poverty alleviation

Small Livestock Information Portal

storytelling — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 06:09:30 -0600

Livestock in general, and smallstock in particular (including sheep, goats and poultry) have an important role to play in enhancing the livelihoods of the poor.

In poor households, these animals are often kept under scavenging conditions with little or no attention paid to supplementing feed inputs, or to disease control and housing. At the same time, these animals provide products for cash sale when a need arises, and provide the household with much needed protein.

The Smallstock in Development toolbox focuses on the role and importance of smallstock in development and poverty reduction. The toolbox also aims to provide a range of practical information and descriptions of techniques or "tools" to assist in increasing the efficiency of operations of smallholders and/or the productivity of their animals. The Smallstock in Development toolbox is available at smallstock.info

KM & Social Challenges

Fighting Poverty with Facts -Community-Based Monitoring Systems

carol — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:20:41 -0600

For more than two decades, governments and development agencies around the world have focused on reducing poverty. There have been advances, but progress has been uneven and nearly a quarter of the world's population still suffers from extreme "income poverty." Income poverty,however, is only part of the picture. A multi-faceted account of poverty and human welfare incorporates elements that go beyond income to capture the characteristics of poverty as experienced by the poor themselves.

This book presents the Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS). CBMS recognizes that the poor must be involved in planning public programs that affect their well-being. It further recognizes that, to be effective, development programs must be targeted and informed by relevant, current, accurate disaggregated data. To accomplish this, CBMS brings together communities and local authorities to gather and monitor locally obtained, verifiable information about actual living conditions, and to use this information for planning and policy-making.

Drawing from CBMS experience in Africa and Asia, the authors present recommendations for policymakers, donor agencies, and researchers. They also present guidelines for developing and implementing poverty monitoring systems in other regions of the world. For more analysis, discussion, and case material, visit the companion website, www.idrc.ca/in_focus_poverty, which is included with the book, on CD.

THE AUTHORS

Celia Reyes is a Research Fellow at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Co-Director of the Poverty and Economic Policy research network, and CBMS Network Leader, based in Manila.

Evan Due is Senior Program Specialist responsible for economics and trade programs at IDRC's Singapore office.

IDRC 2009 - ISBN 978-1-55250-432-1 - e-ISBN 978-1-55250-435-2 - 124 pp.

Download or order the book from IDRC Website

Information Provided by Carol Lombard, Department of Social Development Population Website

KM & Social Challenges

Better forestry, less poverty : A practitioner's guide

carol — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:57:51 -0600

This guide offers suggestions to practitioners and the rural communities they serve on ways to prevent, mitigate and reduce poverty through forest-based interventions. Those who may find it of interest include district forestry officials, forestry and rural development extension workers, local administrators and planners, and people involved in small-scale enterprises, including their partners.

The document highlights the importance of tailoring activities to local circumstances and of using participatory approaches to design and implement interventions. Emphasis is on making and responding to changes for the benefit of people living in or near forests, and on helping users gain a better understanding of:

the forms of rural poverty and priorities for rural poverty reduction;
how local decisions both inside and outside the forest sector affect segments of poor rural communities in different ways – women, children and the elderly being the most vulnerable;
the vital roles that forestry and agroforestry systems play in sustaining livelihoods and preventing poverty;
the ways in which changes in forest management can cause poverty or worsen it;
how forestry practices can better contribute to poverty reduction and better protect the livelihood functions of forests.

The suggestions for practical actions draw on current literature on the subject, and from field studies and experiences.

Information Provided by Carol Lombard, Department of Social Development Population Website

KM & the Environment

Implementing the social vision of an egalitarian society: intellectual capital and the production of social policy analysts

KMAadmin — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:49:52 -0600

Corresponding author: Dr Lulama Makhubela - Intellectual Capital, Development Bank of Southern Africa, 1258 Lever Road, Headway Hill, Midrand; lulum@dbsa.org
Dr Robert Van Niekerk Centre for the Analysis of South African Social Policy, Oxford University, UK; Robert.vanniekerk@socres.ox.ac.uk

