Browsing by Author "du Toit, Andries"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 45
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    Agriculture, value chains and the rural non-farm economy in Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe
    (Spinger Nature, 2019) du Toit, Andries
    This chapter compares rural development in Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe, concentrating on agricultural value chains and their implications for the rural non-farm economy (RNFE). Based on detailed qualitative exploration, it is shown that value chains in Mchinji (Malawi) are predominantly local, with few impulses being generated for the RNFE. The commercialised farms that characterise Weenen (South Africa) are locally disembedded, thus not triggering local development. In Mazowe and Mazvingo (Zimbabwe), agriculture is linked to a thriving RNFE and to distant corporate players. This creates down- and upstream markets that are significantly more complex and diverse than in the Malawian and South African cases. Against this background, the author suggests that dense, locally embedded and externally connected networks that do not suffer from an overly unequal distribution of power are most conducive to rural development.
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    Can agriculture contribute to inclusive rural economies?
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2015) du Toit, Andries
    If agricultural development is to contribute to economic growth, it has to do more than increase the productivity or efficiency of farming. It also needs to contribute to employment in the rural non-farm sector. This is because increases in the intensity, efficiency or competitiveness of agriculture often push large numbers of people off the land – and opportunities for finding alternative employment in the cities are scarce. Inclusive growth thus also depends on the development of an inclusive and diverse rural non-farm economy (RNFE). This is something often ignored both by agricultural and labour market policy. Policymakers, therefore, need to ask how different pathways of agricultural development affect non-farm employment. Research conducted by PLAAS indicates that agricultural development can indeed stimulate local non-farm job creation – but the links are neither simple nor direct. While access by farmers to lucrative global markets or national markets can stimulate the local economy, much depends on the precise nature of the forward and backward linkages that connect farming to the rest of the economy. The ability of farming to stimulate the RNFE depends greatly on the scale of agriculture, the social and spatial organisation of agricultural value chains and the political economy of local institutions.
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    A case study of Fairtrade labelling and worker empowerment on two wine and fruit farms in the Western Cape
    (University of the Western Cape, 2008) Kruger, Sandra.; du Toit, Andries; Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences
    This thesis explores the link between Fairtrade labelling and worker empowerment in the cases of LFFT and Stellar Organics in terms of: the reasons for becoming certified and commercial benefits expected from the Fairtrade labelling; the intergration of the Faitrade requirements into the structures and management of employee equity share shemes; the enabling or disabling factors for Fairtrade certification to contribute to the socio-economic development and empowerment of the workers. This thesis describes the two cases in detail according to these links and concludes that Fairtrade labelling has not significantly changed the trade relationships with large retailers for these two Fairtrade producers even though it has provided additional market access. The link between the Fairtrade requirements and the legal and administrativestructures of employee equity share schemes is complex and open to interpretation. Finally, the possibility for Fairtrade certification to contribute to the socio-economic development and empowerment of workers is dependent on changes in management and communicationbetween white farm owners and bleck workers which confronts deeply held paternalist beliefs.
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    Challenging the stereotypes: small-scale black farmers and private sector support programmes in South Africa
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), University of the Western Cape, 2016) Okunlola, Adetola; Ngubane, Mnqobi; Cousins, Ben; du Toit, Andries
    This report represents one of the outputs of a research and social dialogue project undertaken over 18 months. It explores a number of private sector partnerships and projects launched in support of black farmers – some of them highly innovative, others of dubious merit. Hardly a week passes by without news of some new initiative to ‘train’, ‘help’, ‘empower’ or otherwise assist ‘small-scale black farmers’. The findings of this research suggest that many of the current programmes of support on offer from the private sector are built on somewhat shaky foundations. These are often based on problematic assumptions and normative ideas about what constitutes desirable agricultural development, most of them deeply (if not consciously) informed by the experience of fostering a successful large farm sector in South Africa in the past. The problems that many small-scale black farmers experience in their attempts to enter the competitive world of formal value chains suggests that a fundamental re-think is now required.
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    Challenging the stereotypes: Small-scale black farmers and private sector support programmes in South Africa
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016) Okunlola, Adetola; Ngubanei, Mnqob; Cousins, Ben; du Toit, Andries
    This report represents one of the outputs of a research and social dialogue project undertaken over 18 months. It was carried out by researchers from the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), based at the University of the Western Cape, in collaboration with the Southern Africa Food Lab, based at the University of Stellenbosch, between January 2013 and July 2014. The project focused on the role of the private sector in supporting small-scale black farmers to participate in agricultural value chains. This was not a purely academic research project. Although empirical research formed its backbone, it fed into a broader process of social dialogue and learning, convened by SAFL and facilitated by Reos Partners1. Research insights informed ‘learning journeys’ and ‘innovation labs’ that took place concurrently with the research. In these, field visits and workshop discussions and debates brought together a range of key role-players in the South African food system to explore the challenges and opportunities facing black farmers, and the manner in which these are being responded to by key actors from the private sector. This process is being carried forward by SAFL in a further process of structured innovation. The present report captures the most important insights and lessons from the research component of the initial phases of the project.
