How and why do states provide for children? Comparing social grants for families with children in Southern Africa

This thesis explores variation in public policy with a focus on the provision of social grants (social cash transfers) for families with children. The thesis investigates how and why three middle-income countries (South Africa, Namibia and Botswana) and a low-income country (Zimbabwe) in Southern Africa provide for children in different ways. In-depth interviews and desktop research established that ‘child welfare regimes’ (CWRs) (a combination of programmes affecting the welfare of children, primarily cash transfers, feeding programmes, health and education fee waivers) are similar in providing some form of social grants, directly and/or indirectly to children or families with children. But there are significant variations between the CWRs. The CWRs primarily vary across two dimensions: first, the coverage of programmes; and secondly, their targeting, specifically whether they are targeted on poverty or on perceived ‘family breakdown’. I present a taxonomy of CWRs with four distinct types: a pro-poor (poverty-targeted) CWR (as in South Africa), a familialist CWR (targeted on ‘broken’ families) (as in Botswana), a mixed (pro-poor-familial targeted) CWR (as in Namibia) and an agrarian (family-targeted) one (as in Zimbabwe). A pro-poor CWR is distinguished by high coverage and generous transfers. A familial CWR provides medium coverage with overall generosity but with parsimonious cash benefits. A mixed CWR has low coverage and modest generosity while an agrarian CWR has low coverage and ungenerous benefits. This taxonomy emphasises variation in targeting form, an important but underestimated dimension in identifying and explaining CWRs particularly in Southern Africa. In explaining the variation, the factors that were especially important include colonial antecedents, need or structural factors (particularly AIDSrelated health shocks, demographic changes and family breakdown), international influence by international organisations, particularly UNICEF, the level of democracy but all these factors and the choice for a CWR reflect domestic politics (party politics and civil society organisations). These findings extend the Power Resource Theory beyond developed countries but also reveal new influential factors, within the theory, that have been overlooked but significant in explaining variation between CWRs

THE OGONI CASE REVISITED: SHOULD CORPORATIONS, LIKES STATES, BEAR OBLIGATIONS TO RESPECT & PROTECT HUMAN RIGHTS?

Given the role, power and influnce that multi-national corporations weild, it is time that international law made them subjects of international human rights law, with obligations to respect and protect human rights in pari passu with states. With reference to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights case of The Social and Economic Rights Action Centre and the Centre for Economic, and Social Rights v Nigeria, Communication 155/96, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (2001) AHRLR 60, this articles examines the case for making multi-national corporations accountable for human rights violations

How and why do states provide for children? Comparing social grants for families with children in Southern Africa

This thesis explores variation in public policy with a focus on the provision of social grants (social cash transfers) for families with children. The thesis investigates how and why three middle-income countries (South Africa, Namibia and Botswana) and a low-income country (Zimbabwe) in Southern Africa provide for children in different ways. In-depth interviews and desktop research established that ‘child welfare regimes’ (CWRs) (a combination of programmes affecting the welfare of children, primarily cash transfers, feeding programmes, health and education fee waivers) are similar in providing some form of social grants, directly and/or indirectly to children or families with children. But there are significant variations between the CWRs. The CWRs primarily vary across two dimensions: first, the coverage of programmes; and secondly, their targeting, specifically whether they are targeted on poverty or on perceived ‘family breakdown’. I present a taxonomy of CWRs with four distinct types: a pro-poor (poverty-targeted) CWR (as in South Africa), a familialist CWR (targeted on ‘broken’ families) (as in Botswana), a mixed (pro-poor-familial targeted) CWR (as in Namibia) and an agrarian (family-targeted) one (as in Zimbabwe). A pro-poor CWR is distinguished by high coverage and generous transfers. A familial CWR provides medium coverage with overall generosity but with parsimonious cash benefits. A mixed CWR has low coverage and modest generosity while an agrarian CWR has low coverage and ungenerous benefits. This taxonomy emphasises variation in targeting form, an important but underestimated dimension in identifying and explaining CWRs particularly in Southern Africa. In explaining the variation, the factors that were especially important include colonial antecedents, need or structural factors (particularly AIDSrelated health shocks, demographic changes and family breakdown), international influence by international organisations, particularly UNICEF, the level of democracy but all these factors and the choice for a CWR reflect domestic politics (party politics and civil society organisations). These findings extend the Power Resource Theory beyond developed countries but also reveal new influential factors, within the theory, that have been overlooked but significant in explaining variation between CWRs

Poverty, changing political regimes, and social cash transfers in Zimbabwe, 1980 - 2016

Since 2000, Zimbabwe has been under some pressure to provide more fully for its children. It is not clear whether child poverty has worsened, although AIDS, drought, and economic mismanagement have all compromised poverty reduction. In any case, child poverty has come under increased scrutiny, in part because of the Millennium Development Goals and the growing interest in new kinds of intervention among international agencies and donors. Zimbabwe might have adopted the child-oriented cash transfer programmes or subsidies associated with one or other of the 'models' developed by its richer neighbours to the south (South Africa, Botswana, Namibia). It might also have adopted the models favoured, and promoted energetically, by the World Bank, UNICEF, and other external agencies. But ZANU-PF - which was in power until 2009 and after 2013, and shared power between those dates - resisted cash transfer programmes, favouring instead agricultural interventions (including land reform and farm input subsidy programmes). ZANU-PF's ambivalence towards cash transfer programmes represents political choices informed by the nature of Zimbabwean society and politics

National Policy on Incomes, Employment, Prices and Profits - The Economics of Increasing Inequality.