Abstract
This paper offers an analysis of intellectual capital as “intellectual action” in the social sphere, or the application of knowledge for social purposes. It is specifically concerned with the production of social policy analysts who can implement the social vision of an egalitarian society in the African context. The paper uses the case of South Africa to raise questions about knowledge-production and social policy. The paper begins by discussing the existing intellectual capital which has informed the creation of a social vision of an egalitararian South African society. These include foundational documents such as African Claims (1943), the Freedom Charter (1955), the RDP base document (1994) and the Constitution (1996). These foundational documents suggest a particular relationship between economic and social policy – that social policy should not be subsumed into economic policy and thus undermine the achievement of social goals such as inequality and poverty reduction. There has though not been sufficient attention paid to the production of social policy analysts which can give effect to the social vision – either through directly informing policy or reflecting on current knowledge and its production in the social sphere – and the degree to which such knowledge informs the implementation of the social vision of an egalitarian society. Crucial to the production of such social policy analysts is the institutional context within which knowledge is produced (such as universities from a disadvantaged as opposed to a privileged background) and the race, gender and class characteristics of the knowledge producers. We argue that engaging issues of representivity is important for not only issues of redress but to also ensure that a diverse range of voices are heard and can contribute to implementing the social vision. This will require concerted and intentional action. The paper outlines strategies to its achievement – including the development of social policy analysts skilled in meta-analysis who can evaluate existing knowledge in the social sphere, and the degree to which it informs the implementation of a social vision of an egalitarian society with due consideration to concerns of race, gender and class diversity. The paper concludes by considering some practical recommendations for producing the desired social policy analysts, based on the South African case of social policy and knowledge production.

Introduction

The paper offers an analysis of intellectual capital as “intellectual action” in the social sphere, or the application of knowledge for social purposes. It is specifically concerned with the production of social policy analysts who can implement the social vision of an egalitarian society in the African context. The paper uses the case of South Africa to raise questions about knowledge-production and social policy. It begins by discussing the existing intellectual capital that has informed the creation of a social vision of an egalitararian South African society. These include foundational documents such as African Claims (1943), the Freedom Charter (1955), the RDP base document (1994) and the Constitution (1996). These foundational documents suggest a particular relationship between economic and social policy – that social policy should not be subsumed into economic policy and thus undermine the achievement of social goals such as inequality and poverty reduction. There has though not been sufficient attention paid to the production of social policy analysts which can give effect to the social vision – either through directly informing policy or reflecting on current knowledge and its production in the social sphere – and the degree to which such knowledge informs the implementation of the social vision of an egalitarian society. Crucial to the production of such social policy analysts is the institutional context within which knowledge is produced (such as universities from a disadvantaged as opposed to a privileged background) and the race, gender and class characteristics of the knowledge producers. We argue that engaging issues of representivity is important for not only issues of redress but to also ensure that a diverse range of voices are heard and can contribute to implementing the social vision. This will require concerted and intentional action. The paper outlines strategies to its achievement – including the development of social policy analysts skilled in meta-analysis who can evaluate existing knowledge in the social sphere, and the degree to which it informs the implementation of a social vision of an egalitarian society with due consideration to concerns of race, gender and class diversity. The paper concludes by considering some practical recommendations for producing the desired social policy analysts, based on the South African case of social policy and knowledge production.

Implementing the social vision of an egalitarian society: intellectual capital and the production of social policy analysts

Recent evidence suggests that Africa is at development cross-roads. A report of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Africa Steering Group reported that achieving the Millennium Development Goals held “the promise of saving millions of lives; empowering women; addressing the scourge of illiteracy, hunger and malnutrition; and ensuring that Africa’s children have access to high-quality education and good health to lead productive lives” (MDG, 2008: 1). In achieving these significant development goals the MDG Steering Group reported however that the “continent as a whole is lagging behind on each Goal despite a very encouraging rise in the rate of economic growth, an overall improvement in the policy environment and strong macro-economic fundamentals” (MDG, 2008:1) The report of the MDG Steering Group suggests that successful economic development has not translated into improved social development, at least to the degree desired. The question that this paper aims to address is the relationship between social policy and economic policy and the production of capacity for social policy analytic decision-making which can advance the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. In explaining the relationship between social policy and economic policy it draws on the seminal work of Mkandiwire (2004) and Adesina (2008) on the need for a “transformative social policy” that engages with problems of economic development while preventing the traditional subsuming of social policy to economic development. The paper uses the case of South Africa to examine historical inequities and deficiencies in knowledge-production that have prevented the development of social policy analysts who have the necessary skills to address the new knowledge challenges of “transformative social policy” and who are demographically representative of the wider society. It examines historical thinking on egalitarian social policy in South Africa and discusses an institutional model of mentorship that can produce the type of social policy analyst with the knowledge creation and management skills necessary for realising this egalitarian and historical vision of an inclusive, transformed society. Some broader lessons for African countries confronting questions of analytic capacity for social policy and development are discussed.

