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Accountability in the global health regime : a critical examination of the institutional policy and practice of the global fund to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria partnership programme in Ghana

  • Authors: Onokwai, John Chukwuemeka
  • Date: 2021-04
  • Subjects: World health , Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria -- Administration , Public-private sector cooperation -- Political aspects , Public-private sector cooperation -- Social aspects , Public-private sector cooperation -- Administration , Medical policy -- Ghana , Public health laws, International , Ghana -- Social conditions
  • Language: English
  • Type: thesis , text , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/177099 , vital:42790 , 10.21504/10962/177099
  • Description: The overarching objective of this thesis is to undertake a critical examination of the institutional accountability policy and practice of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) in the context of its partnership programme in Ghana. The Global Fund is a global public-private partnership (GPPP) in health engaged in public health policy processes worldwide. As a GPPP, the policy mandate that underpins its global response to fight the aforementioned diseases requires it to enter into partnerships with recipient countries to finance their national health policy responses and strategies to tackle these diseases. Situating accountability within the context of the shift from an international health to a global health regime, the study argues that the emergence of GPPPs in health and the formal policy mandate and decision-making powers they exercise have had knock-on consequences for understanding accountability in the global health regime. This is because while the understanding of accountability for public health policy processes in the international health regime revolved solely around state-based and state-led accountability processes, it is no longer so in current global health regime. Since these GPPPs are not states, they derive their understanding of accountability from the nature and character of their individual policy and practice arrangements. However, despite contestation around the Global Fund’s accountability in global health literature, this literature has little to say on the question of how the Global Fund itself (as a partnership organisation) understands accountability in policy and how this understanding informs its practice in specific settings of global health. Thus, this study contributes to literature on GPPPs’ accountability in global health by specifically exploring how the Global Fund understands accountability in policy and how this understanding informs its accountability in practice, in particular in relationship to its implications for country ownership of health policy in Ghana. Drawing on fieldwork undertaken in Ghana, and guided by a critical political economy approach, this study will demonstrate how: 1) the Global Fund’s institutional policy and practice arrangements undermine accountability to the government and to those affected by their activities; 2) the Global Fund’s practice of country ownership is reflective of conditional ownership despite the fact that the Global Fund claims to promote country ownership as a core principle of its accountability practice in aid recipient countries; and 3) the accountability policy and practice instruments of the Global Fund are not politically neutral, but are rather a function of relations of power. To improve the ability of Ghana (and other recipient countries) to own their developmental policies, a reordering of global economic relations is needed, with a renewed emphasis and focus on economic justice and human rights. Such a reordering will improve the material capabilities (control of and access to global centres of production, finance and technology) of aid recipient countries. This will empower Ghana (and other recipient countries) to play a more dominant, rather than a subsidiary role in how the global health landscape is organised and financed and in policy processes undertaken by global health policy institutions like the Global Fund. In this way, Ghana (and other developing countries) will be able to limit and mitigate the dominance and influence of powerful donors who shape the institutional policy and practice arrangements of global health policy institutions like the Global Fund. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Department of Political and International Studies, 2021
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  • Date Issued: 2021-04

An analysis of South Africa’s food security policy frameworks from a food sovereignty perspective: challenges and implications for genuine long-term food security

  • Authors: Hoepfl, Jason
  • Date: 2020
  • Subjects: Food sovereignty -- South Africa , Food security -- South Africa , Food security -- Government policy -- South Africa , Food security -- Climatic factors -- South Africa , Food policy -- Government policy -- South Africa , Agriculture and state -- South Africa , Food industry and trade -- Government policy -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSocSci
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/162851 , vital:40990
  • Description: Food price volatility, ecological shocks and unprecedented levels of hunger and obesity are increasing concerns within food security governance, as is the emergence of food sovereignty in broadening critical discussions around food, water, energy and environmental crises. This thesis analyses this changing terrain in the context of South African policy. It analyses shifts in policymaking and the capability of South Africa’s food security policy frameworks to include food sovereignty principles and in so doing support genuine long-term food security. A shift in policy priorities from household production, trade and income opportunities towards social safety nets and nutritional interventions is identified. This focus is constrained by an inability to affect structural changes within a deeply inequitable food landscape. An emphasis on commercial farming and unwillingness to challenge large agribusiness, value chains and corporate retail has enabled social differentiation in access to food and the country’s colonial land dispensation to continue. Consequently, markets have continued to be antipathetic to the needs of poor producers and consumers in South Africa. To overcome these structural constraints, food security policy needs to be framed within a more radical normative agenda. This is important for challenging inequitable power relations and asserting the social and ecological imperatives of healthy food systems. Food sovereignty has significant potential to support a normative agenda by supporting the multiple farming practices, enterprises and livelihood strategies pursued by poor farmers, the unemployed and working poor whilst preserving sensitive environments for future generations. Determining the future of food security is not the privilege of the few with economic clout or power to govern but the right of all. The incorporation of food sovereignty principles in policymaking is therefore paramount for achieving genuine long-term food security.
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  • Date Issued: 2020

