A hermeneutic inquiry into user-created personas in different Namibian locales

Persona is a tool broadly used in technology design to support communicational interactions between designers and users. Different Persona types and methods have evolved mostly in the Global North, and been partially deployed in the Global South every so often in its original User-Centred Design methodology. We postulate persona conceptualizations are expected to differ across cultures. We demonstrate this with an exploratory-case study on user-created persona co-designed with four Namibian ethnic groups: ovaHerero, Ovambo, ovaHimba and Khoisan. We follow a hermeneutic inquiry approach to discern cultural nuances from diverse human conducts. Findings reveal diverse self-representations whereby for each ethnic group results emerge in unalike fashions, viewpoints, recounts and storylines. This paper ultimately argues User-Created Persona as a potentially valid approach for pursuing cross-cultural depictions of personas that communicate cultural features and user experiences paramount to designing acceptable and gratifying technologies in dissimilar locales

Potable Reuse: Guidance for producing Safe Drinking-Water

In response to growing pressures on available water resources, potable reuse represents a practical source of drinking-water in specific circumstances.This document describes how to apply appropriate management systems to produce safe drinking-water from municipal wastewater. Information is provided on specific aspects of potable reuse, including the quality and protection of source wastewaters, types of control measures, monitoring considerations and public acceptance. Application of potable reuse is also illustrated through a number of case studies.The guidance is intended for use by drinking-water suppliers and regulators who are familiar with the WHO's Guidelines for drinking-water quality and, in particular, the framework for safe drinking-water, including water safety plans. This publication may also be useful to others with an interest in potable reuse including environmental health and water resource professionals

Renewed promises conservation for development in the Kaza, Angola

Includes bibliographical references.Since the end of white minority rule in southern Africa in the 1990s, transfrontier conservation initiatives have become the dominant conservation strategy in the region and have received international support. This dissertation focuses on the Kavango Zambezi TFCA involving Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The general objectives of TFCAs - conservation of biodiversity, socio-economic and tourism development and peaceful political cooperation - have been under scrutiny. Literature has paid attention to these TFCAs because of the promises made by supporters of these initiatives on the one hand, and reports and experiences on the ground that suggests that there are political and economic interests in TFCAs, on the other hand. Critical literature has highlighted the effects of TFCAs on local populations. This dissertation addresses two research questions, the first being the rationale for Angola's involvement in the Kavango Zambezi TFCA initiative and the country's modes of participation. Second, it seeks to highlight the place of local communities in this initiative and how it affects these populations

Contesting transdisciplinary climate knowledge: a decolonial perspective on the FRACTAL project in Windhoek, Namibia

Recent trends in sustainability research have particularly propagated transdisciplinary approaches in knowledge production. These new modes of knowledge production seek to deconstruct universalist principles and epistemic authorities from positivist research approaches. The potential of replicating existing power dynamics into these transdisciplinary spaces has, however, not sufficiently been critically questioned yet. This study proposes that transformative change in development of African cities requires a deconstruction of these power dynamics, that current transdisciplinary sustainability research is not yet sufficiently engaging in. To examine the power dynamics, the study applied a decolonial lens in its analysis. In a novel approach to contesting climate knowledge, the study sought to deconstruct the foundational concepts that are operationalised in the transdisciplinary knowledge generation. The analysis focused on tracing assumptions to identify imaginaries, that construct the geopolitical space and condition knowledge politics within a transdisciplinary research programme in Windhoek, Namibia. It further sought to reveal the mechanisms in the programmatic research design that condition epistemic authorities and subjectivities in the collaborative processes. Power dynamics were traceable through imaginaries as well as the evidencing of epistemic authority. Two overarching imaginaries could be traced, which are based in the construction and engagement of the geopolitical space in Windhoek: the imaginary of the social impact and desirable future and the imaginary of the sciencepolicy interface. Both imaginaries were underpinned by the vision of transformation, whose operationalisation revealed to be instrumental in determining the actual transformational potential in contrast to the envisioned one. The analysis indicated the concept of transformation to be an inhibiting factor due to uncontested power dynamics that were replicated in the transdisciplinary space. Epistemic authority was especially evident in connection with the climate information that was generated to inform the knowledge co-production. A contestation of authoritative knowledge was evident with regards to contextualising the information for present and future climates in Windhoek. However, the scientific climate information itself was not questioned for its authority. The conceptual design of the stakeholder engagement revealed to be the main mechanism that created subjectivity. The study concluded with an exploratory section, an ‘epistemic disobedience’, which engages the principle of Walking With that is used by the indigenous activist movement of the Zapatistas in Mexico to create a vision of a new world. Walking With is used to reconstruct a vision of a decolonial approach to generating climate knowledge in an African urban space. This exploration further exemplifies a dimension of decolonial criticism, which is the importance of going beyond deconstruction towards fostering decolonial thinking