The framework for new knowledge-creation and analytic capacity: re-examing social policy and economic policy in Africa

A myriad of definitions on Intellectual Capital have been advanced leading to different interpretation of the concept – in part because of the problem of how to measure and give value to a qualities that are intangible such as the tacit knowledge which is embedded in an individual and which, unlike explicit knowledge, becomes difficult to codify . In the literature on intellectual capital and policy making the original definition of Galbraith provides however a provocative insight on the purposive, social intent of knowledge-creation. Galbraith argued that intellectual capital was more than “pure” intellect but included “intellectual action, a progression from possessing knowledge to applying it and which implied relationships and processes which are needed to transform knowledge into value (Swart, 2006). Mkandiwire’s (2004) observations on the history of the relationship between social and economic policy in recent African development and the need for a “transformative social policy” represents an intellectual action with far reaching implications for African development policy and actions to achieve development goals. Recently reviewing the history of the relationship between economic and social policy he argues that social policy has been relegated to a “social safety” net for those who cannot participate or benefit from the proceeds of economic development (Mkandiwire, 2004). In this context social expenditure is seen as a drain on fiscal resources that should be supporting economic development. The consequences of this policy approach translated into action are the structural adjustment programmes which wreaked havoc with African development for two decades (Adesina, 2008). A re-balancing of the relationship between economic and social policy is now required – one where “social policy should be conceived as involving overall and prior concerns with social development, and as a key instrument that works in tandem with economic policy to ensure equitable and socially sustainable development. Social policy must be designed not only residually, to cater for social casualties, but also integrated as a central component of policies, to ensure the wherewithal for their sustainability (Mkandiwire, 2004: 3-4). The question which emerges is how are these insights on the need for a transformative social policy to be applied so that it influences social policy debates and their outcomes? Who will the agents of this new intellectual capital and how are they to be produced?

South Africa: The context of social policy fifteen years into the post-1994 democracy

Since 1994 South Africa has recorded significant outcomes from many of its social policies aimed at overcoming the deeply rooted legacies of apartheid and colonialism. Government figures1 on access to basic services indicate for example that households’ access to water increased from 62 percent in 1996 to 88 percent in 2007. In the same period access to sanitation increased from 52 percent to 73 percent. These indicators of successfully implemented social policies need to be set however against the difficulties of many social policies to achieve their inclusive and poverty alleviating intentions. In the area of housing the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, while commending the legal provisions in the constitution that guaranteed the right to adequate housing nonetheless reported that despite the socio-economic right to adequate housing, evictions are a “regular occurrence” with 2 million people displaced since 1994” (United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, 2008: 2). According to the Children’s Institute of the University of Cape Town ten million children continued to live in households earning less than R800 per month, considered an ultra-poverty or “indigent” poverty line (Children’s Institute, 2006).

At the level of policy these social indicators demonstrate a rapidly growing need in South Africa for social policy analysts with the analytic and conceptual skills to evaluate and monitor the progress and implementation of the government’s social policy reforms. Indeed the importance of such skills has been recognised by the government itself, with the Minister of Social Development, Dr Zola Skweyiya, of the ruling African National Congress government commented that “social policy is at the very centre of the vision of the type of society we want to build. Social policy is a way of thinking about the interventions and solutions for the many social and economic problems we face… We must find solutions to the malnutrition, the infant mortality, improve our education and health systems and make sure that our social and economic policy leads to real and positive outcomes for the millions of our children and young people” (Skweyiya, 2008). Dr Skweyiya’s comments are consistent with a history of thinking within the ANC on social policy and its utility as an agent for social transformation.

