Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Economic assistance, Japanese Government policy'

This thesis is exploring interactions of Japanese NGOs to be influential in official foreign aid from outside of the exclusive Japanese decision-making process. Three case studies have been undertaken to examine how Japanese NGOs have developed or adopted various means to exert influence on the government. Japanese NGOs have emerged as powerful actors in foreign aid under a policy of "Kao no Mieru Enjyo (visible Japanese aid)" in the 1990s following some domestic incidents and an international trend in development. However, the Japanese government has maintained a hostile attitude toward NGOs despite its official claim of regarding NGOs as 'partners'. The government's awkward reaction to NGOs comes from Japan's traditional idea of extreme respect for the government and looking down on citizenry. This traditional political culture of "Kan Son Min Pi (supremacy of bureaucracy)" has dominated Japan and that has made the government hostile to powerful outsiders such as NGOs, which may threaten their supremacy. The exclusive decision-making system, "the Iron Triangle", has also contributed to distance NGOs from the government. By this means, an atmosphere between NGOs and the government in Japan has been far from 'partnership'. Against this hostile environment, Japanese NGOs have developed and adopted interactions to exert influence. Various means have been used by each NGO in accordance with each speciality and operation field. The thesis has focused on three areas of Japan's foreign aid - development, anti-personnel landmines and environment - and undertaken three case studies. Four NGOs have been analysed - Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC), Japanese Campaign to Ban Landmines (JCBL), Greenpeace Japan and Friends of the Earth (FoE) Japan. Some NGOs have developed their own interactions and others have been adopted from international partners and authorities. On a whole, they have all crafted these interactions to suit the Japanese political culture. Among several interactions, building international networks and personal relationships with powerful individuals such as politicians have appeared to be most useful. These two interactions work effectively on Japan's reactive and highly personalised aspects of politics, which is reactive to external pressure (Gai-atsu) and rely heavily on the personality and ability of individual leaders. The case studies reveal that Japanese NGOs have exerted influence effectively by making use of these valuable interactions. However, Japanese NGOs are at a crossroad because of high turn-over of staff and a focus-shifting in Japan's foreign policy to sending Self-Defence Forces (SDF) overseas. NGOs also need to obtain solid financial source which is getting difficult after a downturn in the Japanese economy. These will be the issues that Japanese NGOs need to tackle soon in order to be true 'partner'.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates the impact of foreign aid on the relations between Non- Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the state in South Africa since 1994. There are three different ways in which NGOs can interact with the state and public policy: viz. they can support and help to implement policies, attempt to reform policies, or oppose them. During apartheid, the nature of NGO-state relations was characterised by political confrontation and distrust. NGOs primarily served as organisations of opposition to the state's exclusivist and dehumanising policies. Many NGOs, however, also provided developmental and social services to communities who were neglected by the apartheid state. After the first democratic election in 1994, the role of NGOs underwent a significant process of change. Various factors contributed to this change. This study, however, primarily focuses on the role of foreign aid and its effect on NGO activities in South Africa, post-1994. This study relied on secondary data sources (both qualitative and quantitative) available in the area of NGO state relations. The study also focused on two major donor agencies in South Africa: European Union (EU) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Analysis of data reveals that, since 1994 much of the funding that was previously directly channeled to civil society now goes to the state, which distributes it to targetted NGOs. As a result many NOOs have collapsed because of a shortage of financial resources to sustain their work. Secondly, since 1994 the rationale and purpose behind international donor policies has been to advance the New Policy Agenda (NPA), which is aimed at promoting free market-orientated reforms and the consolidation of liberal democracy. As a result, foreign aid donors have endorsed the liberal economic policies, which are set out in the government's macroeconomic strategy, viz. Growth, Employment, and Redistribution (GEAR). Thus, both government and donors have prioritised NGOs who are involved in service delivery rather than those that are likely to challenge and oppose liberal market policies. They have also shown preference to NGOs that are more concerned with the norms and practices of procedural democracy as opposed to those that are concerned with issues of participatory and social democracy. This has resulted in constraining the overtly political and advocacy role, which characterised NGOs during the apartheid era. International