Falling under one of the SARChI research theme, Ecology and Poverty Reduction, Prof Bracking reports briefly in the Africa Report on the disturbing trends of climate finance, the possible market of speculative trading, use of derivatives and futures for “green bonds”. Not only do the financial patterns of such green bond trades seem to have the potential to end up like that of the “recent” financial crash, such “green” investments do not appear to put money into on the ground interventions which would in fact help to change the course of our planet’s global warming. Rather, without any definition of “green”, or the lack of actual plans of helping affected communities cope with climate-related issues mean that such patterns of finance and any implementing project can be used and mis-aligned to supposedly meet some subjectively vague climate initiative.
Read The Africa Report: Bracking, S (2015, 15 Feb). “Energy: Green bonds, bubbles and torrents” The Africa Report. URL: http://www.theafricareport.com/Columns/energy-green-bonds-bubbles-and-torrents.html
The School of Built Environment and Development Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, is pleased to announce Masters Bursaries for 2015. There are two bursaries for Master’s study attached to the DST/NRF Research Chair in Applied Poverty Reduction Assessment, held by Professor Bracking. Students who receive these bursaries will work on a dissertation topic aligned with the focus areas of the Chair, and they will be supervised by Professor Bracking.
Applied Poverty Reduction Assessment Research Topics
The purpose of the Chair is to promote and undertake research and evaluation on government, private sector and civil society interventions that have been designed to reduce poverty. Topics being investigated include the impact on poverty of infrastructure development (for example, public housing, the port expansion) poverty reduction and climate change adaptation and mitigation, urban informality and livelihoods, food security, service delivery and social welfare policy.
Recognising the need for a trans-disciplinary approach to poverty impact assessment, applicants can intend to use conventional poverty impact assessment methodologies. However, applicants are also invited who wish to pursue qualitative and participatory approaches to analysing and measuring poverty and well-being and in exploring the efficacy of means employed to reduce poverty by whichever actor – public, private or civic.
Bursary and Fellowship Criteria:
To be eligible to apply:
Masters applicants must have an honours degree or equivalent with at least a lower second (above 65% or equivalent).
In addition to this bursary application, applicants are required to be accepted and registered in the discipline of Development Studies.
Bursary applications should consist of:
A letter of motivation;
A draft research design/intention of research subject (which can be changed later) of no more than 1 side of A4 at 1.5 line spacing.
A C.V.;
Full academic records;
Stamped certificate of registration for the Masters programme; and
The contact details of two academic referees.
In addition to the bursary, successful applicants will also receive support for field work and conference attendance, if research and conference plans are approved at the relevant milestones.
*Please note that you must provide proof of your Master’s programme application if you are waiting for proof of acceptance to the School.
Preference will be given to South African applicants who meet the correct standard of excellence, but all are encouraged to apply.
The deadline for bursary applications is 31 March 2015.
Applications should be submitted to: Mr. Stephen Olivier (sds.olivier@gmail.com) – (Rm F201, MTB), and Prof Bracking (bracking@ukzn.ac.za), using the email header: DST/NRF Bursary Application 2015.
The SARChI team presents at the Global Change Conference 2014 (Photo credit: S Myeni)
The South African Research Chair on Applied Poverty Reduction Assessment (SARCHi) team from UKZN’s School of Built Environment and Development Studies (BEDS) recently attended the 2nd National Conference on Global Change at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth.
The theme of the conference was: “Global Change research in South Africa: towards integration across disciplines, sectors and scales”. The main purpose of the conference was to bring together the diverse global change research community in South Africa and to share recent research progress and outcomes across the broad scope of the NRF’s Global Change Grand Challenge (GCGC) programme.
The conference was attended by post-graduate research students, emerging researchers and well-known researchers and professors from South Africa and internationally.
Team SARCHi presented papers that were based on research done in conjunction with the Leverhulme Centre for the Study of Value (based at the University of Manchester) and the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA). The study’s analysis and the conference trip were sponsored by the South African Research Chairs initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation of South Africa.
Development Studies Master student, Miss Ayanda Tshabalala presented a paper titled: Notions of Sustainability and Development: With a particular reference to the Clairwood, Durban Port Expansion. Is it geared towards poverty reduction?
Her paper interrogated whether the proposed Durban port expansion will have any valuable development advantages for the local community of Clairwood. ‘The proposed port expansion will focus on providing formal employment in a time when the South African economy has been plagued by jobless growth. The question remains how this infrastructure will fit within the current realities of residents in Clairwood which remain a mix of both formal enterprises and informal businesses activities,’ she said.
Another Master’s student, Mr Tawonga Rushambwa’s research focused on sustainable development, economic development, prosperity, social inclusion and good governance using Clairwood community in Durban as a case study.
Post-doctoral researcher, Dr Sithembiso Myeni’s paper touched on government-subsidised housing as a tool to reduce poverty and the power relations involved in this process within KZN. ‘Poverty reduction is not always a necessary criterion which influences either the mapping or the profiling of housing beneficiaries. There was also a problem of competing and contradictory decision making processes between the stakeholders,’ said Myeni.
