Mainstreaming informality and access to land through collaborative design and teaching of aspects of a responsive planning curriculum at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Access to urban land and resources and the pervasiveness of informality are perhaps the main cross-cutting features defining contemporary urbanism in the South, where the urbanisation of poverty is not only acute but where there is an increasing peripheralisation of the urban poor further from economic opportunities. A critical challenge is the emergence and persistence of informality and particularly the growth of informal settlements and the informal economy, and the nature of official responses to this growing phenomenon. Planning curricula and practices have been reactive, at best, to these challenges, and routinely tended to wish these realities away or treat them as temporary problems, at least in the short and medium term. The centrality of access to land is not necessarily the scarcity of land in itself, but what the land makes possible as the resource base, and therefore what benefits competing actors are able to derive from accessing well-located land in a city. Against the backdrop of the regional context of urban informality and the historical dynamics of colonial planning legacies, this article argues that the curricula of planning schools should focus on local substantive contexts, and case studies, as well as on developing deeper and more sustained collaborations with local actors in implementing locally responsive curricula. The choice of thematic issues is strategic: informality and access to land are two critical issues of substance while collaborative design and teaching is a process issue, undergirding the value basis for/of planning. The latter, collaborative curriculum design and teaching, refers to a more deliberative engagement with context, substance and actors in an African planning environment in curriculum development, design, implementation as well as sourcing and developing learning materials that speakto local contexts. Planning education is an important lever in shifting into this needed strategic ‘turn’ in planning practices that demand a more sophisticated toolkit comprising of a balance of strategic, technical and tactical assemblage of tools.&nbsp

Aspects Of The Growth And Structure Of Pre-Colonial African Towns: The Case Of Kano, Northern Nigeria

A GEM article

Potential for No-Tillage Agriculture in the Pandamatenga Vertisols of Botswana

The objective of this paper was to conduct an extensive literature review to assess the status and potential of no-tillage as an alternative tillage system on vertisols in the Pandamatenga farms, Botswana. Farmers in the area have failed to produce satisfactory crop yield levels because of problems associated with management of the soils using conventional tillage systems. Information f rom literature showed that no-tillage system was effective in improving soil quality, water management, and crop yield in the area. However, there is a need to carryout in-field trials to monitor changes in the soil quality and the environment under no-tillage and conventional tillage systems

Community participation in natural resource management: Some challenges faced by South African rural communities

Rural communities living in the neighbourhoods of protected areas are among the most disadvantaged in South Africa. This article focuses on community based natural resource management as a strategy towards sustainable community development for those communities. Two case studies are presented: the Makuleke community neighbouring the Kruger National Park and the communities adjacent to the Mkambati Nature Reserve in the Eastern Cape Province. A study of the situations of the Mkambati and the Makuleke people, indicates that a number of challenges face rural communities who wish to participate in the management of natural resources:• Both situations indicated the need for government leadership and guidance in terms of Community Based Natural Resource Management.• Communities should be wary of placing too high expectations on natural resources, for instance, tourism should not be seen as the magic wand that will solve all their problems and ensure prosperity for everyone.• It is vital to establish guidelines to define "local community", or it could become contentious.• Communities should first establish land tenure. It is a slow process, but fundamental to establish the rights of the community. • The role of local communities in the management of natural resources should facilitate and not inhibit trans-frontier and regional integration of conservation areas.• Effective outsourcing of activities and the establishing of a workable partnership with the private sector are crucial to the success of the process

Institutional challenges in integrated water resources management in Zimbabwe: A case study of the Pungwe sub-catchment area

Magister Philosophiae - MPhilIntegrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is viewed by policy makers and practitioners as facilitating the achievement of a balance between water resources use and protection, and the resolution of water-related conflicts. The IWRM approach has found particular use in the new water policies of Southern African countries such as Zimbabwe, where water scarcity, after the land question, is perceived to be a major threat to political, economic, social, military and environmental security. Ultimately, IWRM is seen as providing a framework towards ensuring broader security at the local, national, regional and global levels. However, the pilot phase implementation of the new water policy in the various regional countries has revealed that although the legal and institutional frameworks have been put in place, the implementation of the IWRM approach has tended to be problematic (Latham, 2001; GTZ, 2000; Leestemaker, 2000; Savenige & van der Zaag, 2000; Sithole, 2000). This study adopts a case study approach and empirically examines the institutional challenges of implementing the IWRM approach in the post-pilot phase of Zimbabwe's new water policy. The focus is mainly on the institutional arrangements surrounding the Pungwe-Mutare Water Supply Project located within the Save Catchment Area in Eastern Zimbabwe. The major finding of the study is that, while there are some problems associated with the traditional management approach, there have also emerged new challenges to IWRM. These mainly relate to the transaction costs of the water sector reforms, institutional resilience, stakeholder participation, and the achievement of the desired outcomes. There have also been problems emanating from unexpected political developments at the local and national levels, particularly with regard to the government's "fast track" land resettlement programme. The study also raises some questions concerning the ideological bases of IWRM and the conceptualization of the institutional problem

