Marandure, T., Mapiye, C., Makombe, G., Nengovhela, B., Strydom PE., Muchenje V. and Dzama, K., 2016. Determinants and opportunities for commercial marketing of smallholder beef cattle in South Africa. African Journal of Range and Forage Science,33(3), p. 199-206,
Authors: Anne Marie Thow,Stephen Greenberg,Mafaniso Hara,Sharon Friel, Andries duToit and David Sanders
Like most other low and middle-income countries, South Africa must address a rising burden of diet-related chronic disease in a situation of persistent food insecurity and undernutrition. Supply-side policy interventions are a critical component of action to address the double burden of malnutrition. However, the food supply is governed by a number of different policy sectors, and policy incoherence can occur between government action to promote a healthy food supply and objectives for economic liberalization. We analysed the coherence of food supply policy content with respect to nutrition and food security in South Africa, and conducted 14 in-depth interviews with 22 public and private sector actors to identify opportunities to improve policy coherence across sectors governing the food supply. Drawing on Sabatier’s conceptualization of actors as influential in shaping policy outcomes, we identified three coalitions of actors related to food security and nutrition in South Africa: the dominant Economic Growth coalition, the Food Security coalition, and the Health coalition. Understanding the frames, beliefs and resources held by these coalitions offers insights into the policy tensions faced by the Government of South Africa with respect to the food supply. The analysis indicates that the current reconsideration of economic policy agendas favouring liberalization in South Africa, including the termination of most bilateral investment treaties, may present an opportunity for increased recognition of food security and nutrition priorities in food supply policy making. Opportunities to strengthen policy coherence across the food supply for food security and nutrition include: specific changes to economic policy relating to the food supply that achieve both food security/nutrition and economic objectives; creating links between producers and consumers, through markets and fiscal incentives that make healthy / fresh foods more accessible and affordable; increasing formal avenues for engagement by Civil Society in nutrition and food security policy making; and including consideration of the nutritional quality of the food supply in policy objectives across sectors, to create a framework for policy coherence across sectors relating to the food supply.
Food security double burden of malnutrition policy South Africa
Effective management of waste and the promotion and
management of recycling activities are necessary for sustainable
and liveable cities. A key but unrecognised element in promoting
recycling is the efforts of waste pickers who make a living from
recycling mainline recyclables. This article aims to describe the
approaches used on 10 landfills in South Africa to manage waste
pickers’ access to recyclables and their daily activities on the
landfills. A multiple case study design and cross-case analysis were
used in this study. The sustainable livelihoods framework (SLF) was
used to analyse and explain the data. The results showed that waste
management policies and practices directly influence the waste
pickers’ access to recyclable waste and their livelihoods. Finally,
some inclusionary and exclusionary practices are highlighted that
could guide inclusive, participatory and co-productive practices
for waste pickers in South Africa towards increased recognition,access, dignity and income.
Effective management of waste and the promotion and
management of recycling activities are necessary for sustainable
and liveable cities. A key but unrecognised element in promoting
recycling is the efforts of waste pickers who make a living from
recycling mainline recyclables. This article aims to describe the
approaches used on 10 landfills in South Africa to manage waste
pickers’ access to recyclables and their daily activities on the
landfills. A multiple case study design and cross-case analysis were
used in this study. The sustainable livelihoods framework (SLF) was
used to analyse and explain the data. The results showed that waste
management policies and practices directly influence the waste
pickers’ access to recyclable waste and their livelihoods. Finally,
some inclusionary and exclusionary practices are highlighted that
could guide inclusive, participatory and co-productive practices
for waste pickers in South Africa towards increased recognition,
access, dignity and income.
Challenges with spontaneous fermentation of whole grain (WG) sorghum intoting, necessitates the use of startercultures that could ensure consistency, better acidification and improved quality. This study therefore in-vestigated the effect of single and co-starter culture additions [L. fermentum(FUA 3165 and 3321)] ontingproperties (physicochemical, bioactive components and antioxidant activity) obtained from whole grain (WG)sorghum types [high tannin (HT) and low tannin (LT)]. WG-tingsamples were obtained from different sorghumtypes after fermentation at 34 °C for 24 h and 28 °C for 72 h. Both single starter cultures yielded better resultswith significantly lower pH (4.94–5.07), tannin content (0.41–2.83 mg CE/g), total phenolic content(8.11–32.13 mg GAE/g) andflavonoid content (7.53–26.38 mg CE/g), with higher titratable acidity(1.98–2.67 g/kg) and antioxidant activity (4.82–7.81μM TE/g). Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectro-metry (LC-MS/MS) quantification of some phenolic compounds showed that WG-tingsamples from the HT-sorghum, fermented withL. fermentumFUA 3321 had significantly higher bioactive compounds (catechin, gallicacid and quercetin). Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy revealed the presence of diverse functionalgroups, while principal component analysis (PCA) of the FTIR data further differentiated thetingsamples intogroup clusters. Sorghum type and fermentation withL. fermentumsignificantly influenced fermentation andsubsequently the WG-tingcomposition. Fermenting HT sorghum type withL. fermentumFUA 3321 yielded WG-tinghigher pH, titratable acidity, bioactive components and improved phenolic composition.