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    Chronic and structural poverty in South Africa: Challenges for action and research
    (Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2005) du Toit, Andries
    Ten years after liberation, the persistence of poverty is one of the most important and urgent problems facing South Africa. This paper reflects on some of the findings based on research undertaken as part of the participation of the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape in the work of the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC), situates it within the broader literature on poverty in South Africa, and considers some emergent challenges. Although PLAAS’s survey, being only the first wave of a panel study, does not yet cast light on short term poverty dynamics, it illuminates key aspects of the structural conditions that underpin long-term poverty: the close interactions between asset poverty, employment-vulnerability and subjection to unequal social power relations. Coming to grips with these dynamics requires going beyond the limitations of conventional ‘sustainable livelihoods’ analyses; and functionalist analyses of South African labour markets. The paper argues for a re-engagement with the traditions of critical sociology, anthropology and the theoretical conventions that allow a closer exploration of the political economy of chronic poverty at micro and macro level.
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    Comments on the Green Paper on land reform 2011
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2011) du Toit, Andries; Cousins, Ben; Hall, Ruth; Kleinbooi, Karin; Paradza, Gayno; Ukpabi, Obiozo
    As we have indicated in our earlier press release, the document released as a Green Paper by the Department Ministry of Rural Development and Land Reform is a great disappointment. The Green Paper is the product of a drafting process taking two and a half years. This has been a secretive process in which the South African public has been kept largely in the dark. The Ministry and its Department have shown themselves to be unwilling to learn from their mistakes, and unwilling to consult with civil society, stakeholders and expert opinion. Instead of providing a Green Paper based on an honest assessment of the past fifteen years of policy implementation, it has refused to learn from experience, both from its own mistakes and successes, and from encouraging innovations that are taking place on the ground, often despite inadequate or misguided state policy. Instead it has produced a vague document that develops general recommendations on the basis of general principles. The result is a Green Paper that fails to answer the key policy questions facing land reform in South Africa.
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    The dwelling as a workspace: Urban planning and home-based entrepreneurs in Kampala city slums
    (University of Western Cape, 2020) Waiswa, Jeremy; du Toit, Andries
    The ubiquitous urban informality that characterises the cityscape of most sub-Saharan cities, has been impacted by states’ rationalised urban planning interventions to make urban spaces, and the activities of citizens more legible and governable. This study aimed at understanding the effects of urban planning and the regulatory environment on the business operations of the home-based entrepreneurial households and the strategies employed by these households to ensure their livelihood survival. The study used Katanga slum in Kampala, Uganda as a case study. The study approaches urban planning as a dialectical process, and therefore critically discusses the production and use of space (through urban planning) at different spatial scales of the city, slum and household, while highlighting the challenges experienced by the households and how they cope with these challenges. To facilitate the understanding of these issues, the study employed an integrated theoretical framework that comprised of Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space, Scott’s concept of state legibility, Jalan & Ravallion’s concept of urban spatial poverty traps, and Clark’s border theory.
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    Emerging rooibos farmer market access project
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2011) Kruger, Sandra; du Toit, Andries; Keahey, Jennifer; Murray, Douglas; Raynolds, Laura; Ryser, Lisa
    Global markets increasingly require rapid and coordinated response to standards and certification. Yet despite broad political transformations in post‐Apartheid South Africa, structural power relations limit emerging farmer capacity to effectively access certified markets such as fairtrade and organic. Within the Rooibos commodity network, inequitable functioning has prevented emerging farmers from fully developing critical market‐access skills and resources. While diverse groups have collaborated to achieve mutual interests, the cooperative building process has been marked by conflict. There is a need to involve producers in networks as this will help the industry to more effectively capture lucrative market opportunities. Successful community and emerging farmer network efforts are potential building blocks in which to inform further engagement. The South African Rooibos Council is working towards developing formal emerging farmer networking space as part of its Broad‐based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) portfolio. Diverse industry and organizational experts are increasingly invested in emerging communities and a core group has expressed interest in further collaboration. Commodity network efforts have been incrementally achieving goals, but more work needs to be done to ensure development sustainability and scalability.
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    The externalisation and casualisation of farm labour in Western Cape horticulture
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2003) du Toit, Andries; Ally, Fadeela
    On several Friday nights during February and March 2001, a visitor to Happiness Street1 in the Oostenberg Municipality s newly created Westbank housing project would have witnessed angry scenes. A small crowd of frustrated and enraged people would be seen squatting outside the house of Mrs Santie van Rooy, a prominent community member.
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    Food provision challenges facing Early Childhood Development Centres in two Cape Town townships
    (University of the Western Cape, 2020) Thorogood, Camilla Renée; du Toit, Andries
    Early childhood has been identified as a critical period for providing nutritional intervention, with nutritional adequacy during the first 1000 days having long term implications for human development. South Africa’s policy environment accordingly aims to support the development of all children through providing services supporting care and nutrition of children so that ‘no one is left behind’. However, the reality is that for the economically marginalised who live in poverty, these services are inaccessible and the whereabouts of many children, especially those under 5, remain unknown to the state. This study looks at township childcare facility as a key intervention point for nutrition provision, documents the obstacles and challenges they face in securing food for the children in their care and describes the strategies they use to combat these challenges. Using a mixed method approach, data were gathered on all ECDs operating in two Cape Town townships – Vrygrond, a semi-formal township, and Sweet Home Farm, a deeply informal settlement – and a typology was developed which represented the differentiation between these informal businesses in terms of a continuum of connectedness and disconnectedness with the regulatory environment. The careful spatial census conducted for this study showed that 81% of ECDs in the target area were unregistered, suggesting that rates of regulatory exclusion may be much higher than the 40-50% estimated in previous studies. The study shows that these ‘structurally informal’ ECDs are situationally appropriate childcare facilities, providing a safe and affordable service that enables township residents, many of whom are single mothers, to earn a living. But, because they are structurally unable to comply with qualifying criteria, these ECDs are unable to access the Department of Social Development’s per-child subsidy, a key resource to provide children food. Crucially, the study shows that the regulations as they stand cannot differentiate in a meaningful way between ECDs that provide situationally appropriate quality of care and those that don’t, suggesting that the regulations are thus not fit for purpose. In this context, the study highlights the crucial role played by NGOs and food organisations. Even these sources of support, however, are uneven and inadequate as the nutritional security of economically marginalised children in township ECDs remains under threat. Ensuring the nutritional security of township children in their first 1000 days will therefore require thoroughgoing revision of the regulatory environment in order to ensure the appropriate regulatory incorporation and support of township ECDs.
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    Food provision challenges facing early childhood development centres in two Cape Town townships
    (University of Western Cape, 2020) Thorogood, Camilla Renée; du Toit, Andries
    Early childhood has been identified as a critical period for providing nutritional intervention, with nutritional adequacy during the first 1000 days having long term implications for human development. South Africa’s policy environment accordingly aims to support the development of all children through providing services supporting care and nutrition of children so that ‘no one is left behind’. However, the reality is that for the economically marginalised who live in poverty, these services are inaccessible and the whereabouts of many children, especially those under 5, remain unknown to the state. This study looks at township childcare facility as a key intervention point for nutrition provision, documents the obstacles and challenges they face in securing food for the children in their care and describes the strategies they use to combat these challenges. Using a mixed method approach, data were gathered on all ECDs operating in two Cape Town townships – Vrygrond, a semi-formal township, and Sweet Home Farm, a deeply informal settlement – and a typology was developed which represented the differentiation between these informal businesses in terms of a continuum of connectedness and disconnectedness with the regulatory environment.
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    Food trade and investment in South Africa: Improving coherence between economic policy, nutrition and food security
    (Food trade and investment in South Africa: Improving coherence between economic policy, nutrition and food security, 2017-12) Thow, Anne Marie; Greenberg, Stephen; Hara, Mafa; Friel, Sharon; du Toit, Andries; Sanders, David
    South Africa must address a rising burden of diet-related chronic disease while also continuing to combat persistent food insecurity and undernutrition (Muzigaba et al. 2016). The prevalence of stunting among children in South Africa remains around 25% (Said-Mohamed et al. 2015). At the same time, the prevalence of obesity has risen to 39% among women and 11% among men, and diabetes in the adult population to 10% (Shisana et al. 2014). Addressing this double burden of malnutrition will require a comprehensive policy approach that supports demand for healthy food (including financial access) and its supply. In this paper, we focus on supply side interventions – and particularly, the need for policy across sectors to support availability of affordable, healthy food (Republic of South Africa Department of Health 2013; Government of South Africa 2014). However, growing trade and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), supported by binding international commitments, present governments with a challenge as they seek to intervene in the food supply to improve diets and health. Government action to regulate the food supply to reduce consumption of unhealthy foods and increase access to healthy foods becomes subject 1) to the influence of powerful investors and other industry actors, and 2) to commitments made in international trade and investment agreements (Baker et al. 2014, Thow and McGrady 2014, Schram et al. 2015, Thow et al. 2015a, Thow et al. 2015b).
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    Forgotten by the highway: Globalisation, adverse incorporation and chronic poverty in a commercial farming district
    (Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2004) du Toit, Andries
    This paper presents key findings from a livelihoods survey of households in four poor neighbourhoods in the Western Cape district of Ceres, one of the centres of South Africa’s deciduous fruit export industry (see Figure 1). It explores the nature and dynamics of the persistence of poverty in the context of continued and relatively sustained economic development and growth, and considers whether the concept of ‘social exclusion’ can help in making sense – especially policy sense – of these dynamics.
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    Improving policy coherence for food security and nutrition in South Africa: a qualitative policy analysis
    (Springer Netherlands, 2018) Thow, Anne Marie; Greenberg, Stephen; Hara, Mafaniso; Friel, Sharon; du Toit, Andries; Sanders, David
    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 SouthAfrica, 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.
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    In search of South Africa’s second economy: Chronic poverty, vulnerability and adverse incorporation in Mt. Frere and Khayelitsha
    (Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2007) du Toit, Andries; Neves, David
    Since 2003, South African policy discourse about persistent poverty has been dominated by the notion that poor people stay poor because they are trapped in a ‘second economy’, disconnected from the mainstream ‘first world economy’. This paper considers the adequacy of this notion in the light of research conducted in 2002 and 2005­2006 in Mount Frere in the rural Eastern Cape, and in Cape Town’s African suburbs. It argues that a process of simultaneous monetization, de-agrarianization and de-industrialization has created a heavy reliance on a formal sector in which employment is becoming increasingly elusive and fragile. Fieldwork suggested high levels of economic integration, corporate penetration and monetization even in the remote rural Eastern Cape. Within this context, survival relies on complex practices of reciprocity in spatially extended urban-rural networks, and on widespread, elusive, economically crucial but fragile forms of informal economic activity and self-employment. Rather than being structurally disconnected from the ‘formal economy’, formal and informal, ‘mainstream’ and marginal activities are often thoroughly interdependent, supplementing or subsidizing one another in complex ways. The dynamics of these diverge significantly from those imagined both in ‘second economy’ discourse and in ‘SMME’ policy. Instead of imagining a separate economic realm, ‘structurally disconnected’ from the ‘first economy,’ it is more helpful to grasp that the South African economy is both unitary and heterogeneous, and that people’s prospects are determined by the specific ways in which their activities are caught up in the complex networks and circuits of social and economic power; and rather than ‘bringing people into’ the mainstream economy policymakers would do better to consider ways of counteracting disadvantageous power and supporting the livelihood strategies that are found at the margins of the formal economy.
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    In search of South Africa’s ‘second economy’: Chronic poverty, economic marginalisation and adverse incorporation in Mt Frere and Khayelitsha
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2007-11) du Toit, Andries; Neves, David
    Since 2003, South African policy discourse about persistent poverty has been dominated by the notion that poor people stay poor because they are trapped in a ‘second economy’, disconnected from the mainstream ‘First- World economy’. This paper considers the adequacy of this notion in the light of research conducted in 2002 and 2005/06 in Mount Frere in the rural Eastern Cape, and in Cape Town’s African suburbs. It argues that a process of simultaneous monetisation, de-agrarianisation and de-industrialisation has created a heavy reliance on a formal sector in which employment is becoming increasingly elusive and fragile. Fieldwork suggested high levels of economic integration, corporate penetration and monetisation, even in the remote rural Eastern Cape. Rather than being structurally disconnected from the ‘formal economy’, formal and informal, ‘mainstream’ and marginal activities are often thoroughly interdependent, supplementing or subsidising one another in complex ways. The dynamics involved diverge significantly from those imagined both in ‘second economy’ discourse and in small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) policy. Instead of imagining a separate economic realm, ‘structurally disconnected’ from the ‘first economy,’ it is more helpful to grasp that the South African economy is both unitary and heterogeneous, and that people’s prospects are determined by the specific ways in which their activities are caught up in the complex networks and circuits of social and economic power. Rather than ‘bringing people into’ the mainstream economy, policy-makers would do better to strengthen existing measures to reduce vulnerability, to consider ways of counteracting disadvantageous power relations within which people are caught, and to support the livelihood strategies that are found at the margins of the formal economy.
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    Informal social protection in post-apartheid migrant networks: Vulnerability, social networks and reciprocal exchange in the Eastern and Western Cape, South Africa
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2009-01) du Toit, Andries; Neves, David
    This paper considers the dynamics of informal social protection in the context of chronic poverty and vulnerability in post-apartheid migrant networks. It argues that in poor and marginalised households in South Africa, the indirect impacts of social grants cannot be adequately understood by focusing simply on either individual or household decision making. Instead, the paper concentrates on the central role of the elaborate and spatially extended network of reciprocal exchange within the informal social protection systems.
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