Key features of the arid Areas Programme

     

The participants in the Arid Areas Programme are actively involved in the establishment of the Karoo Development Foundation.

The approach taken in the overarching Arid Areas Research Programme has several important dimensions.

• It is totally interdisciplinary, including economics, sociology, politics, demographics, urban planning, and agriculture. The natural sciences are included where they have some.
• It is relevant to a variety of governmental sectors, including Rural Development, Health, Education, Social Development, Local Economic Development, Transport, Housing, Infrastructure, Tourism, and Environmental Management. It includes national, provincial and municipal levels.
• The programme creates a space for academic research and unpublished consultancy work ("grey research") to interact. This is a very new approach in South Africa, where academic journals have tended to maintain their own rigorous academic standards, and "grey research" has remained marginalised and inaccessible. Because development studies is such a practical subject area, it is imperative that much more co-operation between academics and "practitioners" (whether officials, consultants or NGOs) is actively encouraged.
• The programme is implemented in active partnership with the National Research Foundation (NRF). The NRF has already approved an Arid Areas Niche Research Area, to be based at the Centre for Development Support (CDS), at the University of the Free State. The NRF funding will be used for post-graduate student support, including disbursements for research activities. It will be available from 2007 onwards, for a period of 5 years.
• The programme encourages partnerships as much as possible. In this regard, three important relationships have already been established: (1) The SANPAD Fund has approved a commonage study by three MA students, to be co-ordinated by Rhodes University; (2) the Nama Karoo Foundation, based in Graaff-Reinet, which conducts ongoing research in ecological management in the Karoo; and (3) the Karoo Institute, which is based in Philippolis.
• The programme actively promotes the dissemination of information, by means of a website, as well as focus groups and workshops. This will not only include the dissemination of information, but also the identification of new issue areas, which can then feed into policy forums and the design of development programmes. The programme will be strongly linked to the newly established Journal for Development Support, based at the Centre for Development Support at the University of the Free State.
• The programme has an active capacity-building component. Because there is no university located within the study area, it will be critically important to "grow our own timber". This will be done by creating a data-base of all matriculants from the arid areas, who engage in tertiary study at higher education institutions throughout the country. The programme will be housed at CDS, but it will liaise with all universities where such students are located. These students will be encouraged to apply for Honours Degrees, as well as MA and PhD studies.
• The programme promotes international exchanges on development policies in arid areas. This will include Namibia, Botswana, Chile, Mexico, the US, Australia, and India. South Africa has remained very isolated from broader currents of thinking with regards to arid areas, and a much greater degree of intellectual exchange is required. In this regard, the programme manager (Doreen Atkinson) has already visited several Indian universities in Rajastahan, and CDS sent two researchers to attend the Desert Knowledge Conference in Alice Springs, Australia, in November 2006.

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Images courtesy of Chris Marais www.karoospace.co.za