donors, via government disbursement institutions such as the National Development Agency (NDA), have also constrained the work of NGOs by insisting on numerous managerial related requirements that have been made conditional for the receiving of financial support. Many small, informal, rural community based organisation that lack the required administrative capacity have, as a result, been facing serious financial crises. Subsequently, NGO-state relations, since 1994, have become less adversarial and confrontational. Most NGOs, complement and support the state's social services delivery programmes and also serve as organisations which help shape the norms and practices of procedural democracy. The study concludes, that the persistent inequality, poverty and unemployment which is associated with the GEAR macroeconomic policy and endorsed by international donor agencies, will lead to the resurgence of advocacy NGOs. Furthermore, in order to resuscitate their role and to ensure their vitality as organisations, which promote participatory democracy, it is essential to focus on strategies, which can effectively challenge the current funding environment to NGOs. These include, building the administrative capacity of both the NDA and NGOs, ensuring NDA independence, and ensuring recognition by funding institutions of the importance of advocacy NGOs in the consolidation of economic democracy.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die impak van buitelandse hulp op die verhoudinge tussen Nie-Regeringsorganisasies (NRO'S) en die staat sedert 1994. Daar is drie verskillende wyses waarop NRO's interaksie kan bewerkstellig met die staat en met openbare beleid, naamlik, hulle kan help om beleid te implementeer, hulle kan help om beleid te verander, of hulle kan beleid teenstaan. Tydens apartheid, is die aard van NRO - staat verhoudings gekenmerk deur konfrontasie en wantroue. Die NRO's het primêr gedien as organisasies van opposrsie teen die staat se eksklusiwistiese en onmenslikingsbeleid. Talle NRO's het egter ook ontwikkelings- en sosiale dienste voorsien aan gemeenskappe wat afgeskeep is deur die apartheidstaat. Na die eerste demokratiese verkiesing in 1994, het die rol van NRO's 'n beduidende proses van verandering ondergaan. 'n Verskeidenheid faktore het bygedra tot hierdie verandering. Hierdie studie fokus egter primêr op die rol van buitelandse hulp en die uitwerking daarvan op NRO's se aktiwiteite in Suid-Afrika na 1994. Hierdie studie het staatgemaak op sekondêre bronne (kwalitatief sowel as kwantitatief) in die gebied van NRO's - staat verhoudinge. Die studie fokus ook op twee belangrike donateur agentskappe in Suid-Afrika: die Europese Unie (EU) en die Verenigde State Agentskap vir Internasionale Ontwikkeling (VSAlO). 'n Analise van die data toon aan dat, sedert 1994, heelwat van die befondsing wat voorheen direk gekanaliseer is aan die openbare gemeenskap, nou na die staat gaan, wat dit versprei na geteikende NRO's. Gevolglik het talle NRO's ineengestort vanweë 'n tekort aan finansiële bronne om hulle werk vol te hou. Tweedens, sedert 1994 was dit die rasionaal en doelstelling van internasionale donateurskapsbeleid om die Nuwe Beleid Agenda (NBA) te bevorder, wat as doelstelling het die bevordering van vrye mark-georiënteerde hervormings en die konsolidasie van 'n liberale demokrasie. Gevolglik het buitelandse hulp donateurs liberale ekonomiese beleidvorming onderskryfwat uiteengesit word in die regering se makro-ekonomiese strategie, nl. Groei, Werkverskaffing en Herverdeling (GEAR). Dus het sowel die regering as donateurs prioriteit gegee aan NRO's wat betrokke is in dienslewering, eerder as dié wat geneig is om liberale markbeleid teen te staan. Hulle het ook voorkeur gegee aan NRO's wat meer besorg is oor die norme en praktyke van 'n prosedurele demokrasie in teenstelling met dié wat besorgd is oor die vraagstukke van 'n deelnemende en sosiale demokrasie. Dit het die resultaat gehad dat die openlike politiese en kampvegtersrol wat kenmerkend van die NRO's was gedurende die apartheidsera, beperk is. Internasionale donateurs het, Vla regerings-instellings soos die Nasionale Ontwikkelingsagentskap (NOA), ook die werk van NRO's beperk deur die aandrang op talle bestuursverwante vereistes wat as voorwaarde gestel is vir die ontvangs van finansiële ondersteuning. Talle klein, informele landelike gemeenskaps-gebaseerde organisasies wat die vereiste administratiewe kapasiteit kort, het gevolglik ernstige finansiële krisisse begin ondervind. Daaropvolgend, het NRO-staat verhoudinge sedert 1994 minder konfronterend begin raak. Die meeste NRO's ondersteun die staat se diensleweringsprogramme en dien ook as organisasies wat help om die norme en praktyke van 'n prosedurale demokrasie te vorm. Die studie kom tot die gevolgtrekking dat die voortdurende ongelykheid, armoede en werkloosheid wat geassosieer word met die makro-ekonomiese beleid van die regering se program vir Groei, Werkskepping en Herverdeling (GEAR) sal lei tot In nuwe opkoms van kampvegter NRO's. Voorts, ten einde hulle rol te stimuleer en hulle lewenskragtigheid as organisasies te verseker, kan ons die huidige befondsingsomgewing van NRO's doeltreffend uitdaag. Dit sluit in die bou van die administratiewe kapasiteit van beide die NOA en NRO's, die versekering van NOA onafhanklikheid, en die versekering van die erkenning deur befondsingsinstellings van die belangrikheid van kampvegter NRO's in die konsolidasie van 'n ekonomiese demokrasie.

