This March issue offers a range of articles to interest readers from a variety of fields and suggests many opportunities for further research.
Seven of the ten studies focus on South Africa. Some cover provincial issues (Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape), examining the needs of informal settlement dwellers, smallholder irrigators, female pensioners caring for the sick, and poor people seeking health services. Others look at the bigger picture: the state of land politics in the Northern and Western Cape, how the NEPAD initiative may help Gauteng-based firms expand their businesses into the rest of Africa, and how exchange rate movements could affect economy-wide employment in the event of a rand appreciation. Three studies take us into other Southern African countries. In Malawi we look at an example of grassroots development and globalisation from below, in Namibia we see how offering benefits from conservation to the local communities can serve both their cause and that of wildlife management, and in Zimbabwe we explore the possibilities of introducing domestic farming of mopane worms to the rural woodland people.
These authors' concern for those in need in developing countries comes through in many of their conclusions. They speak of the need to help ‘smallholders to access the more lucrative markets that they cannot access as individuals’ (Magingxa et al.); to help ‘health services become more responsive to the needs of the people who use them’ (Knight & Maharaj); to help elderly women who ‘make great sacrifices as a result of the financial impact of adult morbidity and mortality on them and the households in which they live’ (Ogunmefun & Schatz); to lift ‘rural people out of poverty’ and ‘buffer poor and vulnerable people for whom few other livelihood options exist’ (Hope et al.); and to work for ‘the gradual democratisation of the new South African state and for directing more of land reform towards the majority of Africans in the rural areas’ (Gran).
There is much mention of the need for balance, for seeing both sides of a development challenge: business and the poor, wildlife and the poor, globalisation and the poor. The authors talk of the need to help ‘small initiatives to achieve upscaling while maintaining their more caring and balanced character’ (Booyens & Crause); to balance ‘the human-needs-driven demands of informal settlement communities with those of the discourse of global competitiveness’ (Huchzermeyer); ‘to acknowledge local sensibilities’ and ‘seek to develop meaningful partnerships with local traders and suppliers in the host country’ (Akinboade & Lalthapersad-Pillay); for conservation planners to support ‘positive benefit–conservation relationships’ and ‘understand the broader socio-economic context of the communities they are working with’ (Scanlon & Kull); for economists to consider that, while an appreciation in the rand would have ‘the direct impact of improving household welfare due to cheaper imports’, this scenario might also paint ‘a worrying picture for South Africa with respect to the sustainability of a trade deficit’ (Ngandu).
There is no doubt that the current socio-economic and political realities in some parts of the SADC countries are having an adverse effect on a number of sustainable communities. These challenges should not put off serious analytical, intellectual and policy-driven effort by scholars and development agents. The contributions in this issue are aimed at helping policy makers and implementers to reflect critically as they keep trying to bridge the economy divide, create sustainable communities and ensure quality of life for all. We are grateful for the many excellent submissions we received for consideration in this publication.