Friday, November 2, 2007

South Africa: HSRC Moving Ahead With New Project - AllAfrica.com

Gabi KhumaloTshwane

Social answerability and the bar of kid pornography in South Africa through monitoring and research are two of respective new undertakings being tally by the Person Sciences Research Council's (HSRC) as portion of their part to a better country, composes Gabi Khumalo.

The Affiliated Network for Sociable Accountability Africa (ANSA-Africa) is a new web created jointly by the World Depository Financial Institution and the HSRC with an purpose to go African advocator of citizen engagement in demand-side governance initiatives.

By edifice on existing African expertise, ANSA-Africa back ups the battle of citizens and civil society in edifice more effectual states through societal answerability approaches. This is owed to concern in kid protection circles that children from vulnerable communities maybe forced into commercial sexual development and the industry of pornography.

In South Africa kid pornography is regulated by Acts that autumn within the duty of Home Personal Business Department and the Movie and Publication Board.

The HSRC survey on the usage of children pornography in South Africa seeks to steer the Board concerning the protection of children from being exposed in kid pornography.

The chief undertaking activities by the HSRC includes an appraisal of the usage of South African children in the devising of kid pornography as an facet of sexual maltreatment and extent of manufacturing and statistical distribution of kid pornography in the country.

It also includes an assessment of the figure of reported kid pornography lawsuits in South Africa, recommendations in regard of profiling children most at hazard of sexual maltreatment and development including people likely to mistreat them.

The HSRC have also done research on the Young Person Policy Enterprise and according to the council about 75 percentage of South Africa's unemployed are immature people.

"Re-skilling and matching immature people to appropriate preparation programs will assist relieve the country's immature person unemployment situation," Executive Director Employment, Growth and Development Initiatives at the HSRC, Dr Miriam Altman said during a round table treatment in Capital Of South Africa last month.

Dr Altman said sound preparation programs can assist counter the deficiency of accomplishments and experience that unemployed young people are faced with.

She cited deficiency of fiscal support and mobility in rural countries as obstructions to young person employment, as at modern times it is dearly-won to look for a job.

In March this year, the HSRC released a survey on new research on the charge per unit at which human immunodeficiency virus is spreading through the South African population. The survey was published in March edition of the South African Checkup Journal.

The research establish that immature women have got a higher hazard of catching the disease than immature men. It also indicated that the relative incidence charge per unit among immature women of childbearing age was alarming.

Some of the work undertaken by the HSRC during 2006/7 included a undertaking on slum-free cities, sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology in coaction with the Housing Department.

The undertaking assessed the impact of policies, schemes and activities being implemented in South Africa to attain the Millennium Development Goal Target 11, Goal 6, on action against slums.

The survey confirmed the powerful South African attempt in the field of lodging delivery, but noted that slum areas go on to proliferate in line with the tendencies on the international scene.

Another undertaking on lodging bringing establish that the authorities lodging policy needed to take into business relationship the practical demands for households receiving subsidised houses to maintain their new plus so they can utilize lodging as chopine for savings.

A grant by the Royal The Netherlands Embassy (RNE) awarded to pull off a five-year programme on improving literacy and numeracy accomplishments in South African schools, was among the foregrounds for the HSRC.

The programme was developed in coaction with the Department of Education and respective research partners. It commenced in January 2007 and will stop in December 2011.

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Other foregrounds include the creative activity of policy deliberation and policy execution networks, which is a cardinal scheme to back up evidence-informed policy processes.

The HSRC's Policy Analysis Unit Of Measurement is playing a prima function in the creative activity of a representative web of histrions in the interface between societal scientific discipline research and function participants in the shaping of policy under the protection of the South African National Committee for UNESCO.

It was constituted as the Management of Sociable Transformation (MOST) National Affair Committee for South Africa.

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1 comment:

Ina van der Linde said...

This is a somewhat strange rendition (of what I can only guess)was a media release issued by the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa, following the launch of our annual report. The original press release reads as follows:

Media Release, 23 October 2007

HSRC consolidates gains and blazes new trails

PRETORIA, South Africa - For the seventh consecutive year the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) attained an unqualified audit from the Auditor-General for the 2006/07 financial year. The HSRC also achieved the highest financial turnover in its history, namely an amount of R247.8 million, partly due to the increased allocation from government, which for the first time since 2000 is approaching parity with revenue from external sources of funding.

Dr Olive Shisana, CEO and president, announced at the launch of the HSRC’s 2006/07 Annual Report today that the organisation has continued to manage its cash flow better by accelerating collection from trade and other receivables since the 2005/06 financial year. In addition, the volume of trade and other receivables has grown from 2005/06 to 2006/07 from R113.8 million to R124.6 million indicating an increase in external income.

