Local economic development agencies and peripheral small town development : evidence from Somerset East, South Africa

Abstract: The activities of Local Economic Development Agencies (LEDAs) represent a channel for place-based development. In South Africa national government has supported the expansion of LEDAs to improve the weak performance of local economic development planning, one of the cornerstones of the developmental state. This article investigates the evolution and operations of a small town LEDA which is situated in one of South Africa’s peripheral regions. The local development facilitation and project work undertaken by the Blue Crane Development Agency (BCDA) in the small town of Somerset East in Eastern Cape Province is discussed. It is shown that this LEDA was innovative in development initiatives which were launched during the period 2004-2014 for Somerset East and its surrounds. In terms of the projects and operations of BCDA considerable effort was made to identify catalytic opportunities and to support the unlocking of projects in this small town through development facilitation and project management. Nevertheless, the evidence from this case study demonstrates that despite successes, development agencies in South Africa have a strong dependence on parent municipalities which can determine the future direction and sustainability of LEDAs

Local economic development agencies and place-based development: Evidence from South Africa

Local economic development agencies (LEDAs) are increasingly important actors in place-based local economic development particularly in the global South. In South Africa there has been an expanded role for LEDAs in terms of the policy significance of local economic development. Although considerable research has been undertaken concerning the merits, challenges and contributions of LED in South Africa only limited material is available concerning the institutional and organisational arrangements to support the implementation of LED. Using policy documents, close engagement with the key national policy-making government departments and a national survey of the activities, operational challenges, and institutional constraints facing LEDAs, the findings from this investigation provide new insight into their role in place-based development. From the unfolding South African experience the strategic establishment of LEDAs potentially can contribute to maximizing the efficiency of place-based strategies. Arguably, key findings confirm the important contribution that LEDAs can make to locality development in the global South albeit that contribution is influenced by context realities

Student Listening Sessions Key to Nudge Food Pantry Program Development

The shared objective of improving nutrition health led a service learning administrator to introduce Together, a homeless services organization, to a nutrition course. The partnership aimed to develop a nutrition nudges food pantry program. Nudges are messages that encourage nutritious food choices. Three keys to ten proposed nudges are identified. First is co-development of 40% of course curriculum by instructor and agency community partner director. The second is training and implementation of listening sessions. Listening sessions provide opportunity for student engagement with participants; hearing life stories, identifying nutrition and health interests. The third is student-led collaboration to determine nudge messages and delivery modes based on listening sessions, literature, observations and reflection. Student reflections identify listening sessions as most influential in meeting course objective of encountering, serving and forming a relationship through program planning and implementation in an outside community. Together anticipates its community gaining knowledge of healthy choices and looks forward to finding if gained knowledge results in improved food selections. Faculty role includes providing a framework for community assessment and engagement; and program creation freedom based on student-participant interactions. Student role includes willingness to complete course requirements in non-traditional environment. Community partner role includes instilling organization mission, guiding understanding of participant needs and openness to student views

Media Coverage and Framing of Cultural Practices that Target Nigerian Women

This study examines media coverage of unwholesome cultural practices with regard to women in Nigeria and its inherent framing patterns. Contents of five dominant broadcast and print media– Africa Independent Television (AIT), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Vanguard, The Nation and Daily Sun were investigated while 121 media practitioners responded to questionnaire items in Rivers State, a political subdivision in the southern part of the country. Findings show an insignificant coverage of the cultural practices that denigrate women while the framing patterns exhibit a non-condemnatory stance. These unimpressive outcomes are upshots of reporters’ low awareness profile of the issue, patriarchy and advertisers’ lack of interest. Journalists will need to be sensitized toward these negative cultural practices to enhance their coverage and creation of framing patterns that favor of women

Media Coverage and Framing of Cultural Practices that Target Nigerian Women

This study examines media coverage of unwholesome cultural practices with regard to women in Nigeria and its inherent framing patterns. Contents of five dominant broadcast and print media– Africa Independent Television (AIT), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Vanguard, The Nation and Daily Sun were investigated while 121 media practitioners responded to questionnaire items in Rivers State, a political subdivision in the southern part of the country. Findings show an insignificant coverage of the cultural practices that denigrate women while the framing patterns exhibit a non-condemnatory stance. These unimpressive outcomes are upshots of reporters’ low awareness profile of the issue, patriarchy and advertisers’ lack of interest. Journalists will need to be sensitized toward these negative cultural practices to enhance their coverage and creation of framing patterns that favor of women

Biography of Phoebe E. Button

A brief biography of Phoebe E. Button by Inez Faith Humphrey circa 1970

History of the Women of the First Christian Church at Morehead, Kentucky

A typescript on the history of women of the First Christian Church of Morehead by Inez Faith Humphrey and compiled by Dorothy Walter on April 16, 1989

Microfinance Approach to Housing: The Community Mortgage Program

The paper provides an assessment of the Community Mortgage Program as a government-housing program for households belonging to the lowest income deciles. The assessment was carried out using the case study approach. Four CMP communities in Quezon City, Rizal and Quezon Province were selected as case study areas. The study identified three major problems facing CMP: low collection rate, NHMFCs slow processing of papers and funding requirements. Institutional changes have been recommended in the paper to make the CMP a more efficient and effective housing program. The feasibility of linking the CMP to the formal sector (e.g. banking sector) was likewise assessed. The paper observes that the present set-up, where the government provides low-income households with loans for housing while the banks grant higher income households with housing loans, remains to be the optimal one. The household data gathered by the study was used to estimate a housing demand function for low-income households. The results obtained in the paper conform to those observed in other studies of housing demand

Town sanitation planning experience in small towns: a case of Northern Uganda

Town Sanitation Planning is a holistic approach piloted by GIZ in partnership with the Ministry of Water and Environment, aimed at building capacity of local governments to develop and implement integrated and sustainable Town Sanitation Plans. It focused on improving various sanitation-related measures at the local level including coordination of town planning, sanitation marketing and behaviour change communication, involvement of the local private sector, fully-fledged stakeholder participation and law enforcement. The objective of the project was to make use of Town Sanitation Plans as a basis for planning and prioritizing investments which may result into tangible improvements to sanitation services delivery. Formation of multi-disciplinary and inclusive Sanitation Task forces, inclusive capacity development, private sector participation among others were some of the achievements and lessons learnt from the project. Challenges were encountered including among others; limited resource allocation due to low revenue base of the Town Councils, low income levels of the inhabitants which makes it difficult for the uptake of standardized lined pit designs. As an up-scaling plan, there is need to Streamline financing mechanisms and build local capacity to take up the process and ensure a reduced cost