The team’s Research Manager, Ms Kathleen Diga also presented a paper titled: Climate Change adaptation and poverty reduction co-benefits: a case study of eThekwini Municipality.
Her work investigated how human development or socio-economic factors were being considered within an externally funded climate financed project. She looked at an exploratory desktop case study of the Buffelsdraai Community Reforestation Programme based in the eThekwini metropolitan municipality.
Another interesting paper, looking at the recent upsurge of subsistence farming activities in the urban areas of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, was tackled by Development Studies PhD student, Mr Danford Chibvongodze. His paper interrogated the processes that have led to this phenomenon called Rurbanisation, or the “process of practicing rural subsistence activities in an urban-style landscape” (Trefon, 2002:490). It also looked at the perceptions of this new phenomenon by the residents of Bulawayo.
An interactive student debate on “Environmental concerns are playing too much of a role in shaping South Africa’s future energy system” saw Ms Mandy Lombo, Masters student in Development Studies, participating as part of the team called The Voice.
Debate participants included other students from the UKZN Pietermaritzburg campus, Ms Nasiphi Ntshanga, and Mr Sibu Majozi and students from the University of Witwatersrand and the University of the Western Cape. The audience was able to participate in the debate via twitter.
‘The conference was a learning experience, and it was also a chance to meet students and researchers from other universities in the hope of future collaborations and projects. The conference also changed the way one perceives the world around us and environmental concerns,’ said Lombo.
The South African Research Chair on Applied Poverty Reduction Assessment (SARChI) team from UKZN’s School of Built Environment and Development Studies (BEDS) recently visited the Clairwood Tamil Institute to present to the community the preliminary research findings from the 2013 Clairwood community value survey.
Together with the Leverhulme Centre for the Study of Value and the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), the UKZN team conducted research that hoped to highlight some of the alternative socio-economic elements which may have been missed from previously written reports on the economic value of the port expansion, as well as provide input on how the residents perceived value within their community.
The meeting intended to be a community engagement with the results of the survey and to allow for the community to provide feedback on the results and the process to date. In attendance were the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance’s Mr Desmond D’sa and Professor Sarah Bracking who both helped to facilitate the workshop.
The SARChI team gave presentations on the varying aspects of the report. Development Studies PhD candidate, Mr Danford Chibvongodze presented on the theme, Business and Economic activities in Clairwood, on behalf of his team (with Master’s student, Ms Ayanda Tshabalala). The presentation gave a brief explanation around the business enterprises in the area, with emphasis on informal activities which exist in Clairwood.
He also highlighted how the mix of formal industry and informal trade boost the economy of the area and provide various employment opportunities to the nearby residents.
Development Studies Masters students, Ms Mandy Lombo and Ms Nduta Mbarathi presented on the current living conditions of the inhabitants of Clairwood.
‘Findings from our study show that the area has faced severe neglect, particularly in terms of basic municipal services, such as waste collection as well as the general maintenance of the area. Clairwood residents, while many do receive local services to their homes, others also experience poor sanitation due to lack of water and toilets facilities,’ said Lombo.
Research manager Ms Kathleen Diga and Masters Student Ms Mbali Mthembu presented on community social cohesion, sense of belonging and the immaterial values which have been established in the area since the community started building 150 years ago.
‘The Clairwood community saw many of the schools and places of worship built by the community. These historical places bring about social cohesion, and there is a perception of racial harmony and a rich diverse culture in the area,’ said Diga. The presentation also revealed that Clairwood was a close-knit community that helped each other during times of hardship.
Master’s student, Mr Tawonga Rushambwa and SARChI Chair, Prof Sarah Bracking did a brief presentation aimed to look at how large infrastructural development can affect communities such as Clairwood. The presenters emphasised that the area should remain as it is because of its historic heritage and diversity. It was suggested by the community that development should rather take place in the eastern industrial zone in order for the expansion to not encroach onto the residential areas, but still bring economic development.
‘The residents were very vocal against uninformed development, many were quoted saying that the government was biased towards the needs of business and this preference was to the detriment of the local residents. They felt that they were not properly consulted about the proposed expansion,’ said Lombo.
She further added that they were also worried that they will lose their homes, businesses and jobs, and would not be able to secure their current opportunities anywhere else. ‘The residents were concerned around safety as they have seen an increase in illegal businesses on residential properties, and the trucks on the roads are causing many accidents.’
‘The residents are hopeful that the government would instead provide them with much needed housing, water and electricity rather than move them away as this would disrupt a currently strong cohesive community with important historical ties to Clairwood.’
Key challenges to reducing poverty in South Africa through inclusive growth, decent work and well being were explored by Professor Sarah Bracking of the School of Built Environment and Development Studies (BEDS) in a Public Lecture.