In 1943 the ANC produced “African Claims”, a document which set out a range of social policies based on the social rights concomitant with political enfranchisement. These rights, contained in a Bill of Rights, included the establishment of free medical and health services for all sections of the population; the right of every child to free and compulsory education and of admission to technical schools, universities and other institutions of higher education and equality of treatment with any other section of the population in the State social services, and the inclusion on an equal basis … in any scheme of social security and the extension of all industrial welfare legislation to Africans engaged in Agriculture, Domestic Service and in Public institutions or bodies (African Claims, quoted in Karis and Carter, 1987, 217 – 222).

In 1955 the Freedom Charter, the ANC’s historical programme for transforming South Africa, was adopted. The Charter contained a series of ‘demands’ framed by the primary citizenship demand that the ‘People Shall Govern’. In addition to civil and political rights, it (like Africans’ Claims before it) contained demands for social rights, including rights related to income maintenance, state-provided free and universal education, rights to housing and rights to free, state-provided medical care (Freedom Charter, quoted in Karis and Carter, 1987).

The other significant milestones in ANC thinking on social policy were the Reconstruction and Development Programmes (RDP) base document of 1994 and finally the Constitution adopted in 1996. The RDP set out as its five key policy programmes to achieve its objectives, ‘the meeting of basic needs, developing … human resources, building the economy, democratising the state and society and implementing the RDP (RDP, 1994: 7). The RDP located an interventionist role for the government in the economy. It further argued for a strong role for public sector investment, including nationalization as an option to achieve an expanded public sector (RDP, 1994: 80). With regard to health care policy, the RDP advocated a National Health Service based on the “complete transformation of the entire delivery system” (RDP, 1994: 13). The imperative of transformation was also reflected in its education proposals, which called for national, integrated system of education that met development needs. The RDP base document was principally concerned with building the human resources that would allow African citizens to have expanded life chances in the post-apartheid era, including opportunities in the labour market which had been racially differentiated. The radical, re-distributive impetus in the pre-election social policy proposals of the ANC reflected an intention to break with the racialised social policies of the apartheid era. These social policy proposals of the RDP base document, based on an ethic of social justice and acknowledgment of constitutionally guaranteed social rights were ideologically compatible with a social democratic approach to social policy and reflected a continuity with thinking since the 1940’s on the need for an interventionist state that prioritised social policy based on social rights of citizenship whilst simultaneously meeting imperatives of economic development. These imperatives were concretized in the Constitution of South Africa adopted in 1996, which guaranteed entitlements to socio-economic rights such as health, housing and education within available government resources.

This review reveals that the idea of a “transformative social policy” that locates social policy as central outcome and not subordinate to the objectives of economic development, as deeply embedded in the policy discourses of the ruling ANC. The problem has been how to successfully translate these intentions into practice, reflected in the uneven social indicators of development progress fifteen years into democratic rule.

Social Policy analysts, knowledge creation and the system of higher education

A key mechanism for ensuring that transformative social policy informs policy debates on development and as well as the discourse of development is through the training of future social policy analysts. In the medium-to-long-term it is essential that local academic and research institutions in particular are able to provide for the training of future social policy analysts who can independently undertake rigorous, critically informed research in the tradition of transformative social policy. Moreover, it is important that the education and training of such social policy analysts simultaneously redresses educational inequality in the system of higher education, in particular the educational privileging of a minority white elite historically through a racialised system of schooling and higher education. In the context of the constitutional imperative to promote equality through “legislative and other measures designed to protect or advance persons, or categories of persons, disadvantaged by unfair discrimination” it is necessary for African social policy analysts to be purposefully produced and who are demographically representative of the wider South African society most effected by poverty and inequality. This includes purposive action to educate and develop more African women social policy analysts and those from the working class. The concern that requires to be addressed here is that the imperative for deracialisation of political institutions in South African society needs to also extend to the de-racialisation of the production of knowledge and related processes of policy decision making, including social policy. The constitutional imperatives of equality require more-over that the government should play an active and not passive role in ensuring that targets for the production of social policy analysts are met. The government should establish an independent body that can review progress on transforming the academic culture at an institutional level. This body must ensure that there are no institutional obstacles to African academics playing the fundamental role in intellectual leadership of their institutions. This will ensure the longer term sustainability of education and training programmes aimed to develop a new cadre of social policy analysts as conceived in the discussion above.

