Democratic local governance in the Southern African Development Community region: Some emerging issues and challenges

Recent reforms have been transforming the structure of local governance in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region. Since the 1990s, a critical objective of governance reform has been the strengthening of local government by the decentralization of powers, resources and responsibilities to local authorities and other locally administered bodies. These reforms have been labelled ‘democratic decentralization’ by scholars (Ribot, 2004; Olowu & Wunsch, 2004). Democratic decentralization refers to initiatives which entail the transfer of significant authority, responsibility for services, fiscal and human resources to local governance. The objective of the reforms was to capacitate local governance structures, as well as to increase the capacity and productivity of the public sector in general (Hope & Chikulo, 2000). Efforts to improve institutional effectiveness, accountability and service delivery at the local level thus have been a major focus throughout the region

Local Governance Reforms in Zambia: A Review

This paper provides an overview of the efforts of successive Zambian governments to transform and institutionalise democratic local governance, and to come to grips with the socio-economic development challenges facing the country. It assesses the progress and challenges that governments are facing in their efforts to transform local government into democratic, developmental local governance

Evaluating the impact of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) on corruption in Zambia

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is internationally recognised as a leading anti-corruption scheme, which promotes transparency, accountability and good governance of public oil, gas, and mining revenues. This article provides the first rigorous quantitative investigation of the impact of EITI on corruption in Zambia. Using a case-comparison approach, called the Synthetic Control Method (SCM), we find that the implementation of EITI provoked a significant decrease in corruption in Zambia (with the corruption-reducing effect of EITI being, though, much stronger at the earlier stages of implementation)

Household energy usage, indoor air pollution and health

It seems likely that households have used energy for cooking for as long as there have been households. Globally, until the industrial revolution, this would have been principally woodfuel, agricultural waste (e.g. straw), dried dung and charcoal, with some regions relying on coal and peat. Archaeological evidence suggests the use of oil lamps for lighting appears to also stretch towards the beginnings of households, with ceramic decorated lamps dating from a few thousand years BC (Cam, 2014). Today, although difficult to estimate because traditional biomass energy use (for cooking and heating) is not accurately captured in energy statistics, bioenergy sources currently supply around 10-13% (1365 to 1775 million tonnes of oil equivalent annually) of the world's primary energy making biomass the world's fourth largest energy source (Hemstock & Singh, 2015; International Energy Agency, 2017). Around 70% (955 to 1242 million tonnes of oil equivalent annually) of this bioenergy use is in developing countries. It is used in the form of traditional woodfuel (fuelwood and charcoal), agricultural residues and dung to provide domestic energy services, mostly for cooking, by burning on open fires in 41% (Bonjour et at., 2013) of households in the world. These energy sources, along with coal and peat in some areas, are often inefficiently used and can be environmentally detrimental. They are deleterious to health when used traditionally and in inefficient domestic appliances in poorly ventilated cooking areas. Gender is also an issue as women are usually customarily responsible for cooking, meaning that women and children are at greater risk of exposure to high levels of indoor air pollution. In some least developed countries and in lower income households of developed countries, biomass provides more than 90% of total energy consumption for the populations who live in rural areas (Hemstock & Singh, 2015). A common issue affecting biomass, solid fossil fuel, and oil use for domestic energy services is that the products of combustion (smoke) are harmful to health if inhaled in substantial amounts over long periods of time, often leading to a range of illnesses such as pneumonia and significant impacts on increasing rates of mortality (WHO 2018; cf. Poddar and Chakrabarti 2016). Tragically, indoor air pollution is a key causal factor child pneumonia - a leading cause of death in children under five in many least developed countries, accounting for the deaths of around half a million children under the age of 5 years annually (Mortimer, 2017). This is clearly contrary to SDG3 Good Health and Wellbeing (UN 2015). Issues surrounding indoor air pollution and health are also directly linked to SDG7: Affordable and Clean Energy, which is related to fuel and technology choices available for domestic energy services; which are in turn linked to SDGs 1, 2, 4-6 and 8-13

Developmental local governance and service delivery in South Africa: Progress, achievements and challenges