Dangerous liaisons or critical alliances: student perceptions of community engagement at Rhodes University, South Africa

  • Authors: Levy, Simone Arielle
  • Date: 2018
  • Subjects: Rhodes University -- Students -- Public services , Community and college -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Education, Higher -- Social aspects -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/57411 , vital:26907
  • Description: Community Engagement (CE) in South Africa is an increasingly important feature of the relationship between the university and a broader community, and may aid in bridging the entrenched social divisions of this nation. This will only be possible if CE succeeds in uniting the knowledge production interests of the university and the broader community. Through CE, knowledge production and dissemination from within the university should be made more relevant and applicable because it is based on a relationship or engagement with a community. Based on the perceptions of student volunteers in a CE programme at a South African university, this thesis set out to ask whether or not students are transformed through university-community collaboration. This research examines the perceptions and motivations of student volunteers entering community partnership programmes. More importantly, it asks whether these engagements are merely a “weekend special” consisting of shallow engagements, which last only a few hours a week that provide institutional window dressing; or well-intended engagements through which students build meaningful relationships and experience learning opportunities that prepare them for real world civic participation. As this thesis focuses on the student perspective, it explores whether or not CE has an impact, both personally and educationally or academically, on the lives of individual student volunteers. The literature on CE argues that students’ participation in CE opportunities should enhance academic learning, personal growth and promote a sense of citizenship or civic responsibility. Based on the perceptions of a small group of student volunteers at one university, this thesis identifies possible successes and limitations of CE volunteering programmes in order to see if what is promoted in the literature or institutional policies is being experienced or achieved in practice at universities. I argue that students are indeed transformed through processes of CE, often in unexpected ways, and despite many difficulties. Therefore, if CE provides students with more holistic learning opportunities while attending universities for academic ends, it is important to look at in what ways this is achieved.
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  • Date Issued: 2018

NGOs and the depoliticisation of development : the case of GADRA education in Grahamstown

  • Authors: Nqaba, Patronella Pinky
  • Date: 2015
  • Subjects: GADRA Education (Grahamstown, South Africa) , Non-governmental organizations -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Non-governmental organizations -- Political aspects , Education -- South Africa -- History , Right to education -- South Africa , Educational change -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: vital:2890 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017865
  • Description: Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been criticised for depoliticising development through focusing on alleviating suffering rather than on addressing the root causes of poverty and underdevelopment. This research explores whether and how NGOs can act in ways that do not depoliticise development. The research focuses on education NGOs and in particular on the NGO GADRA education in Grahamstown, South Africa, to provide insights into ways in which politically conscious leadership of NGOs attempt to deal with the contradictions that are inherent in this field of work. This research provides a brief history of the South African Education system as a means to set a basis for the discussion of the role of education NGOs in the country. Furthermore it looks at the work that is done by GADRA education in the Grahamstown community. The thesis makes the argument that education NGOs can act in ways that do not depoliticise development because by providing access to education for people who are structurally excluded from education, they contribute to shifting power. This research found that although the leadership of GADRA Education acknowledge that they are confronted with great challenges in terms of how to bring about changes in the education system, they are hopeful that advocating for quality education will bring about the potential for the disruption of power relations as they exist between the state organs and the public.
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  • Date Issued: 2015

