Browsing by Subject "policy"

Now showing 1 - 14 of 14
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    A policy for the stimulated development of the Transkei
    (1968) Gemmel, Robert
    The aim of this study was to investigate the present development of the Transkei and to propose a policy for its future development, bearing in mind the potential of' the country and its people. The Transkei, an independent state, was looked at in relation to the developed areas of Southern Africa, and found to be geographically isolated from such economically developed areas and major communication links. Hence stimulated development is necessary. Physiographically the Transkei can be divided into three regions. Practically speaking two distinct regions can be distinguished, viz. the coastal sub-tropical region and the inland grass regions suitable for mixed farming.The natural resources which have the best development potential are forests, builders' marble, base minerals and water resources in general. Certain areas of the Transkei were found to be ideally suitable for the production of cash crops such as coffee, cotton, sugar, tea and fibre. The rest of the Transkei is suitable for mixed farming. There is thus a possibility of processing various products, i.e. an industrial potential. The problem in the Transkei is defined as basically a social problem; the attitude of the people does not create an environment conducive to economic development. Productivity per morgen and per person is low. With 98% of the population living in the non-urban areas and 85% of the economically active population being engaged in agriculture there is over-crowding on the land and per capita income is low.The standard of education of the people is low and there are virtually no employment opportunities other than in subsistence farming.
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    Cognitive dissonance as an explanation of the genesis, evolution and persistence of Thabo Mbeki's HIV denialism
    (2008) Kenyon, Chris
    The ongoing damage that the newer forms of HIV denialism are visiting upon our country is evidenced by the recent firing of Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, the South African Deputy Minister of Health. It is widely believed that the underlying reason for her dismissal was her support of orthodox HIV treatment and prevention strategies and her disdain for HIV denialism. This paper seeks to understand the origins, spread and metamorphosis of President Thabo Mbeki's HIV denialism in South Africa. Using the theory of cognitive dissonance, I argue that, given the structural beliefs of the African National Congress (ANC) and the pattern of emergence of HIV in the 1980s, a degree of scepticism around the putative science of HIV was probable in ANC circles. On assuming the Presidency in 1999, Mbeki tapped into this scepticism to formulate his initial biological version of HIV denialism, which claimed that 'a virus can't cause a syndrome.' The steady erosion of support for this flagrant HIV denialism, together with the rise of neoliberal thinking in the ANC, would lead to the evolution of this biological denialism into a form of treatment denialism. This ideology argued against the widespread provision and use of antiretroviral treatment. Empirical evidence is presented to demonstrate the extent to which ongoing HIV denial in the general population is continuing to fuel the spread of HIV.
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    Implementing family strengthening policy: an assessment of NGO experiences in the Western Cape, South Africa
    (2024) Katzef, Carly; Naidoo, Vinothan
    Mutually reinforcing health, education, and social development outcomes are rooted in the quality of children's relationships with primary caregivers in the home environment; yet multiple, compounding stressors make parenting a difficult task. Government policies that aim to support families do so through committing to provide an ‘enabling environment' for caregivers to fulfil this central role. The South African Revised White Paper on Families represents one such commitment. A key lever of support is family strengthening, which includes the provision of parenting support programmes to enhance caregiver-child relationships, and contribute to family and community safety and wellbeing. These programmes are largely delivered by non-governmental organisations (NGOs). However, as they are mandated, funded, and to some extent, regulated, by national policy frameworks, NGOs face several challenges. This qualitative study investigated the implementation of parenting support programmes by documenting the experiences of frontline NGO providers. Conducted in the Western Cape, it employed a semi-structured survey of NGOs, supplemented by key informant interviews with provincial government officials overseeing family strengthening in the province. The literature on parenting programmes highlights four interlinked factors which shape implementation outcomes, namely, availability of human and financial resources; co ordinating multiple institutions to support interventions in this joined-up policy area; and adopting evidence-based coupled with monitoring and evaluation practices to enhance programme design. Findings were generally consistent with the key implementation drivers in the existing literature: that government and NGOs alike lack the human and financial resources to execute a coordinated response to the family strengthening mandate. This limitation is partly attributed to the White Paper's siloed approach to family services, as well as a preference for statutory cases (such as foster care placement, and child abuse and neglect) over preventative support, such as parenting programmes. Monitoring and evaluation efforts are also hindered by resource constraints, which is compounded by governments' narrow quantitative reporting indicators that struggle to measure programme impact. However, there is an apparent effort in the sector to balance insights from both academic research and organisations' practice generated learnings in an attempt to define ‘evidence' usefully and realistically. Overall, this study identified the most prominent factors influencing the implementation of family strengthening policies, with a focus on the White Paper on Families, and drew out implications for improving policy design. Addressing family strengthening is a significant, yet complex, policy area that this research shed further light on by adding the experiences in the Western Cape province of South Africa as an additional piece of evidence to the existing literature. Future research avenues could explore the perspectives of both facilitators as well as beneficiaries (parents/caregivers) to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of this little-known policy area.