The southeast arm of Lake Malawi catchment has a wide range of natural resources that require prudent management for sustainability and maximisation of benefits. The current management practice is government sector based, with individual Departments and Ministries using their own policies, legislations and management approaches, yet dealing with the same composite resource and user communities. This has resulted in fragmentation of management leading to the lack of alignment between formal and informal institutions, and competition for power and authority for management. Fragmentation is also leading to loss of resource rent. This article analyses how and why management is fragmented in the southeast arm of Lake Malawi catchment and suggests how management could be defragmented, with special interest on fisheries. Activities with high negative impacts on fisheries include: overfishing; soil erosion resulting in siltation and turbidity of the lake; chemical and organic pollution; loss of access to land and beaches; and habitat loss. There is need for a better and more holistic understanding of how human activities represent both livelihood benefits and a threat to sustainability of natural resources to find ways for balancing these two aspects. We suggest that to increase the efficacy of management of Lake Malawi’s southeast arm will require ‘defragmented decentralization’, an approach whereby devolution of authority and responsibility are ceded to the district and local levels, respectively.
This article seeks to review and identify potential sources of funds for implementation of planned
activities within a fisheries co-management arrangement in the southern Lake Malawi, Mangochi
District. In this review, we use secondary sources on fisheries co-management at both national and
international levels. With adoption of the co-management or participatory fisheries management as it is
alternatively called in Malawi, consideration of sustainable financing mechanisms is essential for
implementation of planned activities by the local fisheries management authorities and beach village
committees within a decentralization framework. Potential revenue sources include development of a
fisheries fund and establishment of a benefit sharing mechanism with reference to a district user fee.
Other sources include fees charged for conducting fisheries research on the lake, membership fee for
joining beach village committees, levies on fish marketing and fees charged for use of facilities
especially jetties, store rooms and fish processing facilities on a beach. The revenue collection is
recommended as one of the incentives for co-management partners to ensure implementation of
activities like law enforcement, licensing, training, community outreach services and research. We
recommend that the legal provisions on the establishment of a fisheries fund and revenue sharing be
implemented to ensure availability of funds for the fisheries sector. In addition, the existing by-laws with
outlined financing mechanisms should be approved by the appropriate authorities.
Keywords: decentralization, financing mechanism, sustainability
Food security and good nutrition are key determinants of child well-being. There is strong evidence that cash transfers such as South Africa’s Child Support Grant (CSG) have the potential to help address some of the underlying drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition by providing income to caregivers in poor households, but it is unclear how precisely they work to affect child well-being and nutrition. We present results from a qualitative study conducted to explore the role of the CSG in food security and child well-being in poor households in an urban and a rural setting in South Africa.
Setting Mt Frere, Eastern Cape (rural area); Langa, Western Cape (urban township).
Participants CSG recipient caregivers and community members in the two sites . We conducted a total of 40 in-depth interviews with mothers or primary caregivers in receipt of the CSG for children under the age of 5 years. In addition, five focus group discussions with approximately eight members per group were conducted. Data were analysed using manifest and latent thematic content analysis methods.
Results The CSG is too small on its own to improve child nutrition and well-being. Providing for children’s diets and nutrition competes with other priorities that are equally important for child well-being and nutrition.
Conclusions In addition to raising the value of the CSG so that it is linked to the cost of a nutritious basket of food, more emphasis should be placed on parallel structural solutions that are vital for good child nutrition outcomes and well-being, such as access to free quality early child development services that provide adequate nutritious meals, access to adequate basic services and the promotion of appropriate feeding, hygiene and care practices.
This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
Most rural communities in developing countries such as Zimbabwe are underserved and/or unserved with regard to telecommunication connectivity. Governments in developing countries are also under‐resourced to provide adequate digital infrastructure. Thus, community networks are increasingly seen as viable alternatives to bridge the infrastructure gap in Africa. However, new infrastructure interventions in developing countries face many challenges including complex interventions stemming from complex policies inserted into complex sociopolitical environments. The success of community networks in other African countries prompts this investigation into the potential of transferring the community network approach to Zimbabwe. The objective of this article is to frame how context impacts development of digital infrastructure. Zimbabwe’s telecommunication regulatory framework is on the verge of countenancing the development of community networks, and for this reason, there is need for research to inform would‐be investors, policy makers, and other stakeholders such as academia, NGOs, and communities themselves, on how the sociopolitical and economic environment impact these efforts. This is important because successful deployment of a community network may result in improved community development, eg, in food security, health, and education.