This study focuses on investigating the impact of poverty reduction programmes in improving the quality of lives of the people in the King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality, in relation to interventions that have been implemented by the South African government to address poverty. The purpose of the study is to understand the situation in King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality and come up with recommendations that will assist government to enhance delivery of poverty reduction programmes in order to improve the quality of life of the rural poor in King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality. The research methodology for this study is descriptive, sourced from available literature. Due to the restricted extent of the research, no empirical survey is conducted. A number of normative criteria that deal with the research problem are identified from the available literature from which findings are drawn and recommendations made. The findings of the study show that; whilst significant progress has been made to address poverty through policy and legal frameworks and through implementation of poverty reduction strategies and programmes, there is a general consensus in literature that poverty is still widespread in South Africa and that activities put in place to reduce and eradicate it are not sufficiently translating into required outputs necessary for desired outcomes which ultimately impact on poverty. The study has identified the gaps that exist in service delivery as well as the challenges faced by government in effectively impacting on poverty through its poverty reduction programmes. Based on the findings the study has made recommendations that will assist government to enhance service delivery so that poverty reduction programmes are conducted in an effective and efficient, integrated and coordinated manner which will cause government to achieve its desired outcomes.

International Aid or Official Development Assistance (ODA), especially its implementation and effectiveness, has long been and continues to be a vigorously contested matter amongst the stakeholders in the development arena. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of ODA in two municipalities in the Eastern Cape – Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipalities – during the period 2005–2010. This period coincided with the introduction of the Paris Declaration (PD), an intervention intended to improve the ODA or Aid landscape globally. This was also the period during which the so-called service delivery protests in almost all municipalities in South Africa escalated. A diversified methodology including both quantitative and qualitative approaches was used in this study while adhering to the evaluation framework of the Paris Declaration as recommended by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This framework put special focus on the five principles of ownership, alignment, harmonisation, managing for results and mutual accountability. Of particular significance in this study is the special attention paid to the actual beneficiaries on the ground, namely the communities, which is contrary to most existing Paris Declaration evaluations. The research findings suggested that there had been no conscious efforts to implement the Paris Declaration in the two municipalities that were investigated. Furthermore, the prevailing weaknesses in governance, coupled with both administrative and operational paralysis in these two institutions, provided for less than fertile ground for this intervention to thrive.The findings also highlighted that ODA programmes were very poorly known by most stakeholders, especially the communities who were supposed to benefit directly from this assistance. These results also underscored the partisan nature of ODA and how it influenced the perceptions of the various key players. The success and future of ODA programmes in South Africa, particularly in municipalities, will largely rely on “Active Citizenry”. Although ODA’s contribution to South Africa seems negligible in monetary terms, its significance lies among others in the innovations, piloting, risk mitigation, catalytic initiatives and capacity development it introduces or generates and which need to be correctly exploited, implemented and maximised. ODA in South Africa should therefore focus at the local level, the municipalities, which represent the interface between the citizens and the state. To ensure that the ensuing innovations are optimally cascaded down in an organised and effective manner to where they are mostly needed, ODA should preferably operate at the strategic level in municipalities. This would in turn assist in counteracting the current high levels of poverty and inequality in the country. Study findings further suggest that South Africa should cease its current ambivalence regarding ODA and refrain from the so-called “Triangular” ODA in support of the rest of Africa. The demands in it’s own back yard are steadily mounting. This is clearly reflected by the continuous service delivery protests and instability in several municipalities in South Africa.

The current study aimed at assessing the factors contributing to sustainability of Poverty Relief Projects by the Department of Social Development. The study was conducted in the Eastern Cape within Chris Hani District at Sakhizwe Local Municipality. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Purposive sampling procedures have been seen as most suitable for this study and have been utilized to identify participants of the study. The sample consisted of thirty project members from six different projects and also included five Community Development Practitioners from the Department of Social Development. Semi- structured interviews, document review and focus group discussion were used to collect data for the study. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic methods. The study revealed factors that contribute to the sustainability of the projects. These factors include the capacity of the project members and the departmental officials to implement and monitor the projects. Management and organization of the project plays an important role in determining the sustainability. Active participation of the project members in the planning of the project is important. Stakeholder participation and sharing of expertise is another important factor in determining the sustainability of the projects. Lastly, the study shows that monitoring and evaluation of the progress is necessary to ensure that the project achieve the desired outcome. It is recommended that the Department of Social Development should consider these factors and add them in the checklist before the funding of the project is approved. It is also important to determine the duration of the project in order to be able to measure its impact in a given period of time.

The key debates after apartheid have been on the successes and shortcomings of the social and economic policies that were adopted after apartheid. The ANC government decided to approach poverty reduction by closing the inequality gap between racial groups in the country. It planned to provide services that would improve the poor people’s lives and also create employment to sustain development. To provide the necessary services, the government formulated two broad, but linked macroeconomic policies namely: the RDP and GEAR which focused on the demand and supply side respectively (Venter and Landsberg (2006). This indicated the importance with which the people’s welfare and growth were regarded by the South African government. It indicated that the government believed in pro-poor growth. The purpose of this study was to gain better and deeper understanding about poverty reduction since the 1994 political transition, from the poor people of Airport Valley (in the Nelson Mandela Metropolital Municipality), who experience poverty from the real world. The study attempted to find out from these people if there was improvement in their lives since democratisation. This qualitative and quantitative study used three methods of collecting data namely: a questionnaire, interviews and observation. The results of the study suggest that there has been lack of commitment by RDP and GEAR, as the conditions under which the people live and therefore their standard of living have not improved. The study recommends that the government should speed up the process of service delivery at Airport Valley and also include the people in decision making about the future of Airport Valley.

The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of RDP beneficiaries on the extent to which the RDP housing project meets their housing needs in South Africa through a case study of Golf Course Estate in Alice Town with the following specific objectives; to assess the extent to which the Alice Golf Course housing project has achieved the RDP programme objectives; to establish beneficiaries‟ perceptions on the extent the RDP Alice Golf Course houses meet their needs; and to explore the level of satisfaction on the RDP houses by beneficiaries. This study utilized triangulation of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies with qualitative as the dominant approach while quantitative was less dominant. The qualitative design took the form of a case study while the quantitative took the form of mini survey. The study sampled 72 participants from the study population. The study utilized an interview guide and a questionnaire as instruments of data collection. The findings indicated that the gender representation of the beneficiaries was skewed. This is because there were more females heading the houses than males; unemployment was also high; most participants were unmarried and most were adults. This study also discovered that most people residing in these houses are not the real owners who were allocated the houses. There were qualitative problems associated with the components of these houses such as poor roofing, doors, windows, floors and walls. Service delivery complaints were based on inadequate access to clean water, small size and spacing of the RDP house. Security was also a challenge because all the houses did not have street lights and the roads were very bad. Though it is commendable that drainage and sewer facilities are available, but they are not serving their purpose since there is no water in these houses. The findings also indicated that there were discrepancies in allocation of the houses; pervasiveness of social ills; inadequate consultative meetings between the RDP Administrator or social worker and the beneficiaries; as well as the pervasiveness of HIV/AIDS among other issues. This researcher recommended that the government needs to promote economic empowerment to deal with unemployment; to improve the quality of the material building the houses; improvement on service delivery gaps; to beef up infrastructure; renovation and revamping of current houses; to establish commissions of inquiry to deal with corruption; to honour and monitor waiting lists. Partnership with other stakeholders was also critical, in addressing access to social services and helps deal with social ills and run behaviour modification campaigns. This researcher also recommended that there is a need to carry out further research on the role played by the municipalities in the RDP housing project as well as conducting a purely qualitative research to further explore the perceptions of other stakeholders, NGOs, traditional leaders, church leaders, and police on the implementation of the housing project. This researcher advises that such a research could be carried out through focus group discussions and also since this study was bound by a case study it is also necessary for similar research to be carried out in different places in South Africa.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.
The efforts of government in creating jobs and eradicating poverty in developing countries have received major attention among policy makers and operators of microfinance in the last one decade. One of such efforts is the establishment of a microfinance program known as South Africa Microfinance Apex fund (samaf) by South African government. Samaf was established in 2006 with the aims and objective to provide micro loan and credit to poor people living in peri-uban and rural areas of South Africa. This was brought about as a result of a gap created by major financial institutions that are neither available nor operating in such rural and remote areas. This research attempts to explore the effectiveness of samaf on job creation and poverty reduction as mandated by its aims and objective. The study was a case study, and data analysis mainly used descriptive statistics and inferential statistics to analyze the quantitative data that was collected in the research field. Findings from the study reveal that samaf was effective in terms of number of jobs creation. Also, it was found that there was an improvement in the life styles of beneficiaries than before they took samaf loan. However, samaf itself do have its shortcoming in term of quick delivery of funds to the MFIs. The study further discovered that, majority of samaf MFIs are not willing to expand their operations into informal settlement areas because of two reasons. First, majority of people living in such areas are considered vulnerable because due to the possibility non repayment of loans as they live in abject poverty. Secondly, majority do not have a fixed or permanent address which makes it difficult for MFIs to trace them. Based on the observation above, samaf will need a guiding and better strategy in terms of its delivery as there is none currently. This is necessary if it plans to achieve its aims and objectives and delivers on its mandate.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2002.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Botswana is one of the signatories of the Copenhagen Declaration, which was promulgated in Denmark in 1995. The Declaration, among others, called for signatories to eradicate poverty through decisive national actions and international cooperation as an ethical, social, political and economic imperative of humankind. This study, which takes the form of a policy systems analysis, seeks to establish the implementation path followed by the Government of Botswana in its endeavour to bring into effect its commitment to poverty alleviation, using the Copenhagen Declaration as a benchmark. The main methodology that informs this study is a comparative literature review of existing documentary sources, which include research reports and policy documents. This data is supplemented by interviews with some top officials involved in the planning, formulation and monitoring of poverty alleviation programmes. In addition, the author's experience of working as an Assistant District Officer in the Central District greatly supplements collected data. After presenting the background to the study and the research methodology that was followed, the study discusses the Copenhagen Declaration. It then explains the poverty situation at a global level. The picture is then narrowed to sub- Saharan Africa after which a more specific picture of the poverty situation in Botswana is explored. The findings of this study indicate that poverty alleviation policies and programmes implemented by the Government of Botswana are in line with the requirements of the Copenhagen Declaration. The most notable limiting factor affecting proper implementation of the commitments is lack of monitoring and evaluation, hence the study recommends that the Government put in place proper monitoring and evaluation mechanisms among others.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Botswana is een van die ondertekenaars van die Kopenhaagse Verklaring wat in 1995 in Denemarke uitgevaardig is. Die Verklaring het, onder andere, 'n beroep aan ondertekenaars gerig om die uitwissing van armoede deur middel van indringende nasionale aksies en internasionale samewerking as eties, sosiaal, polities en ekonomies gebiedend vir die mensdom aan te spreek. Hierdie studie, wat in die vorm van 'n analise van beleidsstelsels aangepak is, poog om vas te stel watter implementeringsweg deur die Regering van Botswana gevolg is om uiting te gee aan die verbintenis tot die verligting van armoede, met die Kopenhaagse Verklaring as maatstaf. Die vernaamste metode wat gevolg is om aan die studie gestalte te gee, is 'n vergelykende letterkundige oorsig van bestaande dokumentêre bronne, wat navorsingverslae en beleidsdokumente ingesluit het. Hierdie inligting is aangevul met behulp van onderhoude met sommige hoogstaande amptenare wat betrokke is by die beplanning, formulering en monitering van programme om armoede te verlig. Hierbenewens is die versamelde inligting tot 'n groot mate aangevul uit die ondervinding wat die skywer deur haar werk as 'n Assistent Distriks Offisier in die Sentraal distrikte opgedoen het. Die agtergrond tot die studie en die navorsingsmetodologie wat gevolg is, word eers aangebied en gevolg deur 'n bespreking van die Kopenhaagse Verklaring. Daarna word die stand van armoede op globale vlak verduidelik. Vervolgens word die blik vernou tot die gebied in Afrika suid van die Sahara en uiteindelik is daar 'n meer spesifieke ondersoek om 'n spesifieke indruk van die stand van armoede in Botswana te verkry. Die bevindinge van die studie toon dat beleidsbesluite en programme vir die verligting van armoede wat deur die Regering in Botswana geïmplementeer is, by die vereistes van die Kopenhaagse Verklaring aansluit. Die mees opvallende beperkende faktor wat die behoorlike implementering van die verbintenis tot die verklaring affekteer, is 'n gebrek aan monitering en evaluering en die studie stel dus voor dat die Regering behoorlike meganismes vir monitering en evaluering opstel.

The South African democratic government has, since 1994, implemented various programs that aim to alleviate poverty through policy interventions. The Provincial Growth and Development Plan (Eastern Cape 2004-2014) commit its self to halving poverty by 2014. The research seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of poverty alleviation initiatives in Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM), East London; focussing in Nompumelelo informal settlement. The study applied quantitative and qualitative approaches for biographical and socio economic information; and for in-depth understanding and verification respectively. Data collection was through structured interviews and survey questionnaires. The findings reveal that there are random, short-term poverty alleviation initiatives taking place in Nompumelelo informal settlement area. Projects that could have been self-sustaining collapsed due to lack of skills and training. The study indicates that the level of unemployment is high at 68 percent.

This research sought to understand the perceptions of the township dwellers who are the beneficiaries of the RDP houses in a selected township, Chris Hani block 3 in Mdantsane, East London, in the Eastern Cape. The study specifically sought to establish whether the houses delivered to the residents through the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) adequately meet the basic standards prescribed by the relevant housing policy of South Africa. During the apartheid era black South Africans were marginalised, their development was separate from that of whites and they had no say in what was provided for them, hence they were inadequately housed. On coming into power, the post-apartheid government undertook through legislation to provide sustainable, adequate housing that would address the needs of the historically disadvantaged citizens/poor people of South Africa. The main finding of this study conducted on a sample of ten RDP housing beneficiaries, through personal interviews is that, the RDP is a good programme; however, its implementation is characterised by corruption and greed. The people, whom the programme is meant to benefit, have never been involved in their own development with the results that the houses provided to them, are of a sub-standard quality. The houses do not adequately address the housing needs of the people. The housing policies are also not adequately implemented. It is the author’s hope that the recommendations made by this study, if implemented, will improve the standard of the RDP houses provided to the poor people of South Africa.

[Truncated abstract] As a developing country, Indonesia has been struggling with complex and contentious development issues since Independence in 1945. Despite remarkable economic achievement during the New Order period (1966-1998), poverty has persisted and the benefits of development have been unequally distributed. Social welfare — the system of social security to protect the well-being of the weaker members of society has received little attention in Indonesia, both from the state and from the scholarly community. The historical neglect of social welfare in Indonesia has begun to be addressed recently, with the Social Safety Net (SSN) initiative. SSN is a social welfare program that was launched by the government of Indonesia to mitigate the deleterious impacts of the economic crisis that hit the nation in 1997. This thesis aims to assess how the SSN accommodated the needs and aspirations of poor women, particularly those who live in rural areas. The rural poor deserve attention because poverty in rural areas is widespread and often intractable, and because poverty in rural areas tends to be more invisible than in urban areas. The urban poor are more visible, because they are “in the face” of the powerful every day, and they are more likely to be able to access agencies of power than the rural poor.

This dissertation uses national policy experiments and original datasets from Japan to explore issues in macroeconomics and public finance. In the first chapter, I provide new evidence of the feedback loop between corporate borrowing and commercial real estate investment emphasized in macro-finance models with collateral constraints. Japan enacted a series of reforms in the early 1980s which relaxed national regulatory constraints on the height and size of buildings. Combining local non-residential land price indices for over 400 localities with geocoded firm balance sheets, I show that these land use deregulations generated a boom-bust cycle in corporate real estate values, borrowing, and real estate investment. Firms located in more ex ante land use constrained areas both issued more debt and invested more heavily in real estate, thus amplifying the initial positive shock to commercial real estate prices. I develop a multi-city spatial sorting model with production externalities and real estate collateral which uses the estimated reduced form effects of my local regulatory instruments on firm outcomes to assess aggregate effects of the reform. I find that the deregulatory shock to commercial real estate markets and corporate borrowing environment amplified the 1980s real estate cycle and led to an increased incidence of zombie lending in the 1990s. Governments often distribute payments through the income tax system to combat recessions. But how effective are such fiscal stimulus policies at targeting households who are likely to respond by increasing their spending? In the second chapter, we link geocoded household expenditure and financial transactions data to local housing price indices and document a U-shaped pattern with respect to housing price growth in the marginal propensity to consume (MPC) out of a large tax rebate. Recipients living in areas with the smallest housing price gains during the 1980s spent 44% of the 1994 Japanese rebate within three months of payment, compared to 23% among recipients in areas which experienced the largest housing price gains. While we find limited heterogeneity in MPCs among households in less-affected areas, MPCs are higher for younger, renter households with no debt residing in more-affected areas. These findings are consistent with near-rational households for which the pricing shock was small relative to permanent income spending a larger fraction of the tax rebate. Our analysis suggests fiscal stimulus payments primarily induce spending among “winner” households who face minimal exposure to housing price cycles. The question of how policymakers should choose the frequency of payments has received little attention in the literature on the optimal design of public benefits programs. The third chapter proposes a simple model in which the government chooses the length of the interval between payments, subject to a tradeoff between the administrative cost of providing more frequent benefits and the welfare gain from reducing deviations from full consumption smoothing. In our empirical application, we examine consumer and retailer responses to bimonthly payments from the Japanese National Pension System. We exploit variation in the duration of payment cycles using a unique retail dataset that links consumers to their purchase history. Our high frequency difference-in-differences approach shows a clear spike in spending on payment dates for customers who are of retirement age relative to those who are not. While within-store average prices increase by 1.6% on payday, this effect is almost entirely due to consumers substituting towards higher quality goods rather than a retailer response. We use these reduced form estimates to parameterize the model and conclude that the optimal frequency of Japanese public pension payments is less than one month, implying the government could improve welfare by increasing payment frequency.