The Lecture was part of a National Research Foundation (NRF) workshop titled: “Poverty Production in South Africa’s Extractive Economy”.
Exploring the key challenges to reducing poverty in South Africa by means of inclusive growth, decent work and wellbeing, Bracking argued that these would require fundamental reforms to the structure of the macro economy.
She examined neo-liberal governance and how politicians use a self-denying ordinance, ‘that external economic imperatives are non-negotiable, such that domestic political actors believe themselves to be powerless as economic policy decision-makers, and instead see themselves as concerned with only technocratic responsibilities’.
Bracking further pointed out that neo-liberalism, often associated with globalisation and the economic power of global corporations and multilateral institutions, uses markets to settle matters of resource allocation and believes incorrectly that imperfect markets are better than imperfect states.
‘But neoliberalism leads to the structural displacement of the upper echelons of economies to privatised secrecy jurisdictions or tax havens. This leads to the ‘development of underdevelopment,’ she said. Through a political economy of displacement, Bracking explained that in African states the commanding heights have largely migrated offshore. ‘The offshore site of exemption is legitimated by orthodox economics through the necessity of neo-liberalism. Political crisis and people’s displacement and dispossession, generate financial displacement to preserve and/or store wealth resulting from the crisis.’
In conclusion she said a displacement political economy was characterised by the financialisation of power. ‘Financialisation does not “just happen”, but has agents which employ money as a technology of power, using the money form to quantify human and physical contexts, privilege financial parameters and pecuniary factors in decision-making, and thus return decisions in favour of money-holders.
Participants at an Applied Poverty Reduction Assessment workshop.
[This article was originally published on UKZNDABAonline (02 July 2014, Vol 2, Issue 36)]
The School of Built Environment and Development Studies (BEDS) recently hosted a South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) workshop on Applied Poverty Reduction Assessment.
The overall purpose of the workshop was to review the state of poverty research in South Africa in relation to past, current and future work programmes of the SARChI Chair in Applied Poverty Reduction Assessment. Many interesting topics were discussed and speakers presented on behalf of various governmental and nongovernmental institutions including the University of Pretoria, the University of the Western Cape, the University of the Witwatersrand, eThekwini Municipality, the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, and the Institute for Security Studies.
One of the UKZN presenters, Senior Lecturer and Academic Co-ordinator for Development Studies, Dr Mvuselelo Ngcoya, presented his research on food and self-provisioning focusing on his work on indigenous leafy vegetables in KwaZulu-Natal. Professor Imraan Valodia also of UKZN presented initial findings on a large survey of manufacturing firms in Durban. Valodia explained that in 2002 and 2003 data was gathered from one in every three medium and large manufacturing firms in the Greater Durban Area to help establish and assess the constraints to manufacturing growth among firms in Durban. The data collection served to help guide and, where necessary, alter local and national policy interventions. This 2002 data collection exercise, undertaken by the eThekwini Municipality was supported by the USA Development Agency, USAID, with the World Bank appointed to provide technical support. ‘As the data yielded useful and important policy conclusions, the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality and UKZN are collaborating, with other local, provincial and national actors – including the local business community – to conduct a similar survey. This will mean that Durban will be in a unique position of having a fully representative survey of medium and large manufacturing firms,’ said Valodia.
Ms Kathleen Diga, Research Project Manager of the South African Research Chair in Applied Poverty Assessment at the School, examined Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) and poverty reduction. Diga presented findings of previous SARChI research detailing various cases of ICT usage and their relationship in increasing economic and human capabilities and wellbeing among the poor. The project findings are now accessible publicly in the 2014 edited book: ICT Pathways to Poverty Reduction: EmpiricalEvidence from East and Southern Africa.
Participants at the workshop agreed that it had been an informative two-day session.
The School of Built Environment and Development Studies (BEDS) and the South African Research Chairs initiative (SARChI) will host a workshop on Applied Poverty Reduction Assessment on the Howard College Campus on 19 and 20 June. The overall purpose of the workshop is to review the state of poverty research in South Africa in relation to the past, current and future work programmes of the SARChI Chair in Applied Poverty Reduction Assessment. Holder of the SARCHi Chair in Applied Poverty Reduction Assessment within the School, Professor Sarah Bracking, said: ‘In particular we will explore research which can inform policy makers on the means to increase the efficiency of service provision and social grants. Also, we are introducing new work on economic justice and the macro economy. ‘The workshop is at an important time in international development as the debate on what will happen after the Millennium Development Goals is potentially detracting attention away from the still nearly 1 billion people globally suffering from chronic poverty.’ Bracking said the workshop would benefit those attending by allowing them to reach a new focus on what could be done by researchers reaching out to activists in South Africa and beyond. The workshop is supported by the National Research Foundation and the South African Department of Science and Technology. Some of the topics to be covered are black economic empowerment policy and economic justice; white elephants and development; poverty production in South Africa’s extractive economy and ICTs and poverty reduction.
