An influential SA organisation that facilitates ground-breaking research is leading a study by multinational academic teams to find solutions to the enduring socioeconomic problems of rural areas in SA, as well as other countries.
The South Africa-Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development (Sanpad) will host a three-day workshop in Beijing, China, from February 28 to launch the research project with academics from India, Zimbabwe and SA.
Sanpad is financed by the Netherlands' foreign affairs ministry and funds researchers to come up with policy briefs covering various aspects, including new approaches to economic development; social development and quality of life; natural resources and their governance; democracy, government and civil society; culture identity; and civil society and poverty reduction.
Dr Anshu Padayachee, CE of Sanpad, says the workshop will set the scene for years of empirical data that was collected, analysed and recommended for packaging into policy briefs that can be considered for adoption by relevant stakeholders, including ministries within government, non-governmental organisations, business and community-based organisation.
She says the experiences of other countries participating in the research programme will contribute to an understanding of SA's pursuit of agrarian transformation as a crucial basis for rural development.
"Specific parallels can be drawn and lessons learnt from India and Zimbabwe in a way that can add significant value to SA's rural development programme."
Dr Padayachee says the outcome of the research programme will be submitted to governments in the hope that they would influence policy-making in the field of rural development. She says the problem with policy is that it is often based on the ideologies of the ruling government.
"The challenge then is to get government to look at the science and empirical truths in the research data and base their ideologies on this science."
Among the SA academics attending the workshop in Beijing will be Prof Fred Hendricks, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Rhodes University; Prof Lungisile Ntsebeza of the Department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town; and Prof Albert Modi of the School of Agricultural Sciences & Agribusiness at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and also CE of the Moses Kotane Institute. - I-Net Bridge
Picture: Prof Fred Hendricks.
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