With the advent of a political democratic dispensation in 1994, the South African Government faced a host of daunting developmental challenges inherited from the apartheid regime. Local government, which constitutes the third sphere of governance in South Africa, has been mandated by the Constitution to address Apartheid era-induced inequalities and facilitate local socioeconomic development amongst the previously disadvantaged black majority. This paper reviews the progress, achievements and challenges faced by the South African regime in its attempt to facilitate access to basic social services and to reduce poverty among the previously disadvantaged majority. It outlines the socioeconomic profile and local governance legislative policy frameworks, and explains the institutional arrangements established to facilitate and anchor effective service  delivery, as well as to integrate the “voice” of local communities. The paper also considers the issue of basic social service delivery and analyses reasons for the widespread municipal service delivery protests. The paper makes  the conclusion that the recurrent widespread, violent and  increasingly xenophobic municipal service delivery protests, are indicative of the fact that, despite the progress made in the past seventeen years in terms of establishing the policy framework and institutional structures to effectively facilitate socioeconomic development and address bottlenecks to accessing basic social services and fighting poverty, enormous challenges still remain at local governance level.Keywords: Local governance, service delivery, developmental, South Africa, protests, povert

Gender, climate change and energy in South Africa: A review

Climate change is one of the most pressing global environmental challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. Recently, the World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development (World Bank, 2012) placed gender and equality at the centre of development discourse. In addition, the UNDP (2009) document Gender and Climate Change Human Development Report (UNDP 2007) made the critical linkage between gender equality, poverty and climate vulnerability. Consequently, a greater realization has emerged that gender inequality intersects with risk and vulnerability. Women are disproportionately vulnerable to climate change because of socially determined social roles and they have fewer resources to cope due to their reliance on climate-sensitive resources. In addition, energy collection and utilization is the primary responsibility of women, especially in rural communities, where most energy is derived from traditional biomass fuels such as wood, charcoal and agricultural waste. Consequently, women face critical challenges with regard to the use and provision of energy in household. As a result, in many instances, it is women and female children who suffer the most from the shortage of energy due to their traditional roles for collecting fuel. Furthermore, a lack of access to energy mainly affects women in their role as household managers because they are usually responsible for providing energy for the household. Without access to convenient, affordable clean fuels for cooking and heating, women have to spend large amounts of time and physical energy gathering traditional fuels to heat water and cook meals. The time and physical effort expended by women and females in gathering traditional fuels seriously exposes them to health and safety problems. As a result, the introduction of cleaner modern energy services such as electricity is important for the empowerment of women and children. It enables them to participate more fully in the development process. This paper examines the link between climate change, gender and energy and its impact on gender relations in South Africa. The article concludes that although a lot has been achieved in terms of the legislative framework and policy, the challenge facing the South African Government is how to link the objectives of gender and energy with that of climate change mitigation within a sustainable development framework

An analysis of climate change, poverty and human security in South Africa

In South Africa, climate change mitigation poses significant challenges to the South African Government because it has to juggle the climate change imperatives , with the critical issues of poverty and human security, as well as a host of daunting development challenges inherited from the Apartheid regime. This paper utilizes a qualitative methodology to collect and analyse data on climate change, poverty and human security nexus in South Africa. It outlines the development challenges and development policy responses targeting poverty and human security. The analysis of the causes and effects, as well as the impact of climate change, is followed by a discussion of the delivery of basic social services and the resultant public disaffection leading to violent service protests. A significant proportion of South Africans, especially the poor, have to contend with poverty, a lack of basic social services and unemployment which are being compounded by climate change. The final section of the paper argues that despite significant service delivery milestones, little progress has been made on the central objective of reducing poverty and inequality. Consequently, although a lot has been achieved in terms of the legislation, policies, programmes, and provision of basic services for the poor, the challenge facing the South African Government is how to link the objectives of poverty alleviation policy with those of climate change and human security priorities within a sustainable development framework. The paper recommends that in order to reduce poverty and increase the poor people’s capacity to adapt or respond to climate change the government will need to: firstly , mainstream or integrate climate change adaptation with sustainable development policies; and secondly, improve the capacity of local authorities to effectively deliver services to their communities . This paper has been motivated by the explosion of service delivery protests around the country, which have become violent and increasingly xenophobic resulting in attacks on African nationals and foreign –owned small businesses in the townships and informal settlements