碩士
淡江大學
亞洲研究所碩士班
104
In recent years, Japan is in a critical financial condition, the economy is getting worse, and is into the Lost 20 Years. When Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is taking office in 2012, he announced the new economic policies, based upon “three arrows” of fiscal stimulus for save the declining tendency. The point is in the third arrow of the international expansion strategy, focusing on the expansion of the overseas markets. The purpose of the study is to understand the relationship of the growth strategy in the new economic policies of Abenomics and the Japanese new Official Development Assistance（ODA）, and to find out the meaning of the modification of the ODA policy from 2014. For growth of economic in Japan, the new policy will be encourage enterprises to trade in the overseas markets. Using the ODA policy and with the way of public private partnership, government will be establish the infrastructure of economic and the overseas expansion platform, and improve the system of the law in the recipient countries. It can be attracting the enterprises to trade in those countries, and they will be export the unique products, technology and services to enhance Japanese international competitiveness. The study concludes that Japanese new ODA policy will not only helping the development of the recipient countries, but also increasing the foreign direct investment（FDI）in Japan.

It is widely acknowledged that the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and that they have limited resources and capacity to deal with the problems of adaptation without assistance from the international community. While PICs might logically take a regional approach in requesting international assistance to implement adaptation measures, climate change affects a wide range of activities. This study examined Pacific Island responses to donors' assistance, with particular focus on Australian and Japanese assistance and explored cross-sectoral issues associated with planning and implementation of adaptation measures by PICs. Australia asserts that a scientific knowledge base and capacity to use timely locally tailored scientific data is a fundamental requirement for guide policy makers and planners to provide cost-effective resource management and the implementation of locally appropriate adaptation measures. Australia has provided assistance on that basis through its overseas aid program from the early 1990s. However, given the diversity of local concerns, the different stakeholders have different perceptions of the threat and risks of climate change and preferred response measures. Under these conditions, robust scientific knowledge alone does not necessarily translate into sensible decision-making processes, in the absence of further assistance to assist PIC in enhancing their institutional capacity and to implement climate change projects. Japanese assistance, which specifically targets climate change in PICs, was found to be limited to the promotion of climate change research and human resource development. More broadly, Japanese ODA has prioritized PICs' environmental problems and the improvement of their livelihood over time, because the primary objective of Japanese assistance is to support PICs' taking ownership of their own development through capacity development with its grant aid and technical cooperation. Interviewees' opinions, particularly those of government officials, regarding Japan's assistance indicated that PICs adaptation needs were generally consistent with their needs for livelihood improvement and economic growth. Responses also revealed that it was of fundamental importance to PICs that donors' recognize and understand the diverse condition in each country and develop individually tailored responses through comprehensive program-based assistance. The delivery of Japanese ODA on a bilateral basis was thus welcomed by many PICs. It is clear that PICs are unable to implement the necessary adaptation responses without significant financial and technical assistance from donors. Interviewees responses tended to highlight their personal or agencies' preferred process for obtaining and delivering aid. Both Australian and Japanese assistance to date have provided little impetus for institutional change to promote a long-term commitment to the implementation of adaptation measures by PICs. In addition, the different funding mechanisms have caused institutional fragmentation between agencies in PICs, resulting in limited information sharing and lack of policy coordination across agencies. Donor expectations and PICs' adaptation needs are unlikely to be met until PICs' institutional challenges, including the ability to effectively utilize existing funds, are addressed.

In the 1990s, Brazil and Mexico were pioneers in the implementation of conditional cash transfer programs (CCTs), which since have benefitted an estimated one billion poor families around the world. However, the initial evaluation strategies pursued by each state were different: Mexican officials partnered with US economists to implement an RCT evaluation, while Brazilians used a combination of statistical simulations and qualitative studies and aimed to secure the generation of policy knowledge to domestic experts. Based on eighteen months of participant observation in Mexico City and Brasília, 100 interviews with political and academic elites, content analysis of 400 policy documents, and historical-process tracing methods, this dissertation explains why these two similar countries, implementing the same policy, took different routes to assess the merits of CCTs, and what unintended consequences followed from these choices. I demonstrate that a key factor to achieve the legitimacy and political viability of CCTs is the knowledge regimes that states create to implement and evaluate these programs. The dissertation shows that while knowledge regimes tend to be understood as technical or apolitical machineries, they are inherently shaped by the politics of legitimation of CCTs and they produce unanticipated consequences for the ways that states combat poverty in the long-run. Only by taking into consideration the role that knowledge production plays in securing the political viability of CCTs, I argue, we can assess the politics and consequences of these programs, and how they relate to poor families on the ground.

Submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements for Masters of Arts in Development Studies by coursework and research report In the Graduate School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2016
Social cash transfer programmes on the African continent have more than doubled in the last decade, and this signifies a transformation in the perception of social cash transfers as ‘pity handouts’ to how they are seen today, as ‘productive investments’ in human capabilities. Southern Africa has been a pioneer in social protection growth in the last twenty years, but often accounts of these histories focus on pension schemes in places such as South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Lesotho. There is little incorporation of Mozambique’s social protection history, and most histories do not detail that Mozambique ranks fourth chronologically, in introduction of cash transfer programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa. This research puts forth that the Mozambican case of an early adoption of cash transfers in 1990 is a positive and unique example of a state’s active role in social protection despite neoliberal constraints. The state-led adoption of cash transfers in response to rising inequality and economic instability is unexpected at a time when these programmes were unpopular development interventions and when the state was supposedly rolled-back and confined because neoliberalism and the civil war. Tracing the history of Mozambican social cash transfers in the last 25 years illustrates two consistencies of the Mozambican government: 1. A supportive political position towards state involvement in welfare programmes, despite the government’s own political and development sector transformation from Marxist-Leninist orientation to welcoming of privatization; and 2. State financial and political support of social protection throughout a period when cash transfers in Sub-Saharan Africa went from unpopular hand-out interventions during crises, to lobbying for permanent social protection as a mechanism to address chronic poverty.
GR2017