Eco-Africa and facilitated community participation in the /AI-/AIS Richtersveld Transfrontier Conservation Area

This research investigates how environmental consultancies frame participation as a tool for project implementation using a cross-border conservation initiative as a case study. The study focuses on the facilitation process led by Eco-Africa Environmental Consultants during the establishment of the /Ai-/Ais Richtersveld Transfrontier Conservation Area. This study analyzes the promise of participation as a crucial component for Transfrontier Conservation Areas. Analyzing participation of the Richtersvelders is necessary for understanding the work that was carried out and how it was experienced by the stakeholders. The study refers to participation in conservancies in community-based resource management, where the role of non-government organizations and environmental consultancies is well established. Primary data were collected through qualitative document analysis, semi-structured interviews with members of the four communities and with Eco-Africa Environmental Consultants. The findings of the study are that there was a strong attempt towards an all-inclusive bottom-up approach to participation. However, such the success of such an approach was hampered by local mismanagement, politics of money, and a marketing strategy favoring the South African National Parks and the Transfrontier Conservation project

Civil-society participation in the Southern African development community (SADC) policy formulation and implementation processes

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Public and Development Management Johannesburg February, 2018The research sought to find out whether the decision-making institutions of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) allow for stakeholder participation in policy-making. It is premised on an understanding that SADC claims to provide for stakeholder participation in its policy-making processes. This is stated in Article 23 of the SADC founding treaty which speaks of the institution’s desire to open up democratic space and allow for inclusivity in decision-making. Furthermore, there are practical and operational provisions for the participation of citizens through the SADC National Committees (SNCs) and an agreement with the SADC Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (CNGO). The research was done in 12 SADC countries, namely: Tanzania, Mauritius, Swaziland, Botswana, Lesotho, Seychelles, Malawi, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. It was a qualitative study done through interviews of civil-society organisations (CSOs), government officials and employees of the SADC Secretariat. Data was collected using both primary and secondary data methods. Primary data was sourced from four categories of respondents, including: senior officials from the SADC Secretariat, senior government officials whose duties require interaction with civil-society institutions and senior officials from the SADC-CNGO. Secondary research data was sourced from documents, including records of the minutes of the SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government (Summit), the minutes of the SADC Council of Ministers (COM), SADC communiqués, SADC policy documents, civil-society policy drafts, SADC protocols, CSOs and SADC press releases. The key finding was that while in its founding documents SADC provides for participation of stakeholders in the policy-making processes, it is a different story in practice. The research revealed that the statutes of SADC, which speak of a need for promoting the participation of stakeholders in policy-making processes, have been largely ignored, as there is monopolisation of power by the SADC institution of the Summit. The primary institution for the participation of stakeholders in policy-making was identified as the SNCs, but these were found to be non-operational in most of the countries where the research was conducted. The reason for the inactive SNCs was identified as the absence of a structured framework by SADC to operationalise what is provided for in its statutes. The research found that if SADC is to achieve its goal of enhancing stakeholder participation in its policy-making processes, it needs to revive and strengthen the SNCs in each member state. The research concludes that for SADC to ensure effective stakeholder participation in its decision-making processes, the first point of call is to rehabilitate, strengthen and resource the SNCs. The research further concludes that civil society also needs to strengthen its organisational capacity for effective engagement with SADC leadership. The limitations of representative democracy are identified as one of the inhibiting factors for limited participation by stakeholders in SADC policy-making processes, and the research proposes the application of deliberative democracy as a way of enhancing stakeholder participation in the decision-making processes of the institution.MT 201

Fashion as property in traditional culture: a Maasai case study

Protection of traditional knowledge and cultural expressions of a community is a thorny issue of which an all-encompassing definition is evasive.1 Societal exposure to a smorgasbord of traditional culture expressed through fashion trends into the mainstream may have inadvertently given rise to a sense of entitlement for such use. A misconception that such cultural property belongs to no individual as such, but is in the interests of those with access to it and thus free to use is unfortunate, even when the initial intention of exposing such culture was for its appreciation, safeguarding and preservation. Certain African countries have proposed controls on the use and acknowledgement of traditional knowledge and cultural expressions. The Maasai community is driving a rights take back of community property including textile, jewellery and image use to mitigate the rampant misuse of their cultural property. This article provides an insight into one mechanism, beyond the hinges of statute, for the protection of cultural property through a case study of the Maasai community based in Eastern Africa, and the means employed to safeguard their cultural property

