Bank-Lending Channel in South Africa: Bank-Level Dynamic Panel Date Analysis

The paper investigates the bank-lending channel (BLC) of monetary policy in South Africa using quarterly bank-level data for the period 2000Q1-2004Q4. Capital adequacy and bank size are used as indicators for information problems faced by banks when they look for external finance. Utilising dynamic panel estimation methods the study shows that BLC operates in South Africa. The finding has some policy implications. First, there is need to coordinate monetary policy with financial innovations and prudential banking regulations. Second, the overall effects of monetary policy pursued by the South African Reserve Bank cannot be completely characterised by interest rates only.Monetary policy transmission, Bank-lending channel, Dynamic panel, GMM estimator

Modeling of Generic Air Pollution Dispersion Analysis from Cement Factory

Air pollution from cement factory is classified as one of the sources of air pollution. The control of the air pollution by addressing the wind field dynamics was the main objective of the paper. The dynamics of dispersion showed a three way flow which was calculated and explained accordingly. The 3D model showed good level of accuracy by determining field values of air deposited pollutants. Mean concentration of diffusing pollutants was shown to be directly proportional to the plume angular displacement. The 2D model explained the details of the wind field dynamics and proffers a solution which may be relevant in controlling air pollution from anthropogenic source

Policies on free primary and secondary education in East Africa: a review of the literature

Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are among the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa which have recently implemented policies for free primary education, motivated in part by renewed democratic accountability following the re-emergence of multi-party politics in the 1990s. However, it is not the first time that the goal of expanding primary education has been pursued by these three neighbouring countries which have much in common. Since the 1960s, they have attempted to expand access at various levels of their education systems albeit with differences in philosophy and in both the modes and successes of implementation. All three countries continue to face the challenges of enrolling every child in school, keeping them in school and ensuring that meaningful learning occurs for all enrolled children. This paper provides an a review of the three countries’ policies for expanding access to education, particularly with regard to equity and the enrolment of excluded groups since their political independence in the 1960s. It considers policies in the light of the countries’ own stated goals alongside the broader international agendas set by the Millennium Development Goals and in particular, ‘Education for All’. It is concerned with the following questions: What led to those policies and how were they funded? What was the role, if any, of the international community in the formulation of those policies? What were the politics and philosophies surrounding the formulation of those policies, have the policies changed over time, and if so how and why? The paper also discusses the range of strategies for implementation adopted. Tremendous growth has occurred in access to primary education since the 1960s, not least in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The challenge of providing equitable access to schooling has been addressed in a series of education drives with varying motivations, modalities and degrees of success, the most recent of which pays attention to the increasingly pressing question of the transition to secondary education. The success of such policy remains to be seen but will be crucial for the widening of access to the benefits of education and to economic opportunity, particularly for those groups which history has so far excluded

The Analysis of Threats and Opportunities in Sustainable Irrigation Development in Lesotho

This paper analyzes threats and opportunities in sustainable irrigation development in Lesotho. The addressed research question is what threats and opportunities are there in irrigation projects backed by the government of Lesotho (GoL) for sustainable development and income generation in the rural areas for subsistence farmers. Threats to irrigation projects pose a problematic situation with a high possibility for project failure in attaining sustainable development. They need to be analytically identified for the provision of solutions at the project planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation processes. The study has adopted the in-depth interviews for problems and opportunities identification with the participation of 63 irrigating farmers as respondents. Revealing threats against opportunities enable proper irrigation projects planning and implementation and therefore successful and sustainable irrigation development in Lesotho. Indepth field interviews’findings are on farmers in eight project sites selected by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) for further irrigation development with the backing of Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). The eight sites are (1) Semonkong Ha Lesala and (2) Semonkong Ha Sechache, in Maseru district, (3) Ha Rasekila in Butha-Buthe district, (4) Qopo Ha Molefi in Berea district, (5) Maphutseng in Mohale’s Hoek district, (8) Qhoalinyane Ha Semethe and (7) Qhoalinyane, in Qacha’s Nek district, and lastly (8) Ha Makoae in Quthing district. The main implementing agency for this Water Control Component of the Special Programme for Food Security is the MoA in Lesotho

The Critical Exposure of Lesotho’s Labor Law Effectiveness: Industrial Relations’ Calamity of Textile Industry Workers in Lesotho

