The current emphasis in the development community on demonstrating policy impact requires a better understanding of national policymaking processes to recognize opportunities for, and limits to, generating policy change. Consequently, this paper introduces an applied framework, named the...

South Africa's informal economy absorbs approximately one-quarter of the labour force of 15 million people and is therefore the fastest growing sector of employment. Street-based trading constitutes a major subsector within the informal economy and is continuously expanding through unrelenting...

This paper presents a synopsis of emerging issues in smallholder organic production and marketing in South Africa. The pros and cons of organic production for smallholder agriculture are demonstrated in a discussion of the reasons for adopting organic farming and the opportunities for and...

This paper sets out to describe current principle theoretical positions in food security research, describe and compare empirical South African food security studies with key international methodologies and pose research challenges for food security research in the country. Scant available food...

This study surveyed women engaged in skills training courses to determine whether selected family management variables influenced their attendance of such courses and their successful completion of training. A sample of 161 women engaged in skills training courses for income generation offered...

Home economics could play a vital, supportive and complementary role in agricultural extension. Home economics training is, however, in much need of reorientation if the profession is to play this much-needed role. A comparison of the mission statements, foci and roles of these disciplines...

The importance of agricultural growth to poverty reduction is well known, but the specific channels through which the poor can take advantage of growth require further research. Beyond Food Production takes on this challenge, investigating four important channels: rural labor markets, farm...

Expenditure patterns among a sample of 99 rural households in two communal districts in KwaZulu-Natal were investigated to determine the potential impact of a widespread income shock on household expenditure. The results showed expenditure elasticities of close to unity for food. Low...

In this study, the contribution of household gardens to the nutritional status of pre-schoolers in Lesotho was investigated. The anthropometric status of children under five years of age was measured in five randomly selected villages in five districts of Lesotho during November and December...