scholarly journals Shielding Rural Migrants from Unemployment-Induced Poverty: The Informal Prickly Pear Market

2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (1-3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin Fraser

ABSTRACT This study highlighted the role that an informal market plays in shielding unemployed rural migrants in urban areas from unemployment-induced poverty using the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) informal Prickly Pear Market as a case study. The purpose of this study was to show how earnings from self-employment or informal employment can be effective in reducing poverty. The Sustainable Livelihoods Framework was used as the theoretical basis for unpacking the household socioeconomic factors that influenced the informal prickly pear marketers’ decision to engage in the market. The study found that despite the prickly pear’s short-term availability, the income was channelled towards school supplies and sustained households during the month in addition to social grants, especially after the grant income had finished. The study aimed to revive interest in the Opuntia ficus-indica species, as one of the ways by which poverty can be reduced in the Eastern Cape.

Refuge ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-71
Author(s):  
Brad K. Blitz

This article introduces the concept of ‘location security’ to describe the specific relationship between place, environ- mental and human security. It argues that ‘location security’ is determined by a location’s resilience to risk, understood in terms of the degree to which a specific region is protected by virtue of geographical endowments and has sufficient infrastructure to withstand and recover from the effects of environmental hazards and ensure that rights are protected. To illustrate the concept of location security, this article uses the sustainable livelihoods framework to explore actual and anticipated environmental pressures that affect the river deltas of Bangladesh, and examines the adaptation responses developed by the inhabitants of the riverine islands. A central finding of this article is that flexible migration and localised coping strategies based on acute knowledge of their local ecological and geological systems, enables the char dwellers to reduce their vulnerability. In this setting, human and environmental factors when harnessed may enhance agency to mitigate hazards.    


2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-85
Author(s):  
Harmen Janse ◽  
Kees van der Flier

Haiti was struck by a heavy earthquake in 2010 and international aid poured into the country. News reports in 2011 were not very positive about the results of post-disaster reconstruction: “The relief efforts are only putting Haiti on life-support instead of evolving into the next stage of development”. One of the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in Haiti was Cordaid, implementing a ‘transitional shelter strategy’ to support the transformation of neigh-bourhoods from a state of life-support into a state of self-sustaining development. The strategy was implemented in both a rural and an urban area. The main feature of the strategy was the provision of structures that could be adapted from simple shelters to permanent houses. Since the results of the strategy were mixed and ambiguous, a comparative case study was conducted to evaluate the shelter strategy in both areas. The objective was to draw lessons about what has to be taken into account when formulating future urban shelter strategies. The case study is discussed in this article. The main finding from the case study is that producing the intended number of shelters within the financial and time budgets that were set (efficiency), was more difficult in the urban area than in the rural area. But the conditions for linking relief and development (effectiveness) are more favourable in the urban context. NGOs may achieve long-term (effective) results in the urban context when a lower efficiency can be justified. That is why NGOs need to engage in a debate about the extent to which they are able to focus on long-term shelter or housing strategies. The important element in the debate is communication with the donors who are often focused on short-term relief measures. However urban areas cannot be rebuilt with only short-term interventions. The link between relief and development has to be made by a process-orientated approach focusing on capacities of local participants.


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Du Preez ◽  
Deborah Lee ◽  
Leann Cloete

This paper examines the Nelson Mandela Bay public’s willingness to pay (WTP) for the removal of a local undesirable land use, the manganese ore dumps and the oil tank farm situated within the boundaries of the Port Elizabeth harbour, Eastern Cape, South Africa, by means of the contingent valuation method. Both a non-parametric and parametric estimate of the WTP is derived. Estimated WTP for the removal of this disamenity ranges from R47.09 to R93.21 per household. The aggregate WTP ranges from R13 489 683 to R26 701 496. Due to the sensitivity of the parametric estimate of WTP to functional form specification and the distribution of the random part of preferences, the less restricted non-parametric WTP estimate (R47.09) is more appropriate. The results of this study show that policy-makers should take heed of the importance communities attach to the location of pollution-creating activities in urban areas.