Obstacles to the production of African social policy analysts

There are a number of obstacles that mitigates against production of African social policy analysts. Amongst the key obstacles which need to be considered are:

the institutional capacity in the South African higher education system to provide education and training in social policy;
the institutional culture in academia and its ability to nurture a new generation of African academics who can lead on the development of social policy as an area of academic study; and
the potential constraints on African students in the social sciences undertaking a career path as social policy analysts in contrast to other competing career trajectories.

The three obstacles are further discussed below:

Educational capacity in the higher education system. Internationally social policy is studied in academic departments as one of the areas in the academic social sciences with a distinct empirical focus on the support for the well-being of citizens provided through social action. This distinguishes the study of social policy from other areas of social sciences such as Sociology, Development Studies, Economics and Political Science (Alcock, 2003)... South Africa has a long academic tradition of study in Sociology, Political Science and Economics, all of which have contributed to the analysis and critique of social problems in the apartheid and post-apartheid era. A review of social policy in academia in South Africa reported however that due to historical reasons there does not exist an established tradition of studying social policy as a separate academic discipline (CASASP, 2005). The apartheid regime discouraged the development of such a tradition by making it difficult to routinely collect centralised data and thus enable meaningful comparison of social indicators across race, class and apartheid geographical boundaries. In the post-apartheid era concerns with delivery during the transition led to a focus on developing practitioners who could implement government policy. While this was undoubtedly necessary, it was at the expense of developing evidence-based analysts who could critically reflect on why social policies were successfully implemented or not. The study further observed that the study of social policy was conflated with development studies, a different academic discipline, and that content on three areas critical to social policy was not provided in the curriculum. These related to content on welfare regimes, and the location of South Africa in such a theoretical framework; content on citizenship both from an historical and comparative international perspective, incorporating comparable middle-income developing countries and thirdly the comparative theorisation and conceptualisation of poverty and social exclusion from an international social policy perspective (CASASP, 2005).
The institutional culture in academia and its ability to enable African academics to take a leading role in the academic development of social policy. The education and training of future social policy analysts will be dependent on those academics that can provide appropriate education and training in social policy. The institutional culture in academia is arguably pivotal to developing a cohort of such skilled social policy academics who can take the lead in developing social policy as an academic area of study. The current institutional culture in South African higher education arguably undermines this development however, a consequence of the persistent racial inequalities in the composition of the academic workforce. If social policy is to take root and flourish as a relevant paradigm and subject of academic study it will need to be embedded in the new generation of academics who can research and teach social policy to future generations of students interested in becoming social policy analysts. Furthermore if the constitutional imperative of equity in higher education is to be realised, meaning substantively that the majority of future academics will be African in a manner consonant with the demographic profile of the country, then African academics will need to lead and staff future programmes and departments of social policy in higher education institutions. The evidence of continuing inequality in higher education suggests real concern however for the ability of the higher education system to develop such a cohort of African social policy academics who can be the bedrock of a distinctive South African tradition of social policy. As revealed in a recent study whilst African South Africans comprise nearly 91 percent of the population they make up only 38 percent of academics. The position is particularly stark in the case of African Africans who comprise 80 percent of the population but comprise only 24 percent of the academic workforce. Women who comprise 51 percent of the population comprise only 42 percent of academics (Badat, 2008). The fact that knowledge production is thus still “predominately the preserve of white men” (Badat, 2008) radically inhibits the possibilities for African academics taking academic leadership roles at departmental level. The possibilities for a social policy academic tradition to emerge which is rooted in a new generation of academics demographically and substantively reflective of the ideals of a post-apartheid society are thus diminished. The possible exception to this trend is the historically disadvantaged academic institutions (HDI’s). The HDI’s have an academic culture that does encourage the development of African academics into leadership positions. They are also significant for their location in provinces which experienced the worst forms of poverty and inequality and are thus ideally located to develop a cadre of social policy academics (and students) who can address social policy concerns at a provincial level. Compared to the historically white universities the HDI’s however are constrained by comparative lack of financial and human resources to develop new, innovative teaching and research programmes. The academics in HDI’s also have greater teaching commitments due to their comparatively higher intakes of students with a much smaller academic staff complement compared to historically white institutions. This diminishes the ability of many academics in historically disadvantaged institutions to undertake high quality research, a necessary ingredient for developing social policy as an academic area of study. Addressing these fundamental institutional, financial and human resource concerns will thus be necessary if African social policy academics are to be produced who can lead the development of social policy as an area of study and the production of a future generation of social policy analysts.
Potential constraints on African students undertaking careers as social policy analysts As argued in the previous sub-section the future education and training of social policy analysts will be significantly dependent on African academics who are enabled to undertake rigorous teaching and research in social policy and who can lead the institutionalisation of social policy as an academic discipline in higher education institutions. Constraints on African students pursuing careers as social policy analysts need to be considered however. With regard to student enrolment on courses a study by Breier and Mabizela (2008: 285) suggests that national targets for headcount enrolments in the social sciences are being broadly met, with 41 percent of target reached against national target of 40 percent in 2004. The concern is less enrolment than the sustaining of such students in education programmes for the duration of their studies. Evidence based on Department of Education sources suggest that 50 percent of first time undergraduates dropped out before attaining a qualification. Reasons cited include poverty and the insufficiency of bursaries and loans to cover fees (Breier and Mabizela (2008: 290)
There is a further set of factors that potentially constrain students taking up studies in social policy that will lead to them becoming social policy analysts. The remuneration for a career trajectory as a social policy analyst may be significantly less than options of employment in the private sector. For African students from working class and rural poor backgrounds, often with families to support, this can become a significant opportunity cost. The other consideration is career pathways and prospects for career development. If there is not a clear pathway for entry into a professional career as a social policy analyst for students on graduating, either in government or the non-government sector, then the incentive to become social policy analysts diminish.