Regional economic communities influencing policy: a study of information communications technology policy (on telecommunication) of four SADC countries

Masters of Arts (ICT Policy and Regulation) Research ReportIn the last three decades’ information and communication technology (ICT) has been a catalyst for an unprecedented social and economic revolution. In part, the revolution can be accredited to the rapid change in technology over the years, while on the other hand it can be attributed to reform changes which include, but are not limited to, the liberalisation of the sector. Countries introduced reforms in the ICT sector via targeted policy changes which facilitated change in the sector. They either formulated policies with the objective to remedy specific issues in their environment or adopted policies guided by the regional bodies. This study evaluates the extent to which country specific ICT policies adopt recommendations made by regional bodies. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) region is used for this research with four Member States ICT policies evaluated for conformity to the SADC recommendations, specifically with respect to the SADC Protocol on Transport, Communication and Meteorology. The policies are also evaluated against policy formulating techniques recommended when formulating policies. The focus of this study is the telecommunications policies of each of the chosen Member States and policy recommendations by SADC on same. The study employed desktop research and an analysis of the relevant documentation, which were interrogated for specific content with respect to previously identified policy objectives. These were then analysed against the SADC Protocol and the policy techniques. The policy formulating techniques are to ensure the policies under analysis are not conforming to the SADC recommendation due to poor policy writing techniques, however it is imperative for the reader to note that the research is on the conformity of the Member States to the policy recommendations by SADC. It emerged from the research that the Member States in SADC, under study, adopted policy recommendations made by SADC to varying degrees. There is also evidence of the use of specific policy-formulation techniques. Countries that have some evidence of use of policy techniques have better policy as evidence by achievements of the policy objectives. In order to formulate good policy not only must the regional body provide concise policy recommendations, the Member States must be able to formulate policy that would be in line with the recommendations. Regional bodies have an influence in member state policy formulation and there are benefits to be gained by regional economic communities if they have harmonised polices supported by Mwasha (nd). It also emerged that whilst there is policy reform in the ICT sector there is a dearth of research with regards to policy analysis and evaluation of the existing policies.MT 201

Enactment of ‘community’ in community based natural resources management in Zambezi Region, Namibia

This thesis is about community based natural resource management. This form of resource management is well known globally and locally through its acronym: CBNRM. It stands for the devolution from the state to local communities of rights to manage and reap the benefits from natural resources. One of CBNRM’s objectives is to empower rural communities through providing material and non-material incentives for assuming management responsibility over natural and wildlife resources. CBNRM initiatives have globally been triggered by substantial losses in biodiversity and marginalisation of rural communities. Enduring poverty in communities residing in communal areas bordering protected areas and non-involvement in management, decision-making and access to benefits are often seen as causing biodiversity losses to occur. For many academics, NGO-practitioners, rural people as well as national and regional policymakers, CBNRM has evolved to become an important model for conservation and rural development. The realisation and widespread failure of centralised, top-down approaches, also referred to as ‘fortress conservation’, combined with the belief that wildlife could be sustainably conserved if its management was partly transferred to the people who live with these resources, contributed to the growth and expansion of CBNRM projects and programmes across the globe. CBNRM - if well designed and implemented – is positioned and believed to be a model that potentially simultaneously conserves biodiversity and reduces poverty. This thesis explores a critical dimension of CBNRM: the community, and particularly the community in interactions with a range of actors operating at global and local levels. CBNRM stands analytically a multi-actor and multi-level project. CBNRM projects evolved to be the sites where global and local processes and projects interact and intersect creating in turn many interesting interfaces and learning moments for all that are involved in conservation. Such focus helps to understand what a conservancy actually is and how these were introduced and enacted in villages. The idea gradually developed that a conservancy evolves as an area where a diversity of actors socio-politically relate to each other and operate to satisfy their specific but different needs and interests in distributing the benefits of CBNRM and to attempt to access jobs and yield power in the process. I conceptualise the conservancy as an ‘arena’, as the social setting or site of enactment of conservation practices, social relations and processes and, simultaneously, the site where the struggle over control over conservancy resources and power takes place. This focus allows for a detailed analysis of a range of critical issues including socio-economic inequality, gender, traditional authority, benefits sharing, elite behaviour or capture, competition, transparency and accountability. The empirical setting of the thesis is three conservancies in the former Caprivi Province of Namibia: Wuparo, Sobbe and Kwandu. The author has worked with these conservancies for over 8 years, in many capacities: as researcher, as practitioner/consultant and as a more then interested bystander given his involvement with nature conservation from his high school years.</p