Author(s):  
Margaret Cullen ◽  
André Calitz ◽  
Len Chandler

Business incubation is a concept that describes a business development process that is used to grow successful, sustainable entrepreneurial ventures that will contribute to the health and wealth of local, regional and national economies. Incubators provide a platform for businesses to build their foundations. Incubators are part of a larger value chain that connects businesses to a vital support system, such as local service providers (including lawyers, corporate service providers or accountants) to establish relationships that will last after the business leaves the incubator. This paper investigates whether the performance of the Seda Nelson Mandela Bay ICT Incubator is in line with generally accepted performance standards. These standards are identified as a strategic alliance of the business (vision, mission and strategy), financing principles, management principles and human resource development and growth opportunities. Alignment to these standards was investigated through surveys with members of the board, employees and incubatees. The findings show that the incubator in the case study was aligned to generally accepted performance standards but that there is room for improvement in market alignment, incubate compliance and periods of incubation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard B. Apgar

As destination of choice for many short-term study abroad programs, Berlin offers students of German language, culture and history a number of sites richly layered with significance. The complexities of these sites and the competing narratives that surround them are difficult for students to grasp in a condensed period of time. Using approaches from the spatial humanities, this article offers a case study for enhancing student learning through the creation of digital maps and itineraries in a campus-based course for subsequent use during a three-week program in Berlin. In particular, the concept of deep mapping is discussed as a means of augmenting understanding of the city and its history from a narrative across time to a narrative across the physical space of the city. As itineraries, these course-based projects were replicated on site. In moving from the digital environment to the urban landscape, this article concludes by noting meanings uncovered and narratives formed as we moved through the physical space of the city.


Author(s):  
Tue Nguyen Dang

This research examines the factors affecting the financial literacy of Vietnamese adults. Using a sample of 266 observations of adults in 2 big cities in Vietnam (Hanoi and Vinh in Nghe An Province), the author evaluates the literacy level of adults in these urban areas. The financial literacy of the interviewed people is low. The multiple regression results show that lower financial literacy levels associate with higher age and married status and higher financial literacy levels associate with higher education, more family members, the person making financial decisions and the person attending a useful financial course. This research also explores the association between financial literacy and financial behaviors of individuals employing logistic models. It is found that higher financial literacy associates with less probability of overspending and higher probability of saving money and careful spending. Higher financial literacy is also found to associate with higher probability of opening a savings account and making various investments. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sipho Stephen Nkosi

The note is about the appeal lodged by the late Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela to the SCA against the decision of the Eastern Cape High Court, Mthatha, dismissing her application for review in 2014. In that application, she sought to have reviewed the decision of the Minister of Land Affairs, to transfer the now extended and renovated Qunu property to Mr Mandela and to register it in his name. Because her application was out of time, she also applied for condonation of her delay in making the application. The court a quo dismissed both applications with costs, holding that there had been an undue delay on her part. Mrs Mandela then approached the Supreme Court of Appeal, for special leave to appeal the decision of the court a quo. Two questions fell for decision by the SCA: whether there was an unreasonable and undue delay on Mrs Mandela’s part in instituting review proceedings; and whether the order for costs was appropriate in the circumstances of the case. The SCA held that there was indeed an unreasonable delay (of seventeen years). Shongwe AP (with Swain, Mathopo JJA, Mokgothloa and Rodgers AJJA concurring) held that the fact that there had been an undue delay does not necessarily mean that an order for costs should, of necessity, particularly where, as in this case, the other litigant is the state. It is the writer’s view that two other ancillary points needed to be raised by counsel and pronounced on by the Court: (a) the lawfulness and regularity of the transfer of the Qunu property to Mr Mandela; and (b) Mrs Mandela’s status as a customary-law widow—in relation to Mr Mandela.


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