Preferred policy alternatives to address obstacles in the development of African social policy analysts.

The first key goal for addressing the obstacles identified above is to enhance the institutional capacity to deliver social policy teaching and research programmes through redressing inequalities in knowledge production. This can be achieved through a comprehensive mentorship scheme aimed at supporting African academics to enable them to lead the development of social policy as an academic discipline in their institutions. The mentorship scheme should be an institutional model – meaning that it will not only aim to re-dress inequalities of access of African academics to high level expertise in social policy but simultaneously enable individual departments to enhance and build their capacity in social policy teaching and research. The mentorship scheme will thus be dependent in particular for its success on full institutional support from the relevant academic department in which the candidate academic is employed. Without such institutional support the candidate academic on the mentorship programme will be unable to meet their assigned mentorship tasks and obligations. The mentorship programme will pair a local academic with an established international social policy academic who will confer their social policy analytic skills through an intensive social policy educational programme. This is intended to create a foundation for developing a programme of social policy teaching in the academic institution and which can be lead by the candidate academic on the mentorship programme.

The second key goal for addressing the obstacles identified above will be to create incentives for committed African students to enrol and sustain their participation in social policy education programmes. This can be achieved through the provision of adequate financial and pastoral support to ensure completion of the course. Support will be contingent on good quality results and supervisor reports. In addition a career entry into the civil service as a social policy analyst will be negotiated – commencing for a probationary period but which can then be made permanent on the successful completion of the probationary period.

Measurement of policy success

In regards to the mentorship scheme aimed at developing African academics in social policy the successful completion of 90 percent of the mentorees in the programme over the five year period will be the measure of success.

In regards to the African students enrolled in courses of social policy the successful completion by 90 percent of the selected students in the course and their entry and completion after the probationary period of employment into the civil service will be the measure of policy success.

The DBSA in the social vision of an egalitarian society: implementation modalities

Unlike commercial banks, the DBSA, has an additionality function of being a knowledge institution. This is occasioned by the fact that matters of development are not events but processes that go beyond initial transactions between the bank and its client. Further, and more important, the success of a development bank cannot be measured on the basis of its transactional or financial outputs, but on the impact of those outputs in the development agenda of a country, a region, a continent or the world itself.

For this reason, the DBSA has to have a reservoir of capacities (including human), processes, structures, platforms and networks within which it stores masses of knowledge that could be used to increase its outputs and more especially to assure its impact.