Adaptability of Change Management Models: What Works? A Botswana Case Study

The study took a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology to approach the research. Twelve diverse research participants were interviewed, all from BotswanaPost, the research organisation. Their experiences were used to contribute to the assessment of the organisation’s delivery of change using Western derived change management models. Change has become a constant in our lives, and it has become a norm to find ways to manage change. African countries such as Botswana, use Western derived models and tools to manage change; however, success continues to elude them. The purpose of this study was to find out if these models can be adapted to work in these environments with diverse cultural settings. The study found that Western derived models are difficult to adapt because they come influenced by the background from which they originate; into a complex environment that is beleaguered with socio-cultural, political and historical identity issues. This study attempted to address this by developing two models, the ‘what to ask’ framework and the ‘Setswana change management model’. The ‘what to ask’ framework attempts to address the gaps identified in other change models when planning for change. It prompts leaders on the pertinent steps to deliver change that embraces people, their background and resources; with a step by step ‘how to’ guide. The ‘Setswana change management’ model addresses cultural engagements, active participation and continuous feedback for all participants. It incorporates an explicit national culture, which was lacking in the models that were consulted. The study also suggests that hybridisation of models could be a solution, African components mixed with the Western ones, as opposed to Africans expected to directly use Western models as they are and finding ways to cope. This would bring Western models and various African cultures together to form a model that could work with the local people

Joint ventures and livelihoods in emerging small-scale irrigation schemes in Greater Sekhukhune District : Perspectives from Hereford

This report is based on research carried out between June 2003 and April 2005 in the Greater Sekhukhune Cross-Border District Municipality, which straddles the boundaries of the Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces. This research took place in two case-study sites, namely the Hereford and the Phetwane Irrigation Schemes. However, this report focuses on findings from Hereford only. The research was primarily concerned with the impact of BEE, articulated through joint ventures, on the ‘livelihoods’ of people living in emerging small-scale irrigation schemes in some of the least affluent rural areas within the municipality

The livelihood impacts of commercialization in emerging small-scale irrigation schemes in the Olifants catchment area of South Africa.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhDThis thesis examines livelihoods in the wake of agricultural commercialization under the Revitalization of Smallholder Irrigation Schemes (RESIS) Programme and similar revitalization initiatives within the Olifants River Basin in Limpopo Province. The focus is on contractual joint ventures and strategic partnerships implemented within selected smallholder irrigation schemes. The thesis is based primarily on in-depth empirical studies conducted between October 2003 and March 2009 in three sites located in two Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme (ISRDP) poverty nodes namely, Greater Sekhukhune and Vhembe Districts. To a lesser extent, the thesis draws on findings from rapid appraisals of five additional study sites in Greater Sekhukhune District. Research findings showed that the performance of joint ventures and strategic partnerships had so far largely fallen short of expectations. With the exception of a minority of smallholders involved in RESIS-Recharge strategic partnerships, the promise of higher incomes and improved livelihoods had often remained elusive, while debts and potential losses of often meagre household assets loomed large, threatening to erode existing livelihoods and undermine government interventions. This was mainly because ‘viability’ in both the RESIS and RESIS-Recharge phases was narrowly seen in economic and technical terms, such that reduction of transaction costs often entailed the divesting of responsibilities to address issues of rural poverty and inequality. Subsistence production had largely given way to commercially-orientated farming, and weak monitoring of contract formulation and implementation meant that voices of marginalized poor and vulnerable people, particularly women and the elderly, were not being heard. Research findings further revealed that while RESIS-Recharge strategic partnerships increased incomes for a minority of smallholders, such arrangements did not meaningfully improve the productive, managerial and marketing skills of smallholders to ensure their effective participation in agriculture. Rather, strategic partnerships were creating a small class of black ‘arm-chair’ farmers, who played little or no active role and obtained few or no skills in commercial farming but perpetually depended upon and drew incomes from agribusiness initiatives run by externally-based agents. Adjunct to questions of sustainability for these farmers’ ability to participate in commercial farming, the thesis raises the question: What is the rationale for joint ventures and strategic partnerships in the context of South Africa’s Agricultural Sector Strategy objectives for support to black farmers? Contracts lacked mechanisms for equitable distribution of costs and benefits between contracted private partners and targeted smallholders, on the one hand, and the rest of members of local communities, on the other hand. Contracts also lacked provisions for postproject recapitalization of infrastructure and rehabilitation of degraded land. This raised questions about the longer term sustainability of productivity, natural resource base and livelihood security in smallholder irrigation schemes. The conclusion of this thesis is that the challenge of reducing rural poverty and inequality in smallholder irrigation schemes might not be resolved through existing institutional approaches to agricultural commercialization

Social Protests and Water Service Delivery in South Africa

To develop: • Clear understandings of the linkage between social protests and water service delivery. • An evaluation framework to enable government, municipalities and other stakeholders to more effectively address problems relating to social protests associated with water services delivery

Scoping study on the development and sustainable utilisation of inland fisheries in South Africa: Volume 2. Case studies of small-scale inland fisheries

Small- scale fishing on inland waters is a widespread livelihood activity which has been overlooked in environmental policy and management arrangements flowing from South Africa’s democratic Constitution. This has perpetuated the Apartheid and Colonial era legacies of marginalisation of rural communities from natural resource access and, in the absence of clearly defined use rights, resulted in unmanaged and unsustainable fishing practises, and growing user conflicts. A major constraint to addressing the situation at policy level was identified as the lack of quantitative information on inland fishing for livelihood purposes