Beyond black and white: black solidarity in post-apartheid South Africa

  • Authors: Majavu, Phumlani
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: Black nationalism -- South Africa , Race relations -- South Africa , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 21st century
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: vital:2887 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016359
  • Description: Almost 20 years after the white Nationalist government was voted out, some black South Africans believe that black solidarity is still necessary in South Africa. These people argue that since post-apartheid South Africa is still marred with racial injustice, it makes sense for blacks to advocate for black solidarity. Although it is true that black solidarity played an important role in the struggle against apartheid, in this thesis I argue that the struggle against current forms of racial injustice does not necessarily require black solidarity. This is not to deny the prevailing racialized oppression in the post-apartheid era, nor to deny the importance of black solidarity in the past; rather the point I am making is that the current form of racial oppression is somewhat different from the one before 1994. Hence I argue in this thesis that the current form of racial oppression requires us to do certain things differently. Doing things differently means improving upon the strategies of the past. For this to happen, I argue that every human being who believes in and is committed to racial justice ought to be included in the struggle for justice. Change, after all, is brought about when committed human beings work together for liberation and justice.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

A critical discourse analysis of representations of the Niger Delta conflict in four prominent Western anglophone newspapers

  • Authors: Mushwana, Tinyiko
  • Date: 2013
  • Subjects: Newspapers -- Political aspects -- Nigeria -- Niger River Delta , Newspapers -- Economic aspects -- Nigeria -- Niger River Delta , Newspapers -- Social aspects -- Nigeria -- Niger River Delta , Mass media -- Political aspects -- Nigeria , Mass media -- Economic aspects -- Nigeria , Mass media -- Social aspects -- Nigeria , Insurgency -- Nigeria -- Niger River Delta , Petroleum industry and trade -- Political aspects -- Nigeria -- Niger River Delta , Public opinion -- Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
  • Identifier: vital:2872 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007745 , Newspapers -- Political aspects -- Nigeria -- Niger River Delta , Newspapers -- Economic aspects -- Nigeria -- Niger River Delta , Newspapers -- Social aspects -- Nigeria -- Niger River Delta , Mass media -- Political aspects -- Nigeria , Mass media -- Economic aspects -- Nigeria , Mass media -- Social aspects -- Nigeria , Insurgency -- Nigeria -- Niger River Delta , Petroleum industry and trade -- Political aspects -- Nigeria -- Niger River Delta , Public opinion -- Africa
  • Description: This thesis explores the manner in which the conflict in the oil-rich Niger Delta in Nigeria is represented in western Anglophone media. Large oil reserves in the Niger Delta have contributed millions of dollars towards the growth of Nigeria's export economy. Despite this, the Niger Delta is the least developed region in the country and is characterised by high rates of inequality. Residents of the Niger Delta have been outraged by the lack of action on the part of the Nigerian government and multinational oil corporations. Their discontent over the inequalities in the region has resulted in the proliferation of armed groups and militants who often use violent and criminal tactics to communicate their disgruntlement. This thesis closely examines the representations of the violent insurgency in the Niger Delta by conducting a Critical Discourse Analysis of 145 news texts selected from four western Anglophone newspapers from 2007 to 2011. The depiction of the conflict as it appears in the four newspapers is discussed in relation to an overview of scholarly literature which explores the portrayal of Africa not only in western media, but also in other forms of western scholarship and writing. The research undertaken in this study reveals that to a significant extent representations of the Niger Delta conflict echo and reflect some of the stereotypical and age-old negative imagery that informs meanings constructed about the African continent. However, the analysis of the news texts also shows that there are certainly efforts amongst some newspapers to move beyond simplistic representations of the conflict. The disadvantage however, is that these notable attempts tend to be marred by the use of pejorative language which typically invokes negative images associated with Africa. This study argues that the implications of these representations are highly significant as these representations not only affect the way in which the conflict is understood, but also the manner in which the international community responds to it.
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  • Date Issued: 2013

The protection of indigenous knowledge within the current intellectual property rights regime: a critical assessment focusing upon the Masakhane Pelargonium case