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    Mapping provision in HE: the present and the possible
    (2022-03-15) Czerniewicz, Laura
    This paper is about Higher Education (HE) teaching provision in terms of a) its language and key concepts b) the types, modes and means presently in existence in South Africa and emergent globally and c) the implications for policies and regulatory frameworks.
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    Media and Information Literacy in South Africa: Goals and Tools
    (2012) Saleh, Ibrahim
    The South African government has emphasized the need to expand the role of media education to promote equal access, with a level of quality and relevance that will empower disadvantaged groups. However, it is a challenging, time-consuming process, as well as requiring considerable and consistent expenditure and partnerships between many donor agencies. There is little research on the causes behind unequal access to technology, or comparative studies of the barriers that impede the diffusion and adoption of media and information literacy in South Africa. It is thus not surprising that the media and information literacy component is still missing from the agenda that lists Africa’s myriad problems, as well as the absence of qualified teachers, training for the trainers and the presence of IT literacy in the curricula, all of which are essential elements for any future development. The UNESCO model of curricula could help close the digital divide and promote social inclusion. As a contribution to that goal, this study investigates some of the pertinent issues related to media and information literacy via a sample of students at the University of Cape Town. This research offers some practical solutions on how to help raise the levels of media and information literacy among the disadvantaged, in the case in South Africa. El gobierno de Sudáfrica ha realizado recientemente un enorme esfuerzo en la expansión del papel de la educación en medios, con el objeto de ofrecer un acceso equitativo y de calidad a toda la población, especialmente hacia los grupos desfavorecidos. Sin embargo, este proceso requiere tiempo y recursos ingentes y constantes, además de la necesaria colaboración de otras instituciones. Actualmente, existe en Sudáfrica escasa investigación sobre las causas de las desigualdades de acceso a la tecnología o los obstáculos que existen para la difusión y puesta en marcha de la alfabetización mediática en Sudáfrica. No es sorprendente, por ello, que entre los múltiples problemas que existen hoy en África todavía la alfabetización mediática e informacional no sea una prioridad. Siguen existiendo muchos maestros con escasos conocimientos en esta materia, la capacitación de formadores es muy pobre y su incorporación en programas de alfabetización muy anecdótica. El Currículum UNESCO MIL de Alfabetización Mediática es un reto para ayudar a superar esta brecha digital y promover la inclusión social. Con este objetivo, este estudio analiza algunas cuestiones relacionadas con la alfabetización mediática a partir de una muestra de estudiantes de la Universidad de Cape Town, proponiendo algunas soluciones prácticas sobre cómo ayudar a mejorar los niveles de alfabetización mediática e informacional en las sociedades menos favorecidas, como es el caso de Sudáfrica.