She said the organisation has also done itself proud in its strive for research excellence, measured in terms of articles published in international peer-reviewed journals. The HSRC’s total publication output during the past year reached a record of 1.11 per researcher, as against a target of 0.85 articles. Of the articles from the top ten researchers three were women and six were black, “shattering the myth that representivity in the staff profile undermines quality and standards, and bucking the documented South African trend whereby the most productive researchers are white and male.”

Some of the highlights of the work undertaken by the HSRC during this period include:

•A project on slum-free cities, sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in collaboration with the Department of Housing (DOH), assessed the impact of policies, strategies and activities being implemented in South Africa to reach the Millennium Development Goal Target 11, Goal 6, on action against slums. The study confirmed the powerful South African effort in the field of housing delivery, but noted that slums continue to proliferate in line with trends on the international scene. Another project on housing delivery found that the government housing policy needs to take into account the practical requirements for families receiving subsidised houses to keep their new asset so they can use housing as platforms for savings.

•The HSRC was awarded a grant for a five year project, entitled Programme to improve the capacity of an indigenous statutory institution to enhance monitoring and evaluation of HIV/AIDS in the Republic of South Africa by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US Presidential Emergency Programme for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The overall goal of the project is to develop capacity to generate objective, verifiable and replicable HIV and AIDS-related data to support South Africa’s efforts in the prevention, treatment and care of the epidemic. This project is a massive undertaking and covers the following areas: strategic information, prevention of mother to child transmission, medical transmission and positive prevention.

•The aforementioned project is a follow-up of the groundbreaking 2002 and 2005 studies on HIV/AIDS prevalence, attitudes and behaviour, undertaken and coordinated by the HSRC. Results from these studies, as well as from contributions the HSRC made in workshops, features extensively in the government’s HIV, AIDS and STI strategic plan for South Africa 2007-2011.

•The Royal Netherlands Embassy (RNE) awarded the HSRC a grant to manage a five-year programme on improving literacy and numeracy skills in South African schools. The programme was developed in collaboration with the Department of Education and several research partners. The programme commenced in January 2007 and will end in December 2011.

•Work done on employment and economic growth through an employment scenarios project is providing critical insights on how best to address unemployment, ensure growth, and reduce poverty. The first set of scenarios, focusing on possible sources of job creation, yielded insights such as:
o If the economy grows by 3% pa to 2014, unemployment could rise. If GDP grows by 6% pa, unemployment could halve by 2014; but that still requires substantial employment contributions by the public service and EPWP.
o Public employment will need to become a more important focus of employment and active labour market policy.
o The structure of production is important to poverty reduction, since some sectors inherently contribute to wage growth more than others.
o Manufacturing is unlikely to generate more than 5% to 10% of the overall employment target.

In short, it is foreseen that even if unemployment were halved, serious attention will be needed to identify an employment/poverty reduction package.

•The work on rural women’s rights looking at the impact of the application of the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act of 2003, as well as the Communal Land Rights Bill on the rights of rural women, has highlighted the challenges confronting women in the countryside, such as access to land and other resources, and grassroots participation in political processes.

•In July 2006, heads of state of the African Union adopted the African Youth Charter, researched and written by an HSRC research programme on commission to the AU. Following an intensive policy and charter review, the validation processes included national consultations with youth at country level, a youth forum, a youth experts meeting and a meeting of minister of youth.

•The creation of policy deliberation and policy implementation networks is a key strategy to support evidence-informed policy processes. The HSRC’s Policy Analysis Unit is playing a leading role in the creation of a representative network of actors in the interface between social science research and role players in the shaping of policy under the auspices of the South African National Commission for UNESCO. It was constituted as the Management of Social Transformation (MOST) National Liaison Committee for South Africa. The focus of the MOST Programme is on building efficient bridges between social science research, policy and practice. It thus promotes a culture of evidence-informed policy-making and organises cross-sector policy dialogues on priority national, regional and international issues.

•The HSRC contributes to human capital development through the consolidation and expansion of research internship and fellowship programmes. At the moment the organisation boasts 10 research interns with a primary degree, 29 candidates in a master’s degree internship, 20 candidates for a PhD programme, and four post-doctoral fellows.

Shisana said the HSRC face the future “with determination and resolve to contribute to finding science-based solutions to grand social challenges facing South Africa.”.

ENDS

Note to Editors
The HSRC’s 2006/07 Annual Report is available on the HSRC website (www.hsrc.ac.za) from today at 09:00. The report contains detailed information on the research work undertaken by the different research units as well as the Financial and Council’s report.

For a printed copy of the report, please e-mail ivdlinde@hsrc.ac.za with your full postal address and other particulars.