Development of a conceptual framework for the capacity enhancement of development workers in Botswana

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Although Botswana is considered by some indices as an economically successful country,poverty is experienced by 30% of the population. This is considered a very high poverty rateespecially when it is compared to other countries on a similar level of economic development.Several policies have been put in place by the Botswana government to relieve theconsequences of poverty. One of these policies, the destitute policy, targeted those individualswho are disabled and/or unable to engage in sustainable economic activities, causing suchindividuals to have insufficient assets and income sources.It was found by the Botswana government that the implementation of the destitute policyaggravates dependency of the destitute on government support. As a result, developmentworkers were expected to lead registered destitute to independence through theimplementation of a destitute rehabilitation programme. However, literature suggested thatapproaches that are used by development workers to enable individuals to engage insustainable economic activities are often detrimental to the very empowerment purposes thatsuch workers set out to achieve.The objective of this research was therefore to develop a conceptual framework for capacityenhancement of development workers in Botswana. This objective was addressed throughapplying action research in order to gain in-depth understanding of the perspectives, practicesand experiences of the key role players involved in destitute rehabilitation. This was done inone urban district, one semi-urban district and one rural district council in Botswana.This research took place in four phases, all of which were informed by the action researchapproach. The first phase comprised four cycles of action research. Each cycle encouragedreflection and observation on destitute rehabilitation practices and planning towards improvedpractices, followed by implementation. It became evident to the researcher that only singlelooplearning was practiced by the development workers. Therefore, instead of gaining deeperinsight into aspects that influence destitute rehabilitation, the same problems related todestitute rehabilitation practices were repeated by development workers.Reflection on this process created understanding by the researcher on why the expectedresults were not achieved. Based on this reflection, a literature review was carried out inivPhase II to develop the final theoretical and methodological frameworks for this research.Phase III consisted of focus group discussions to understand the perspectives, practices andexperiences of the different role players in destitute rehabilitation. The data produced in PhaseIII enabled understanding of how development workers' capacity was influenced by thesystem within which they are operating. The results of this research showed that developmentworkers saw themselves in the same state of powerlessness as the destitute and as not beingable to influence the system within which they are operating.Phase IV comprised the application of the coding principles of grounded theory to make senseof data related to Phases I and III, followed by the application of critical systems heuristics tomake further sense of the data. Based on the understanding that emerged through theapplication of CSH, a conceptual framework was developed for the capacity enhancement ofdevelopment workers in Botswana.It became evident in this research that the challenge for the government of Botswana is to notonly reduce the number of registered destitute, but to redesign the system within whichdestitute rehabilitation takes place, by using the conceptual framework developed in thisresearch. The purpose of the conceptual framework is to enable policy-makers anddevelopment workers to scrutinise the whole system within which destitute rehabilitation isimplemented by engaging the key role players in dialogue on adjustments that need to bemade to the system to enhance development workers' capacity in destitute rehabilitation.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University