerned funding and insufficiently skilled human resources. The CSOs were able to plan and monitor their performance, but the logical framework they used failed to prepare them for unexpected changes in their projects. Focused management support from the Department of Social Development will assist the CSOs to become sustainable.

World Development, 2007

Development Southern Africa, 2008

This study analysed changes in demographic, gender, basic service access and agricultural production patterns in the rural black Eastern Cape Province between 1993 and 2002 in order to offer advice for future poverty alleviation strategies. It used secondary data from national surveys and the 2001 census and stratified the Eastern Cape districts into former Transkei, former Ciskei and commercial farming district sub-regions, in accordance with the pre-1994 developmental scenarios. The results showed that the demographic and basic service access changes were positive, but that pre-existing sub-regional differences had been reinforced, indicating that the populous former Transkei was being marginalised. There has been little development for rural women, agricultural production is almost negligible and employment in commercial farming has declined. Geographically targeted interventions seem to be warranted for the demographic, gender development and basic service accessibility aspects of Eastern Cape rural poverty, but improving rural production appears to be the major challenge.

2005

This paper considers the state of poverty discourse in South Africa since 1994: the ideological frameworks, narratives and assumptions that have shaped the construction of poverty as an object of academic knowledge, policy management and political concern. One of the distinctive characteristics of post–Apartheid South African politics is the existence of a broad consensus both on the importance of the need to reduce poverty and the means by which to do it. This consensus has a paradoxical and ambiguous character. On the one hand, ‘poverty talk’ plays a central role in posing and framing fundamental questions of social justice in South Africa: indeed, it is one of the main ways in which the issue of the moral and political legitimacy of the post-Apartheid social order is framed and debated. This has facilitated significant and broad social legitimacy for ‘pro–poor’ policies and the distribution of resources. But at the same time, the discursive frameworks that have underpinned this consensus also contain important limitations. Poverty is understood in ways that disconnect it from an understanding of inequality and social process, and which deny consequence or relevance to the causal relationship between the persistence of poverty and the formation and nature of South African capitalism. In this way ‘poverty talk’ trivialises poverty as a social issue and neutralises its political charge. The paper ends with an evaluation of the strengths and limits of South Africa’s anti–poverty consensus and considers different responses to the impasses confronting poverty management

The Journal of Modern African Studies, 1999

The failure of successive generations of imported, Western development strategies and projects to deliver meaningful reductions in poverty and achieve basic needs in Africa, has provoked a deep questioning of Western concepts and methodologies of development. Non-governmental organisations and development practitioners are increasingly focusing their attention on strategies which build upon local knowledge, skills and resources. The concepts of ' selfreliance ' and local economic development are examined in the context of development challenges which face Africa. This is followed by a detailed case study of local economic development in the rural Mpofu District of the former Ciskei Homeland, which was incorporated into the Eastern Cape province of South Africa with the demise of apartheid in .

… in rural Africa …, 2000

Sciences met for two intensive days of presentations and discussions on the seminar topic. Since May 1998, the time of the seminar, the issue of African poverty has received increased attention. In late 1999 when Nelson Mandela addressed the Organisation of Trade Union Unity in Johannesburg, he described poverty in Africa as "the number one problem of the world" (Mustapha) *. At the same time, James D. Wolfensohn, the president of the World Bank, in his Annual Meeting Speech to the IMF and the World Bank, stated that as many as half of the global population, i.e. about 3 billion people, live on less than USD 2 a day, and as many as 1.3 billion people on less that USD 1 a day (Wolfensohn 1999). In addition, we know that nearly 1 billion people in the world go hungry every day. The situation in Africa is the most appalling. It is estimated that in the year 2,000 nearly one third of the global poor living on less that USD 1 a day will live in Africa, the majority in the rural areas. Africa is one of the few regions in which the relative share of poor people is still increasing, in spite of a process of comprehensive economic and political reform, initiated from the early 1980s onwards. According to the 1999 World Bank report, "Poverty Trends and Voices of the Poor", Eastern Europe is also experiencing a deepening of poverty. Here those living below one dollar a day rose from 1.1 million in 1987 * Throughout the introduction references of this type refer to the subsequent chapter by the person named. The politics of reform and poverty alleviation Whereas IFAD emphasised the need to help poor smallholders capture the potential benefits of reforms, others argued that this process was not realistically conceptualised. In addition there were problems inherent in the reforms themselves that hindered such benefits from emerging. The question was raised why two decades of reform activities and massive foreign assistance had failed to stem the tide of poverty in rural Africa (Havnevik and Mustapha). Emphasising the linkages between reforms and institutions on the one hand, and institutions and poverty on the other, the argument is put forward that the reforms were flawed both in terms of their conceptualisation of the problems, the policy choices made and in the implementation of the policies (Mustapha).

Conference on Opportunities in Africa: Micro- …, 2000

Journal of Poverty, 2001

Since the inception of the post-apartheid dispensation in the early 1990s, poverty alleviation has come to represent an increasingly significant developmental concern in South Africa. This mirrors the international poverty agenda that gained momentum with the publication of the World Development Report 1990 and that has come to characterise the nineties. A concomitant response has been a reconfiguration of the contours of poverty research in South Africa, one that reflects this commitment to understanding the nature and causes of impoverishment and formulating appropriate policy interventions. A critical milestone in this new poverty research agenda occurred in late 1993 with the Project for Statistics on Living Standards and Development (PSLSD) under the auspices of the South African Labour and Development Research Unit (Saldru). 1 This study was the first fully representative household income and living standards survey in South Africa, incorporating approximately 8800 households nationwide (of which 4259 were rural African households), and is generally considered the benchmark for comprehensive poverty-related data in the country. 2 The results from the survey revealed, inter alia that: With a Gini coefficient of 0.58, South Africa has one of the highest levels of inequality in the world. Apartheid policies, by engendering a situation of inequitable access to employment, services and resources to the African population, have resulted in poverty being characterised by a strong racial dimension. Poverty is geographically concentrated, with the largest share of the poor (72 percent) residing in rural areas, especially the former homelands. There is a marked tendency for poverty to be more prevalent among female-headed households and among children.