Economic empowerment of housing beneficiaries

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A premise of this thesis is that too much emphasis is still placed on dealing with thecrisis of housing provision, rather than planning for housing development in SouthAfrica. Little consideration is given to the economic improvement of the housingbeneficiaries. The following research question was posed: What can and should bedone in order for housing beneficiaries to become economically empowered?Government has the obligation to enhance and maintain the personal social welfare ofits inhabitants. Housing is part of a package of social welfare services that includesphysical health as well as the incorporeal element within a human being. Housing isalso a process of how people came to be housed, starting at the moment when theyfirst apply for a house.Economic empowerment should be linked to the four dimensions of development, i.e.equity, capacity-building, participation, self-reliance. Equity leads to economicempowerment by providing equal access to economic opportunities. capacity-buildinghas aspects of developing skills, providing access to, and establishing supportivestructures for economic empowerment. Participation is concerned with achievingpower to influence decisions. Finally, self-reliance is linked to economic empowermentbecause it refers to the ability of people to produce most of its basic needs as well asproducing surpluses with which to trade for those commodities and services which itdoes not produce efficiently itself (Burkey, 1993:51).Economic empowerment of housing beneficiaries implies a micro, individual level focusof economic development. According to Gildenhuys (1993:26) economic welfare refersto the development of the economic and material welfare and prosperity of theindividual. Apart from a micro focus, a multi-objective focus is required forsustainability. According to Dalal-Clayton and Bass (2000:12), sustainabledevelopment entails balancing economic, social and environmental objectives. Finally,there are two dimensions to economic empowerment, namely, empowerment of thehousing beneficiaries, as well as empowerment of development facilitators.Evidence of shortcomings of development projects relating to economic empowermentwas provided in this thesis by means of applying the findings of an empirical researchproject in Wesbank to economic empowerment. The research explored themanagement processes that were implemented that eventually resulted in outcomesnot being desirable. It was explained that the initial scattering of opportunities toemerging contractors was not part of a concerted approach for the primarybeneficiaries to become economically empowered. This housing development projectdid not only fail to ensure economic empowerment, but also denied the housingbeneficiaries what little economic activity they were involved in prior to the move. TheWesbank evidence was also linked to the views and findings of various authoritativesources that confirmed that government development projects in general, have anunfortunate track record when it comes to economic empowerment of so-calledbeneficiaries.Two case studies from the United States were used to illustrate that integrateddevelopment provides the context for the economic empowerment of housingbeneficiaries.Four economic development foci then provided the framework within which solutionswere formulated: residential dispersal and mobility, enhancing the capacity of housingbeneficiaries, investing in economic empowerment of women, and changing themindset of the developers. This framework embodies the how of economicempowerment of housing beneficiaries.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University