Intellectual Capital has been put to the forefront of an enterprise-wide activity in the DBSA, strategically linked to the Bank’s value position. As a key asset of the Bank, intellectual capital and the management thereof, must add value to the Bank’s core business and enable the Bank to be responsive to environmental changes and challenges, enhance its efficiency as a financial institution, and be a leading expert and change agent. The DBSA, as a Development Bank, must galvanise the most pertinent elements of the acquired knowledge to find solutions to development challenges in order to contribute to an improved quality of life, especially for the poor and marginalized within our nation and the broader region.

Poverty alleviation, narrowing of stark wealth inequalities, unemployment reduction, environmental sustainability, and countering the HIV AIDS scourge are only some of the key and pervasive development problems that both South Africa and the region are faced with. It is widely acknowledged that any attempts to resolve development challenges will be time-consuming; and similarly research, as a systemic enquiry to render value-adding and usable outcomes, especially to address the development challenges that besiege us, needs to be undertaken with a far-sighted approach. This in turn will lead to the requisite knowledge base that can adequately feed into insightful and innovative development solutions for local and regional applicability. Accordingly, the DBSA has devised the 2014 vision that is aligned to the Millennium Development Goals and that recognises delivery of relevant knowledge products that can contribute significantly to the improvement of the quality of life of people in the region.

The intellectual Capital Agenda seeks to align with the Bank’s position that the “DBSA is not just a money bank, it is a development bank” and the associated view that places people at the very centre of every development activity or intervention2, in an attempt to improve the quality of life and living conditions of ordinary citizens. This markedly informs the approach to development measurement which will incorporate elements of both economic-based assessments and equally importantly, social development.

The above foregrounds the DBSA Intellectual Capital function as centrally poised to facilitate the development of socially policy analyctic capacity through the research capacity development programme. The details of the programme are not given here, suffice to say that the basic tenets of such a programme acknowledges the critical skills shortage in both social and economic meta-analysis.

The Development Bank of Southern Africa and implementation modalities

The key founding principle of the Knowledge Management Africa biennial conferences was the recognition on the urgent need for the creation of endogenous knowledge solutions for the development agenda of Africa. The DBSA has been in the forefront of pushing this agenda through its articulation of its knowledge management programme. The third KMA conference therefore builds on the development gains achieved thus far but also identify gaps in sustainable development that hamper greater progress in Africa.

A huge gap exists in implementing the social vision of an egalitarian society, the intellectual capital and the production of social policy analysts within the South African university system as articulated in the paper. The Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA), in executing its additionality function, should make funds available on a tender basis for developing targeted knowledge areas in the departments of academic institutions. One such targeted knowledge area is the development of social policy analysis grounded in the paradigm of transformative social policy and skilled in meta-analysis and systematic reviews. The production of skills in meta-nalysis and systematic reviews will allow for a policy engagement that assesses the strengths and shortfalls in current social policy in realizing the egalitarian vision of a transformative social policy. Such skills allow for an evidence-based assessment based on clearly defined criteria of knowledge short –falls in social policy. This is an underdeveloped knowledge function – an overdue focus on the production of “new” policy knowledge has left unattended a systematic assessment of the quality of the knowledge and the degree to which it provides insights and pathways to realizing the goals of transformative social policy.

The DBSA tender would specify the knowledge area requirements and the criteria for tender assessment would include the number of African graduates in social policy analysts produced who demonstrate the desired knowledge and skills. The criteria would also include the degree of participation of African academics at departmental level in the education and training of social policy analysts – or plans to equip African academics to perform a leadership role in such training which would include mentorship schemes for such academics. The agreement would be with the individual department and with commitments undersigned by the university. The will ensure that the production of future post-graduate analysts and the development of academics equipped in social policy analysis occurs simultaneously. With regard to the monitoring function the governments Department of Education should perform an active role in evaluating progress in achieving agreed upon goals with an independent assessment of changes to the institutional culture in which such goals are delivered upon. This will ensure the production of African social policy analysts is sustainable and is based on a model of African intellectual leadership with clear steps to its achievement where this is absent. The Department of Social Development, which has a significant amount to gain from such social policy analysts, should create career pathways for incoming graduates, to be integrated into the social policy knowledge-creation and evaluation functions of the Department. This model is reproducible into other African contexts – albeit without the particularly racialised specificities of the South African case – and a regional clearing house should be created that allows participation of the SADC countries in this initiative.