A ZJE article on national economic policy in Botswana.This paper discusses one policy of government aimed at income distribution, the "national Policy on Incomes, Employment, Prices and Profits" (hereafter the Incomes Policy). The Incomes Policy's aims are discussed and evaluated. Conclusions reached could be a pointer to the results we should expect from continued implementation of the Incomes Policy

Numerical Investigation of Entropy Generation in Unsteady MHD Generalized Couette Flow with Variable Electrical Conductivity

The thermodynamic second law analysis is utilized to investigate the inherent irreversibility in an unsteady hydromagnetic generalized Couette flow with variable electrical conductivity in the presence of induced electric field. Based on some simplified assumption, the model nonlinear governing equations are obtained and solved numerically using semidiscretization finite difference techniques. Effects of various thermophysical parameters on the fluid velocity, temperature, current density, skin friction, the Nusselt number, entropy generation number, and the Bejan number are presented graphically and discussed quantitatively

Social policy reform under the Government of National Unity in Zimbabwe, 2009-13

The formation of a Government of National Unity (GNU) in Zimbabwe in 2009 has generally been assessed as a façade, with ZANU-PF retaining real power to serve its own ends. Whilst this may have been true of the key challenges facing Zimbabwe – ensuring democratic political competition and the rule of law, and (less clearly) economic stabilisation and growth – it was not true in all areas of public policy. With respect to social protection, the partial change of government resulted in significant reform. In the mid-2000s, social protection in Zimbabwe was for the most part limited to donor-funded and distributed emergency food aid. Under the GNU, ministers from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) presided over more programmatic responses involving the state and donors working together, including on the country’s first sustained experiments with cash transfers as well as innovative food aid programmes. The shift in policy was not due so much to clear policy preferences on the part of the MDC as to the transformed relations between MDC-controlled government ministries and donors and international agencies. The MDC opened the policy reform door to donors and agencies that were enthusiastic about cash transfer and reformed food aid programmes. The shift to cash transfers was also made possible by dollarisation and market liberalisation. Whereas Zimbabwe had been very anomalous in terms of its pro-poor policies in 2009, by 2013 its policies were far closer to those of its neighbours, although they remained constrained by poor public finances

MHD transient flows and heat transfer of dusty fluid in a channel with variable physical properties and Navier slip condition

AbstractIn this paper, we study the unsteady flow and heat transfer of a dusty fluid between two parallel plates with variable viscosity and electric conductivity. The fluid is driven by a constant pressure gradient and an external uniform magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the plates with a Navier slip boundary condition. The governing non-linear partial differential equations are solved numerically using a semi-implicit finite difference scheme. The effect of the wall slip parameter, viscosity and electric conductivity variation and the uniform magnetic field on the velocity and temperature fields for both the fluid and dust particles is discussed

Computational Analysis of Shear Banding in Simple Shear Flow of Viscoelastic Fluid-Based Nanofluids Subject to Exothermic Reactions

We investigated the shear banding phenomena in the non-isothermal simple-shear flow of a viscoelastic-fluid-based nanofluid (VFBN) subject to exothermic reactions. The polymeric (viscoelastic) behavior of the VFBN was modeled via the Giesekus constitutive equation, with appropriate adjustments to incorporate both the non-isothermal and nanoparticle effects. Nahme-type laws were employed to describe the temperature dependence of the VFBN viscosities and relaxation times. The Arrhenius theory was used for the modeling and incorporation of exothermic reactions. The VFBN was modeled as a single-phase homogeneous-mixture and, hence, the effects of the nanoparticles were based on the volume fraction parameter. Efficient numerical schemes based on semi-implicit finite-difference-methods were employed in MATLAB for the computational solution of the governing systems of partial differential equations. The fundamental fluid-dynamical and thermodynamical phenomena, such as shear banding, thermal runaway, and heat transfer rate (HTR) enhancement, were explored under relevant conditions. Important novel results of industrial significance were observed and demonstrated. Firstly, under shear banding conditions of the Giesekus-type VFBN model, we observed remarkable HTR and Therm-C enhancement in the VFBN as compared to, say, NFBN. Specifically, the results demonstrate that the VFBN are less susceptible to thermal runaway than are NFBN. Additionally, the results illustrate that the reduced susceptibility of the Giesekus-type VFBN to the thermal runaway phenomena is further enhanced under shear banding conditions, in particular when the nanofluid becomes increasingly polymeric. Increased polymer viscosity is used as the most direct proxy for measuring the increase in the polymeric nature of the fluid