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    New imperatives for energy policy in South Africa
    (1994) Eberhard, Anton; van Horen, Clive
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    Promoting mental health in scarce-resource contexts: emerging evidence and practice
    (2011) Petersen, Inge; Bhana, Arvin; Flisher, Alan J; Swartz, Leslie; Richter, Linda
    Mental health in scarce-resource settings has received considerable attention in the new millennium, in response to the growing evidence on the burden of mental disorders and their cost-effective treatments. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) World Health Report 2001, and The Lancet series on Global Mental Health in 2007, are two major initiatives that synthesised the evidence from these settings. While the former highlighted the burden of mental disorders and the large treatment gaps in all countries, the latter described the exciting new evidence on treatment and prevention for many mental disorders, but also the many barriers to scaling up these treatments. The Lancet series ended with a call to action to scale up services for people with mental disorders, based on evidence and a commitment to human rights. Both these initiatives, however, focused on the extreme end of the distribution of distressing mental health experiences in the population – the end where most individuals would satisfy diagnostic criteria for mental disorder. It is in this context that the larger role of promoting mental health in scarce-resource settings at the level of the population as a whole, or sub-groups targeted on grounds of vulnerability or age, becomes highly relevant. This resource includes contributions from a range of experts makes this a must read text for students and practitioners, policy-makers and planners or anyone with an interest in improving mental and public health in South Africa.
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    Protected areas as social-ecological systems: perspectives from resilience and social-ecological systems theory
    (2017) Cumming, Graeme S; Allen, Craig R
    Conservation biology and applied ecology increasingly recognize that natural resource management is both an outcome and a driver of social, economic, and ecological dynamics. Protected areas offer a fundamental approach to conserving ecosystems, but they are also social-ecological systems whose ecological management and sustainability are heavily influenced by people. This editorial, and the papers in the invited feature that it introduces, discuss three emerging themes in social-ecological systems approaches to understanding protected areas: (1) the resilience and sustainability of protected areas, including analyses of their internal dynamics, their effectiveness, and the resilience of the landscapes within which they occur; (2) the relevance of spatial context and scale for protected areas, including such factors as geographic connectivity, context, exchanges between protected areas and their surrounding landscapes, and scale dependency in the provision of ecosystem services; and (3) efforts to reframe what protected areas are and how they both define and are defined by the relationships of people and nature. These emerging themes have the potential to transform management and policy approaches for protected areas and have important implications for conservation, in both theory and practice.
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    Readiness for research data management in the life sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand
    (2022) Potgieter, Salomé; Kahn, Michelle
    Because of the importance of Research Data Management (RDM) in the life sciences, where vast amounts of research data in different complex formats are being produced, this study aimed to assess the state of RDM readiness in the life sciences at Wits to ascertain what support is needed with regards to RDM. In order to achieve the aim, the current RDM practices and needs of researchers, as well as the challenges they face, were investigated. The Jisc Research Data Lifecycle (Jisc, 2021a) was used to guide the literature review, frame data collection, analyse data and advise on some of the main findings and recommendations. A mixed methods approach and an explanatory sequential design were used to achieve the research objectives. For the quantitative phase of research, an online questionnaire was used to collect data. As the total target population (282) was not big, a census was conducted. The questionnaire was administered using SurveyMonkey software. During the qualitative part of the research, semi-structured interviews were used to explain the quantitative results. Five participants were purposively sampled to take part in interviews. The statistical package, MS Excel, was used to analyse quantitative data whilst qualitative data were analysed by thematic analysis. The study showed that life sciences researchers at Wits have adopted many RDM practices, and researchers are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of the openness of data. However, they are dealing with similar RDM issues as their peers worldwide. Results highlighted challenges of, amongst others, the lack of an RDM policy as well as the lack of, or unawareness of, appropriate RDM training and support at Wits. As formal implementation of RDM still needs to take place at Wits, it is recommended that Wits puts an RDM policy in place, followed by suitable RDM infrastructure and awareness making of current services.
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    A study of the relationship between institutional policy organisational culture and e-learning use in four South African universities
    (Elsevier Ltd., 2009) Czerniewicz, Laura; Brown, Cheryl
    This article investigates the relationship between policy (conceptualised as goals, values and resources), organisational culture and elearning use. Through both qualitative and quantitative research methods, we gathered data about staff and student perspectives from four diverse South African universities representing a selection of ICT in education policy types (Structured and Unstructured) and organisational cultural types of ""collegium, bureaucracy, corporate and enterprise"" (McNay 1995). While our findings show a clear relationship between policy and use of ICTs for teaching and learning, organisational culture is found crucial to policy mediation and the way that elearning use is embedded within the organisation. We conclude that although a Structured Corporate institutional type enables the attainment of a ""critical mass""within e-learning, Unstructured Collegium institutions are better at fostering innovation. Unstructured Bureaucratic institutions are the least enabling of either top-down or bottom-up elearning change.