Conclusion

The paper has discussed the context of knowledge production and social policy in South Africa. The need for social policy analysts skilled in the paradigm of “transformative social policy” who can ensure implementation of the historical vision of an egalitarian society will require a fundamental transformation of the institutional culture of academic institutions. This transformation should be achieved through a combination of incentives and monitoring of academic institutions undertaking academic activities in social policy.

A set of concrete recommendations to the DBSA and other key role players e.g. lead universities such as Rhodes and Fort Hare in South Africa & others in the SADC region for instance, and key government departments e.g DSD and DOE in implementing the social vision of an egalitarian society, the intellectual capital and the production of social policy analysts within the broader KMA project still needs to be problematised further.

Bibliography

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KM & Governance

The challenge of governance in creating, increasing opportunities for rural poor in Africa

KMAadmin — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:57:02 -0600

Barasa Chrispinus Kuloba M.ED (VOX) B.EDISU (EU)

ORGANISATION AFFILIATION: Nang'eni Secondary School, PO Box 819, Bungoma, 50200, Kenya

The concern for the rural areas and recognition of the importance of meeting the needs of predominantly rural people is of course nothing new. Official policy for half a century and more have consistently stressed the need for developing agriculture as the economic backbone of Africa countries, for encouraging steady evolution of rural community towards more satisfying ways of life and for enabling them to maintain their social and cultural integrity whilst mobilizing their innate capacity to contribute to their own development. However, in the new era of economic planning with targets being defined in terms of growth in national income, social aspects of development lose sight of and salvation is sought through sectors promising greatest returns in short period of time, by the modern industrial sector largely dominated by requirements of the articulate and progressive urban populations. Both capital, skilled manpower, land as a resource are inadequate, political turmoil in our nations, impending population of our societies, insincere parliaments uncommited to radical reforms in their nations, total tyranny in our leadership, and lacking commitment to causes of pledges by incoming governments, all have weight down our efforts in positioning Africa in economic development. The rural poor are an asset in waiting. A volcano that is dormant. With ignition, the potential to get there, remains untapped. Due to inadequate empowerment to generate participatory decision making, value addition to all, We can change our society despite the ravaging wars and encouraging steady peace formation processes.

It is my conviction that Africa repositioning hinges on the retrospect evaluation of the intrinsic potential of our people to move Africa through the 'black consciousness' as put by Steve Biko. A departure to true freedom.

The determination to use resources inherent in our societies to move our economies. To avoid impunity in leadership, authoritarian Zimbabwean, simulated leadership. The youth may own the future. We must grant them a chance to lead not telling them tomorrow. If Obama, the president-elect of the USA was in Kenya in 2007, during the electoral process, no one could grant him a chance to the presidency because he is young. Today, we are happy when he is at the helm in the developed democracy. Leadership cannot be bought as in Africa. It is not to be hereditary, but we must strive to provide room for good leaders as put in the write-up.

The many pledges made by the political class in Africa, are fantasies that become elusive as soon as leaders take office. I am persuaded that we can create a bank of knowledge that through education, as put in this treatise, should be a government's duty to provide every citizen:

Education proportioned to the conditions and pursuits of life (Hans: 189, 1992)
Creation of a dual economy and dual society whose success framework would be measured by extent to which these resources in the rural would spread the benefits of development widely over the course of time. That is, allocation of sufficient wealth to rural development and selection of appropriate strategies for
investment in rural areas (Thompsons: 106, 1990)

It is imperative that the leadership as in this write-up shall effectively deliver the rural poor. This must observe the varied potentials in our citizenry, available resources, time, space and cultivate peace and offer chances for correct, reliable, flexible and good leadership with clear vision.

REFERENCES

1. A.R. Thompson: Education and development in Africa; 1990; Macmillan Education Ltd.
2. Nicholas Hans; 1992: Comparative Education : UBS
3. Steve Biko: 1997; in an article “Frank Talk, We Write What We Like”.

KM & Governance