Challenges facing sanitation-provision partnerships for informal settlements: a South African case study

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Taing ◽  
S. Pan ◽  
J. Hilligan ◽  
A. Spiegel ◽  
N. P. Armitage

The Barcelona Settled Sewerage Pilot Project was established as a collaborative partnership between researchers from the University of Cape Town's Urban Water Management Group, City of Cape Town Water and Sanitation officials and Barcelona Informal Settlement Street Committee members. Its goal is to test collaboratively the viability of a settled sewerage system in an informal settlement (slum), Barcelona, located on a former landfill site. Direct engagement by officials and researchers with beneficiaries is crucial for such a project's success; therefore, a partnership approach was adopted. This also permitted researchers to assist municipal officials, since they faced capacity constraints. It became apparent over the course of the project that the partnership had been poorly set up and that partners' roles and responsibilities required renegotiation. Much literature emphasises the significance of ‘people-centred’ approaches, focusing on the ultimate users, in this instance as ‘owners’ of toilets. However, the study found that, in a South African context, partnerships need to designate the municipality as the responsible owner and managing partner of municipality-funded services. The critical challenges facing such a partnership approach suggest a need to build effective municipality-led and managed partnerships that simultaneously address each partner's needs and constraints.

Author(s):  
Maake Masango

This article is dedicated to Prof. Dr Andries van Aarde who has mentored a large number of students during his time as a lecturer at the University of Pretoria. It is written at the time when workers in South Africa are striking. Industrial psychologists are involved in mediation and aim to develop a culture of understanding between workers and management. The article analyses some causes of tension between managers and workers in the South African context and indicates how mentorship may help to foster growth amongst workers and managers. A case study explores the issue of cultural differences which often lead to misunderstandings, especially when managers do not understand the world in which workers live. The aim of the article is to contribute to existing insights that may help to create a healthy working relationship between managers and workers which will benefit both.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-109
Author(s):  
Kate Brown ◽  
Alise De Bie ◽  
Akshay Aggarwal ◽  
Ryan Joslin ◽  
Sarah Williams-Habibi ◽  
...  

While partnership is widely encouraged as an approach to advancing the inclusion of disabled postsecondary students, these collaborations are largely taking place between staff offices and failing to meaningfully integrate disabled students as partners. In this case study, we describe the successes and challenges of a pilot project where students and staff with and without disabilities worked together to user test our university’s accessibility website, to which faculty/staff are regularly directed for resources on making their teaching more accessible. We achieved our goal of compiling results into a report for decision-makers in order to advance campus-wide technological accessibility. Instead of primarily treating disabled students as lacking capacities and requiring programmatic intervention to succeed in the university, a partnership approach validates and draws on disabled students’ specific expertise and experience to make institutional change.


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1and2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kingstone Mutsonziwa

This paper is a follow-up article based on the first article titled Customers speak for themselves: A case of Customer Satisfaction in the four Main South African Banks. Customer satisfaction within the banking industry is very important in the South African context. Although banks are trying their best to give their customers the best service, it is important to continuously measure customer satisfaction and identify service attributes that contribute to overall customer satisfaction for the banks. The data used in the analysis is based on a quantitative survey of 500 randomly selected customers in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town were interviewed using a face to face methodology. The key drivers of overall customer satisfaction based on regression analysis for the different banks were helpfulness and innovativeness (ABSA), helpfulness, innovativeness of the bank, resolution of problems and investment advice (FNB), language usage and friendliness of service consultants (Nedbank), innovativeness of the bank, investment advice and use of language (Standard bank). These attributes were important to the overall customer satisfaction and need to be closely monitored by the management of these banks.


Author(s):  
Khosi Kubeka ◽  
Sharmla Rama

Combining the theories of intersectionality and social exclusion holds the potential for structural and nuanced interpretations of the workings of power, taking systemic issues seriously but interpreting them though social relations that appear in local contexts. An intersectional analysis of social exclusion demonstrates to what extent multiple axes of social division—be they race, age, gender, class, disability or citizenship—intersect to result in unequal and disparate experiences for groups of youth spatially located in particular communities and neighborhoods. A common reference point is therefore power and how it manifests at the intersection of the local and global. A South African case study is used to explore the subjective measures and qualitative experiences of intersectionality and social exclusion further. The unique ways that language intersects with space, neighborhood, and race in the South African context, enables opportunities in education and the labor market, with profound implications for forms of social exclusion.


Author(s):  
M Oelofse ◽  
A Oosthuysen

Using the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (TRC) and the concept of reconciliation as a case study, the article attempts to assess the knowledge and understanding of the registered undergraduate history students at the University of the Free State’s main campus about the TRC and the concept and process of reconciliation in the country at large. The research will firstly assess whether the younger generation of students, specifically students taking history as a subject, have any knowledge of such a significant and contemporary event in South African historiography as the TRC process. Secondly, in relation to the aims and recommendations of the TRC and against the background of reconciliation efforts in the country, to perceive the views and thoughts of undergraduate history students on the progress in reconciliation endeavours in South Africa. As a result, a sample of 128 undergraduate history students was randomly selected to complete a quantitative questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of both closed and open-ended questions. Group interviews, as a qualitative research method, were added and used to conduct interviews with 16 undergraduate history students selected randomly and answers were recorded. Accordingly, an explanatory mixed- method research method approach was employed by implementing both the qualitative and quantitative method.


Author(s):  
Shawren Singh ◽  
Hsuan Lorraine Liang

In this chapter, we will discuss the blended learning approach that has been adopted by the University of South Africa (an open and distance learning tertiary education institute). We will discuss our perspectives on using these blended learning approaches and tools in order to facilitate our teaching. We will then provide a comparison on the advantages and disadvantages of some of the blended approaches we have used. We will also discuss the future trends of the use of blended approaches in the context of open distance education and learning. Lastly, we will conclude this chapter by providing our perspectives on the blended learning and teaching approaches adopted by the University of South Africa.


2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Arnall ◽  
Jose Furtado ◽  
Jaboury Ghazoul ◽  
Cobus de Swardt

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Simonne Horwitz

This paper charts the history and debates surrounding the introduction of academic, university-based training of nurses in South Africa. This was a process that was drawn out over five decades, beginning in the late 1930s. For nurses, university training was an important part of a process of professionalization; however, for other members of the medical community, nursing was seen as being linked to women's service work. Using the case-study of the University of the Witwatersrand, one of South Africa's premier universities and the place in the country to offer a university-based nursing program, we argue that an historical understanding of the ways in which nursing education was integrated into the university system tells us a great deal about the professionalization of nursing. This paper also recognises, for the first time, the pioneers of this important process.


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