Community economic development strategic framework for poverty alleviation in local government in a rural South Africa

Abstract

Poverty is a global phenomenon and is observed to be the greatest challenge in the 21st century (Serageldin, 2000; Martin, 2007:1; Ortiz-Ospina, 2017). It plagues both developed and developing nations (Ferreira, Lakner and Sanchez, 2017). The major trends in poverty reduction techniques globally have demonstrated that to end or reduce poverty – employment, community empowerment and basic service delivery are imperative (Finn et al., 2013:1; StatsSA, 2016). Because, mechanisms for poverty reduction are economic drivers and social transformational tools that advances the course of the poor (World Bank Group Strategy, 2014). In other to propose a model that drives communal growth and development, the community economic development strategic framework for reducing poverty is proposed. To do this, the study ask the following research questions. The main research question is how can a strategic community economic development framework designed for alleviating poverty in a rural South African community? Sub-questions: 1. To understand the peril of international development in local context and the misfit of poverty analysis in Sub-Saharan Africa with a focus on South Africa. a. What are the challenges of international development strategies for poverty alleviation in local context? b. What are the contours to poverty measurement and conceptualisation in South Africa? c. how do we understand the uni-dimensional analysis of poverty and how it affects poverty reduction strategies? 2. Exploring the philosophical engagements for community economic development analytical framework for poverty alleviation in South African rural areas a. to examine the rationale for community economic development in contemporary philosophy for poverty reduction, and b. to develop an analytical framework for community economic development for alleviating poverty. 3. Stakeholder model for community economic development in alleviating poverty in municipalities in South Africa. a. In what ways, can, stakeholder and stewardship theories create an alliance for advancing community economic development in communities? b. What are the philosophical connections that exist between the community economic development, poverty reduction, and local economic development? c. What are the implementing imperatives for a stakeholder approach for community economic development in municipalities in South Africa? d. How can one develop an implementation loop for stakeholder collaboration for community economic development? e. How can we develop a Neo!Marxist community economic development strategy for local economic freedom? 4. What are the parameters for understanding community economic development strategic framework for poverty alleviation? a. What is the essence and substance for community economic development? b. How can we propose a stakeholder collaboration tool for poverty alleviation? The modality for data collection was principally secondary in nature. Thus, it utilized, Catalogue of theses and dissertation of South African Universities (NEXUS); Catalogue of books: Ferdinand Postma Library (North-West University); Chronic Poverty Index; EBSCO EconBiz; Food Agricultural Organisation Database; Google Scholar Index; Statistics South Africa; and World Bank Database. In analysing the data collected, the following method were applied, social constructivism and interpretivism approach, triangulation, thematic analysis, trend analysis, narrative analysis, constant comparison analysis, systematic quantitative literature review, and data synthesis. Findings from the research demonstrates that – there was no framework in South Africa for community economic development. That literature on community economic development in the country and the African continent were sparse. That poverty has been on the rise despite several strategies implemented for reducing poverty over the years. It demonstrates that global interventionists strategies were antithetical to local growth and development for three major reasons, capital, capacity, and structure. In essence, the study proposed several models through which the community economic development strategic framework can create a positive transformation in the poverty trajectory of South Africa. Such as, the implementation loop for stakeholders collaboration, neo-marxist community economic development strategy for local economic freedom, the CED framework poverty reduction, the stakeholder collaboration tool for poverty alleviation, and the community economic development strategic framework for poverty alleviation in Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality.