This book is a rare collection of reflective and reflexive stories that reveal how seasoned academics, agents of grassroots social change, leaders and journalists transformed and shaped the development landscape in eastern and southern Africa. Whereas practical experiences are crucial assets and resources for shaping the academic environment and development practice landscape, most of the existing literature recommended as key learning materials in tertiary institutions is rarely in synch with the practical realities of development practice. The shared individual lived experiences from academic endeavours and fieldwork provide hands-on tools for students and emerging practitioners who might be involved in or are currently facilitating development work. The thrust of the book, therefore, is to demystify the day-to-day experiences of development practitioners while contributing to learning pathways or strategies for achieving viable solutions to the myriad of challenges, which grassroots communities face. The relevance of the book as a crucial resource for students pursuing development-oriented degree programmes in colleges and universities is obvious. Without any doubt, the compilation will be handy in the implementation of diverse development-oriented transformation agenda at academic, programming and policy levels.

This anthology presents issues, challenges and progress in Rwanda, Mauritius, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Uganda towards Africa's acknowledgement through Agenda 2063 of the need for inclusive and sustainable development, and its commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030) of the United Nations. Dictated by overall ever unfolding realities, including economic, social, political, technological issues, the growth and development dictums have been reshaped and reframed continually, in an effort to accommodate and respond to emerging issues. Human development and inclusive growth and development, within the overall theme of sustainable development, are, for example, among the recent focuses of the global and national development agenda. The background is that as individuals, communities, and societies get richer, the worrying levels of inequalities, exclusion and disparities are becoming an area of concern, drawing the attention of governments, planners, civil societies, researchers and academia. A predominant current issue has been an appreciation of high economic growth in the last 10 years, which is nonetheless marred by pervasive levels of poverty and inequality. The issues covered include: trade; rural-urban linkages; the dynamics of poverty, vulnerability, and welfare; social policies for inclusive and sustainable development; productivity and informality; and financial direct support systems to the poor. The chapters are based on first-hand data, secondary data from different databases and systematic reviews of academic literature. Drawing on the findings and conclusions of the individual chapters, the book distills together the key lessons and also puts forward recommendations for policy and practice. It is a resource for researchers, policy and decision makers, academia and graduate students.

Over the last two decades the concept and practice of Local Economic Development (LED) has gained widespread acceptance around the world as a locally-based response to the challenges posed by globalization, devolution, local-level opportunities, and economic crises. Support for local economic development is now firmly on the agenda of many national governments and key international agencies. This volume examines the debates about Local Economic Development and examines some of the unfolding experiences of LED in the developing world. The focus is upon the region of southern Africa, and more especially upon post-apartheid South Africa. LED emerged in South Africa as one of the more significant post-apartheid development options being pursued by empowered localities with the overt encouragement of national government. Elsewhere in the developing world, much interest surrounds the experience of LED in post-apartheid South Africa, which is seen as a laboratory for experimentation, innovation, and learning. The seventeen chapters in this book examine the range of LED interventions that have been the basis for experimentation in the last decade, including both pro-market as well as pro-poor interventions. Key themes include debates about the most appropriate policy directions for LED, its contribution towards sustainable development, the role of social capital, cluster support, public procurement, eco-development, good governance and tourism-led LED. The book also contains a series of detailed case studies on the implementation of LED in South Africa and the wider region of southern Africa, including analyses of LED undertaken at a variety of scales from the provincial, metropolitan, and small-town level. Until now, most research on local economic development has focused on the developed world. This volume breaks new ground in applying LED policy and practices to problems specific to the developing world. It will be of interest to scholars of development studies, urban and regional planning, human geography, and urban studies.

Linking Practice and Policy in Eastern Africa.

"A study prepared for the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER)"