The government of Laos has gradually increased its public spending on education and health during the last decade, aimed to eradicate poverty by 2020 and to reach the MDGs by 2015. The purpose of this thesis is to examine to what extent an increase in public spending on education and health benefits the poor. The Lao Expenditure and Consumption Survey from 2002-03 round (known as LECS III) and 2007-08 round (LECS IV) are employed in this analysis. The thesis begins with an overview of national and social development policies and examination of the pattern of public social spending and the progress of social outcomes. Then, the thesis reviews the analytical concept and literature of average and marginal benefit incidence analysis. In particular, two different methods of marginal benefit incidence of public education and health spending based on marginal odds of participation (MOP) and marginal behavioural response (MBR) are discussed and distinguished. The MBR approach combines two effects: (a) benefits received by new program participants and (b) additional benefits received by existing program participants. The MOP approach captures effect (a) alone. This thesis contains four analytical core chapters that examine the marginal benefit incidence of an expansion in public education and health programs. In the first core chapter, the marginal benefit incidence of an expansion in average participation of education and health programs is estimated using the MOP method and a cross-sectional household dataset. The next other two analytical core chapters use the MBR method to estimate the marginal incidence of public education and health spending using the panel dataset. The last analytical core chapter proposes a method for understanding the difference between, and compares the findings of, marginal incidence estimated from the MOP and MBR methods. Based on the MOP method, at the margin, the poorest quintile of the population receives a larger share of total benefits from an increase in the size of primary education and primary health care program than the richest quintile while the marginal rates of lower secondary school education and hospital health care programs are high for the richer quintiles. In contrast, the findings of marginal incidence using the MBR approach suggest the reverse conclusion compared to the findings based on MOP method. A strong effect (b) dominates the estimates of MBR, resulting in a pro-rich marginal incidence for all education and health programs. The different findings of marginal benefit incidence analysis derived from the MOP and MBR approaches depends on two factors: (i) The MOP method does not measure effect (a) correctly, because it ignores changes in program participation caused by factors other than an increase in public spending; (ii) MOP approach ignores effect (b). The results of this study show that in the case of Laos, an increase in public spending on education and health does not target the poor as well as is expected. Additional benefits received by existing program participants outweigh the benefits received by new program participants.

This thesis discusses the involvement of informally housed communities in shaping local government policies aimed at poverty alleviation. Involving the poor in the design of anti-poverty policies at local level is regarded as an invaluable opportunity that should be used by municipal governments to make poverty alleviation efforts more demand-driven and therefore more relevant to the people they are meant to benefit. The argument is that because the poor know about poverty first-hand, they would be in a position to revive local government's capacity to respond effectively to their needs. But this does not come without a price. Because of the complexity of public management, participative democracy is liable to slow down the process of governance. It may also become advantageous to the interests of some people or groups of people at the expense of others if attention is not paid to the representation and consideration of all the voices in the community–to name two drawbacks. For this reason, it is essential to the realization of an effective bottom-up approach to anti-poverty policy-making that certain conditions are in existence and practical issues of involvement are worked through. Accordingly, it is the intention of this study to focus on two particular areas (conditions and practical issues that would facilitate the process of involving informally housed communities in the design of local government policies that affect their lives), which are investigated with particular reference to the South African context. Drawing upon a series of field surveys and a broad selection of relevant works of scholars from both the international and local scene, the picture that emerges is that there needs to be a proper level of government's commitment, capacity and legally binding responsibility coupled with a healthy degree of community's motivation, ability and organizational capacity in order to involve the poor in local governance efficiently. The study has also found that there needs to be proper forms of involvement (the most relevant of which are identified as an ombudsman, public meetings and residents' committees) that are to be employed with attention to such issues as stakeholders to be engaged, degree of participation, timing of involvement and topics for which public debate may be sought.
Development Studies
D.Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
A sizeable body of research has attempted to examine the interaction between government spending and private giving known as the crowd-out effect. Most researchers reported that increases of government spending cause decreases of philanthropic giving to different types of nonprofits. However, few studies have attempted to indicate the interaction between government welfare expenditures and private giving to human service organizations even though human service organizations are the most sensitive to the changes of government spending. Additionally, the estimated crowd-out effects with a simple crowd-out model have been criticized for potential endogeneity bias. This paper investigates the total effect of federal government welfare spending on state government expenditures and philanthropic giving to human service organizations (known as joint crowd-out). I used the 2005 wave of the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study (COPPS) to estimate the effect of federal human service grants on state government spending on, and donations to human services. From these reduced-form estimates I infer the levels of simple and joint crowd-out. I found that indicate federal spending on public welfare crowds out private giving to human service organizations while holding control variables constant in the donations equation. However, federal government spending on public welfare crowds in state government spending on public welfare.

Foreign aid is publicly motivated by a moral obligation to help the poor and develop underdeveloped countries. Donors have invested more than US$2.3 trillion in foreign aid, but despite this significant investment, 3 billion people are still living on less than $2 a day, 840 million are hungry, 10 million children die from preventable disease, and 1 billion adults are illiterate. This study focuses on the impact of foreign aid on economic growth and development of underdeveloped countries. It was found that many variables influence growth and development and that cross-country regression analysis is an inappropriate method to measure the effectiveness of aid. The methodology is too generalist, and treats foreign aid as a homogenous entity that works equally in all countries in all types of environment and across all times. There is an urgent need to develop a new methodology for measuring the effectiveness of foreign aid.
Development Studies
M. A. (Development Studies)

Power, and how it is exercised within social relations is pivotal in explaining policy change. Hence, this dissertation explores policy change in Kenya by examining the transfer and subsequent adoption of social protection policies in the form of cash transfer schemes. Instead of the current analytical frameworks drawing from political settlements, political institutions, and ideational approaches in explaining policy uptake, the research studies policy making from a policy transfer and power nexus. The study examines power relations among multiple actors in the national context to explain the adoption of social protection policies. Hence this dissertation articulates power dynamics and asymmetries inherent in policy-making involving national and transnational actors as underpinning policy transfer processes. The thesis is premised on the following interrelated arguments; firstly, I show how transnational actors created and manipulated interests and incentives based on their resource base in three significant ways: controlling the policy agenda, constraining the agency of other actors and influencing the preferences of actors in the policy space. The interaction of interests and resources – financial, and ideas and knowledge – converged to bring about policy change. Secondly, I focus on the role of ideas and knowledge within policy space to show how the creation of a discursive hegemony and a structure of knowledge, social construction and policy narratives played a significant role in shaping learning and influencing national actors. Thirdly, I argue that transnational actors used structural mechanisms based on financing and coerced government to adopt social protection policies through a catalysing mechanism and imposition of conditionalities. The study depicts how transnational actors conditioned and manipulated national context and institutions to align with the idea of cash transfers. This thesis employs a qualitative approach to study policy transfer and subsequent adoption of two cases of transfer schemes in Kenya, the Cash Transfer for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (CT-OVC) and the Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP).
Sociology
D. Phil. (Sociology)

Social cash transfers (SCTs) are part of social protection instruments aimed at reducing poverty and vulnerability. SCTs are among the most evaluated social protection interventions. Most designs and much of the current evidence give limited attention to effects of SCTs on social capital. Greater attention has been devoted to economic and human capital outcomes. The purpose of this study was to explore and analyse the effects of Zimbabwe’s Harmonised Social Cash Transfer (HSCT) on social capital in a rural and a peri-urban settlement. To achieve this, the study first identified and analysed design and operational features of the HSCT. The analysis drew from the perspectives and experiences of beneficiaries and other stakeholders. The study was based on a mixed methods design. The theoretical framework was informed by social capital and social network theories. The results confirm and in other cases contradict findings from previous research, and there are areas where new insights were found. The results indicate that HSCT’s features particularly targeting and selection methods, complementary services and the payment method have effects on social capital. Additionally, findings indicate that the HSCT affected a diverse set of social relations with positive effects on bonding and linking social capital. There are positive psychosocial effects, limited evidence on bridging social capital, and inconclusive results on collective action. The HSCT seems to strengthen trust between beneficiaries but has negative effects on social relations between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. Social networks created through the HSCT are exclusionary. There were isolated cases of domestic violence in some households. The HSCT has unintended effects particularly the exclusion of some beneficiary households from access to other benefits; women’s empowerment; and social and economic risks to beneficiaries. Evidence from this study confirms that unconditional cash transfers go well beyond their primary goal of consumption smoothing, and have positive and negative effects on social capital. This provides a strong case for the design and implementation of SCTs to embed explicit objectives and strategies that promote the strengthening of social capital. There is greater need for collaborative efforts between economists, sociologists and anthropologists in the design and analysis of SCTs.
Development Studies
D. Phil. (Development Studies)

The aim is to explore how community participation can situate beneficiaries to discover and commit to what they need for the future in northern Ghana. The methodology used was observational, descriptive, qualitative and quantitative, cross-sectional and longitudinal survey. A convenient sampling method was used for the community and district selection process. Respondents were randomly selected to ensure equal opportunity for all those available at the time of the interview. Eight communities were used from the three regions of northern Ghana in which community-based pro-poor interventions by interventionists have either completed or are still in process. The participatory, reflective and participatory rural appraisal, techniques were used in the data gathering. The results show that 57% males and 43% females participated in the study. The study shows that 95.2% respondents from Northern region, 93.3%, from Upper West region and 88.7% from Upper East region participated more in NGO than government led activities. There were five main findings of the research. First, 61% of respondents give high priority to farm credit, boreholes/wells and dams. Respondents claim to gain maximum benefit from these interventions more. Second, 92.4% of respondents from the eight communities participate more in activities organised by NGOs for personal gain and motivation. Third, 53% of all target respondents participated actively at the implementation stage of the participation process. Fourth, there is low investment in the area of school, road and dam projects in the study communities. Only two of the eight communities benefited from a school or road project, and three out of eight communities benefited from dam projects. Fifth, 57% males against 43% females participate in pro-poor intervention activities in the eight communities. As a contribution to knowledge, the thesis shows community members in northern Ghana participate in activities when there is immediate motivation (either in cash or kind) or when projects border more on their main occupational areas. The thesis recommends that Government facilitates community members to demand the right to take active part in the participatory process in all pro-poor interventions in their communities.
Development Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)

This study aims at investigating household food accessibility categories (food insecure, vulnerable, marginal and food secure) of rural households in Sekhukhune district of Limpopo province. The study is based on five wards in Mamone village in the Limpopo province of South Africa. Ten households from each ward were randomly selected for the study. Structured questionnaires administered by enumerators were used to collect information from household heads. In all 50 household heads constitutes the sample size for the study. Data was collected from 20 August 2007 to 25 August 2007. Responses in the questionnaires were tabulated, coded and processed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) programme. Based on comprehensive food security and vulnerability analysis the study showed that over 70 per cent of the sampled households were food insecure. Lack of education, income sources, water source, and infrastructure were some of the important factors contributing to food insecurity. The government should also give special attention to policy measures that guide towards the provision of household assets. It is recommended that special attention be given to measures that will provide the necessary factors that negatively affect household food security and vulnerability.
Agriculture, Animal Health and Human Ecology
M.A. (Human Ecology)