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    Suggested policies in regard to suburban expansion into the urban fringe : using the Constantia Valley as a case study
    (1978) Callaghan, Bernard Mark
    Having established that Constantia exhibits certain problems which are characteristic of the suburbanization of the urban fringe in general, it is necessary to consider how these problems could be resolved. In seeking such solutions, it is not only useful, but imperative, to determine sane framework of what the desired future state of the Valley should be and what role it should perform in the metropolitan context. In other words, what goals should be strived for and what objectives should be aimed at in order to facilitate the resolution of these goals. In establishing this framework, one returns to the basic underlying reasons for public sector intervention in the free market process - as outlined in Section 7.0 of Part One. This being "to regulate individual activity in the interests of the safety, health, morals and general well-being of the whole population" .
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    The economics of plastic bag legislation in South Africa
    (2007) Hasson, R; Leiman, A; Visser, M M C
    In May 2003 South Africa introduced legislation intended to decrease plastic bag litter. It combined standards and price-based economic tools in an attempt to reduce the public's demand for plastic bags. This paper analyses the short term effects of the legislation on bag demand. It also provides a background to these regulations and a theoretical overview. The assessment uses bag consumption data from four retailers, each representing a different consumer market. These are analysed, and respective price elasticities calculated. The results suggest that plastic bag demand is relatively price inelastic and imply that instruments utilising price alone, would have limited efficacy. However, the combination of standards and pricing successfully curbed plastic bag use in the short run. Further analysis suggests that the effectiveness of the legislation may be declining over time.
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    The exploration of the experiences of alienation in education for rural high school learners in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa
    (2024) Moleko, Teboho Banele; Xulu-Gama, Nomkhosi; Sitas, Ari
    Rural high school learners - learners who attend schools in rural areas - face well-documented macro-level educational challenges: lack of access to social services, poor infrastructure and educational resources, pronounced disadvantage, and limited exposure to experienced teachers. Yet, very little is known about rural high school learners' experiences. Additionally, there is a dearth of information regarding rural high school learners' experiences from their perspectives. To remedy these knowledge gaps, the research was steered by the following questions, “How do rural high school learners in the Eastern Cape experience alienation in education?” “How is rurality framed in education policy, and how does this play a role in alienating rural learners in education?” This thesis used the theory of alienation in education as a guide to uncover the textured, in-depth, contextual experiences of rural learners in the Eastern Cape. More so, this thesis was conducted using qualitative research methodology. The study f
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    Three Growth Spurts in Global Physical Activity Policies between 2000 and 2019: A Policy Document Analysis
    (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2022-03-23) Muzenda, Trish; Shung-King, Maylene; Lambert, Estelle Victoria; Brugulat Panés, Anna; Weimann, Amy; McCreedy, Nicole; Tatah, Lambed; Mapa-Tassou, Clarisse; Govia, Ishtar; Were, Vincent; Oni, Tolu
    Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) contribute significantly to global mortality and are of particular concern in growing urban populations of low- and-middle income countries (LMICs). Physical inactivity is a key NCD determinant and requires urgent addressing. Laudable global and regional efforts to promote physical activity are being made, but the links between physical activity (PA), NCD reduction, and integrated intersectoral approaches to reducing obesogenic environments are not consistently made. This study applied a document analysis approach to global PA and NCD policies to better understand the current global policy environment and how this may facilitate integrated PA promotion. A total of 34 global policies related to PA, from different sectors, were analyzed. PA policy in mitigation of NCDs has evolved exponentially, with a progression towards addressing structural determinants alongside individual behavior change. The global PA agenda is primarily driven by the World Health Organization. Intersectoral collaboration is importantly regarded, but the contributions of other sectors, outside of health, education, transport, and urban planning, are less clear. Improving PA among key sub-populations—women, girls, and adolescents—requires greater policy consideration. It is imperative for PA-relevant sectors at all levels to recognize the links with NCDs and work towards integrated policy and practice in mitigation of the rising NCD pandemic.