  • Authors: Msomi, Zuziwe Nokwanda
  • Date: 2013
  • Subjects: Intellectual property -- South Africa -- Case studies Cultural property -- Protection -- Law and legislation -- South Africa Indigenous peoples -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa Masakhane (South Africa) -- Trials, litigation, etc. Pelargoniums -- Therapeutic use Traditional ecological knowledge -- Law and legislation -- South Africa Pharmaceutical industry -- Law and legislation -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: vital:2871 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007744
  • Description: The use of indigenous knowledge (IK) and indigenous bio-resources by pharmaceutical and herbal industries has led to concerns about the need to protect IK in order to prevent biopiracy and the misappropriation of indigenous knowledge and resources. While some commentators believe that intellectual property rights (IPR) law can effectively protect IK, others are more sceptical. In order to contribute to the growing debate on this issue, this study uses the relatively new and as yet largely critically unanalysed Masakhane Pelargonium case to address the question of whether or not IPR law can be used to effectively protect IK. It is argued here that discussion about the protection of IK is a matter that must be located within broader discussions about North-South relations and the continued struggle for economic and political freedom by indigenous people and their states. The Masakhane case suggests that IPR law in its current form cannot provide sufficient protection of IK on its own. Incompatibilities between IPR law and IK necessitate that certain factors, most important of which are land, organised representation, and what are referred as 'confidence and network resources', be present in order for IPR law to be used with any degree of success. The study also reveals various factors that undermine the possibility of using IPR law to protect IK. In particular, the study highlights the way in which local political tensions can undermine the ability of communities to effectively use IPR law to protect their knowledge. The thesis concludes with several recommendations that will enable indigenous communities and their states to benefit more substantially from the commercialisation of their bio-resources and associated IK.
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  • Date Issued: 2013

Being Indian, being MK: an exploration of the experiences and ethnic identities of Indian South African Umkhonto we Sizwe members

  • Authors: Lalla, Varsha
  • Date: 2011
  • Subjects: Umkhonto we Sizwe (South Africa) -- Research Political activists -- Research -- South Africa East Indians -- Politics and government -- Research -- South Africa Ethnicity -- Political aspects -- South Africa -- Research
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: vital:2792 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003002
  • Description: Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) was a military organization dominated by black Africans. Although it is not generally associated with Indian South Africans, who form a minority in the country, there were Indian MK members. This thesis explores the way in which Indian MK members reconciled aspects of their ethnic identity with their membership of MK. It explores the experiences of two generations of members: those born between 1929 and 1944 and those born between 1960 and 1969. In particular it looks at whether they experienced tensions between their ethnic and political identities. It explores what set these Indian South Africans apart from the rest of the Indian South African community that did not join MK. It also looks at what significant differences there were between different generations of Indian MK members. The research results show that the first generation MK members believe that their MK activities were „the highest form of passive resistance‟. An explanation for this way of referring to their activities could be that this was a way of reconciling tensions between their ethnic and political identities. The first generation was also very critical of the Indian SA community. This could be because they still feel part of this community despite having a strong political consciousness that is different from most of the community. It was found that some of the features that set Indian MK members apart from other Indian South Africans were that they were not raised in very religious households and occupied a fairly low rather than „middle man‟ economic position. In addition, members of the first generation of MK members were raised in comparatively multi-racial areas. Both generations made the decision to join MK because of Indian role models. There were some marked differences between the two generations of MK veterans. Most notably, the younger did not see their activities as in line with passive resistance and they also displayed more ambivalence about their ethnic identities.
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  • Date Issued: 2011

Gender and racial stereotyping in rape coverage: an analysis of rape coverage in Grocott's Mail

Transnational civil society's ability to successfully influence state actors on human rights issues through international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) : a case study of the coalition to stop the use of child soldiers

  • Authors: VerHage, Alicia
  • Date: 2009
  • Subjects: International Campaign to Ban Landmines , Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989 November 20) , Non-governmental organizations , Child soldiers , Children's rights , Human rights , Children (International law)
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: vital:2884 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015249
  • Description: The international dilemma of child soldiers is a humanitarian concern throughout the world. The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (CSUCS) began in 1998 and is currently the leading collaborative movement to address the issue. However, because of its emphasis on a universal 'Straight 18' approach and support of the Optional Protocol of the Convention on the Rights of a Child (CRC), the CSUCS ignores contextual realities that affect the implementation ofthe international legislation and the development of norms concerning child soldiers. This research project will examine the current international nongovernmental organization (INGO) response to child soldiers- focusing on the CSCUS - and formulate suggestions for potential avenues to further INGO involvement with policies and projects. The argument is based on a neoliberal institutionalist platform that argues in favour ofiNGOs' ability to successfully influence actions taken by state actors to address human right issues. Highlighting the successful INGO influence on states during the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, I will present this example as a potential model for the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, and explore the feasibility of this model whilst making suggestions for more effective involvement of INGOs with regard to the issue of child soldiers.
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  • Date Issued: 2009
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