This article provides insights on tribulations of Lesotho textile industry workers and effectiveness-extent of national labor law in shielding labor rights. It is a qualitative and quantitative research premised on textile industrial areas of Thetsane and Railway Station area in Maseru city, Labor offices and workers/trade unions. It illuminates the prescriptions of the Labor Law in Lesotho pertaining to the textile industries and inquires whether such Labor Law is not nominally applied in protecting textile factory workers’ rights. It examines workers’ organizational capacity and bargaining, role of workers’ trade unions in addressing workers’ concerns and maintenance of labor law. Elucidation embraces efficacy of legal resolutions procedure followed whenever there are disputes between workers and management, reported by either the individual workers or workers’ trade unions/TUs. Outlook of the workers to examine their content concerning services rendered to them by labor offices forms part of this researched debated in-depth interviews. Dictates of the Law towards lowly esteemed workers and the extent to which their rights as workers in Lesotho are protected by the government mold chief innards. Findings reflect on benefits ought to be derived from this industrial sector but which are inconspicuous, thereby ensuing in destitution of workers whose majority are women with significant dependency ratios. Labor downsizing, layoffs, unfair dismissals, salary cuts and/or delayed labor earnings, toiling beyond normal working hours, chronic lung diseases from inhaled harmful chemicals, labor devalourization, vulnerability and others constitute quandary of Lesotho textile industry workers. The research question is, then, how far does the law work for them through pro-active and reactive (remedial) strategies for their emancipation, protection and recompense/welfare

The Structural Market Shift Review of Lesotho: Transitory Situational Analytic Market Policy Introspection for Sustainable Development

This paper analyzes Lesotho’s agricultural market in both state-regulated and liberalized policy. It identifies institutional constraints inhibiting efficient marketing in both policy systems. Realization of such constraints constitutes an analytic illumination on the formulation of strategies for poverty alleviation and sustainable development through agricultural marketing as the main sector with 86% of Lesotho’s poor subsistence producers. This desk-study comprehends the state and the market as imperfect institutions in sustainable development and alleviating poverty by unearthing constraints to pre and post agricultural market reforms in Lesotho. It thus examines Lesotho’s agricultural market transitory situational analysis and organization, providing empowering lessons in poverty reduction and sustainable development at grassroots level. Forms of state intervention before market reform, market reform process and progress and the institutional constraints and implications in poverty reduction and sustainable development are covered to attain critical lessons as cognitive knowledge applicable in empowering the poor in crops production, food security and sustainable development. State and the market and their active interaction have globally been believed to be institutional agencies with the main role of distributing resources towards poverty reduction and sustainable development but their imperfections and constraints hampering effectiveness and efficiency of such a role still lack adequate contextual review to effectively increase productivity and enrich lives of the poor agricultural producers, particularly in Lesotho

The Validity and Challenges of the Traditional Chieftaincy in Modern Decentralization or Decentralized Governance for Development (DGD) In Lesotho

This is a public management policy system or development administration exploring paper on the country of Lesotho. It is a desk study reviewing the validity of an argument justifying the role of the traditional rule or chieftaincy in the modern ‘decentralized governance for development’ (DGD) or decentralization in Lesotho. The paper discusses chieftaincy and colonialism in Lesotho, institutional roles of chieftaincy, the role of chieftaincy in the era of modern democracy/DGD, the relations between the democratic local authorities and chieftaincy in Lesotho and the role of chieftaincy and its constraints in the decentralized system of Lesotho. The paper directly contributes knowledge in public management sciences and administrative policy systems

Prospectives in Deep Space Infrastructures, Development, and Colonization

The realization of the long studied cost reduction benefits of reusable rockets is expected to revolutionize and enable both commercial deep space beyond Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) and solar system human colonization. The projections for a myriad of space commercialization activities beyond the current largely positional Earth utilities and Humans Mars both safe and affordable may now be realizable. This report considers these putative commercial and colonizationrelated activities, the emerging technologies, the space functionalities to support and further enable them, and envisions the nature of space developments beyond GEO going forward

Dewpoint temperature inversions analyzed

Dewpoint temperature inversion, with regard to other simultaneous meteorological conditions, was examined to establish the influence of meteorological variables on the variation of dewpoint temperature with height. This report covers instrumentation and available data, all the climatological features of dewpoint inversions, and specific special cases