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Engaging civil society organisations in food security governance in the Western Cape
(2021) Prof J May; Mr T Görgens
Even before the Covid lockdown, many households across the province struggled to access enough nutritious food for a healthy life. This leads to high levels of childhood stunting, adult and child obesity and a prevalence of Non-Communicable Diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. The Western Cape Strategic Framework for the Provincial Strategic Plan (PSP) (2019-2024) identifies food security as one of four cross-cutting themes, while food assistance is one of the specific interventions of the Western Cape Recovery Plan (2021). Furthermore, The Western Cape Government has recognised that improving food and nutrition outcomes calls for a Whole of Society Approach and has acknowledged its appreciation of new partnerships formed with civil society in the wake of the negative impacts of Covid-19. However, partnering between different parts of society is not always straightforward, requiring reflection and adjustment over time. The Covid-19 lockdown and resulting economic and social shock both heightened the food security crisis in the province and, at the same time, led to a massive mobilisation of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) involved in emergency food relief. This presented an ideal window to assess the changing CSO landscape in relation to food, the evolving relationships between CSOs and government as well as the potential implications both for ongoing food relief provision and for food governance more widely after the Covid crisis. To date, the project has achieved important milestones: • A stakeholder meeting was held (via Zoom) on 23rd June 2020. A record of the meeting can be read here. One hundred seven participants took part via Zoom and another 100+ watched on youtube. The stakeholder meeting took the form of a meeting of the Food Governance Community of Practice (COP), which are regular meetings organised by the research team and related to another CHEC/WCG project ‘Co-producing knowledge for resilient food systems in the Western Cape’. The meeting was, however, expanded to include CSO representatives who are generally not part of these meetings. • Desk-based documentary analysis of over 250 media articles, working papers, research reports, and webinars relating to the impacts of the lockdown on the food system in South Africa have been collated and analysed. These documents touch on subjects such as food relief, informal food trade, community gardens, digital food etc. • A member of the research team participated in all of the regular meetings of the Western Cape NGO-Government Food Relief Coordination Forum since 28th May 2020. These meetings have been facilitated by the Western Cape Economic Development Partnership (WCEDP) and were refocused as the Food Forum in October 2020. The reports of the meetings and participant lists have fed into this research both directly as data and also as a resource to help identify potential interviewees. • Over 50 in depth one hour interviews have been conducted with CSO representatives and government officials. These have been transcribed and then analysed according to emerging themes using qualitative data analysis software (Atlas.ti). • A second, smaller, stakeholder meeting was held (via zoom) on 11 May 2021 to feedback and refine the results of the research before finalising the working 3 paper. Forty four participants took part in this meeting. A summary of the main points from this meeting can be found here. • A Centre of Excellence Working Paper has been published on the CoE website reflecting the main findings of the research. This 68 page report is available here. • A 15 minutes podcast has been posted on the CoE website to summarise the research results in an assessable manner. The podcast is available here. • Presentations of the research findings have been made at various fora including the Food Governance Community of Practice (11 May 2021); the Food Forum (20 May 2021); the City of Cape Town Food Systems Working Group (8 July 2021); and the Mensch Food Affinity Group (5 August 2021). • Further dissemination material not specified in the original proposal is also in the pipeline, including a 5 minute film and a short media article. This research is part of the ongoing research initiated in part from the discussions of the Food Governance Community of Practice. The findings contribute to long standing questions about how to broaden and deepen the input of civil society stakeholders in food governance in the province.
Identifying barriers to accessing health care for chronic wounds in the Khayelitsha sub-district: A mixed-methods study
(2020) Kathryn Chu
A chronic wound can be defined as a skin defect that has not healed within three months and has an immense physical, psychological, and financial impact on individuals and their caregivers. Chronic pain, reduced mobility, emotional distress, social isolation, loss of income, and amputation-related disabilities from chronic wounds, all lead to a diminished quality of life. A massive burden is placed on the healthcare system by chronic wounds. Chronic wound care is labour intense requiring frequent wound care visits over a period of months to years. The human resources and dressing consumables needed make it a costly condition to treat. Majority of chronic wound care is provided by nurses at primary level facilities. However, if wounds are poorly managed due to a lack of resources, services, or inappropriate referrals, there is an increased risk of ongoing complications. The successful management of a chronic wound requires a well-functioning and robust healthcare system which includes adequate services, resources, and referral pathways for chronic wound care. Access to care is a complex pathway and is affected by multiple factors. Delays in accessing health care can be categorized using the Four Delays Framework which outlines delays in seeking care, reaching care, receiving care, and retaining care. To assist in providing optimal care, barriers to accessing care need to be identified and addressed. The Khayelitsha health district is one of the most impoverished areas in the city and serves a population of 391 749 people. The public health care facilities that serve the Khayelitsha health district include ten primary health care clinics, one district hospital, and one tertiary hospital. In the Khayelitsha health district, there is little known regarding the existing services, resources, and referral pathways for persons with chronic wounds. This study highlights that chronic wound care is an immense, unmet need that calls for a better understanding of existing pathways to health care with the goal to identify barriers to chronic wound care and suggest solutions to strengthen the health system. One of the priority themes of the Western Cape Government (WCG) is Empowering People. This can be achieved through improving health through health systems strengthening. In order to improve the healthcare system, we must be aware of what the system offers and how effectively it functions. Only then will be able to identify barriers and propose solutions to strengthen the system as a whole. Academia plays a critical role in providing gaps in knowledge of barriers to seeking, reaching, receiving, and retaining care for chronic wounds. This situational analysis of wound care management in the Western Cape highlights barriers to accessing and providing wound care, as well as helps empower stakeholders, including patients, wound care providers, and community members to take ownership of their role in wound care pathway. Access to care for persons with chronic wounds living in the Khayelitsha health district and the barriers faced are not known. By understanding the available services, resources, and referral pathways for chronic wound care, the barriers and gaps can be identified easier. After identifying barriers, possible solutions and recommendations will be made that in turn would assists in providing optimal care and lead to better clinical outcomes and improved patient quality of life.
Development of a credible business confidence survey methodology and instrument for the City of Cape Town
(2023) Mr R Wolpe; Dr T Chivige
This project is being funded by the Consortium for Higher Education in the Cape (CHEC). The City of Cape Town wants to explore the use of a Busijness Confidence Index (BCI) survey/ index to improve the availability of local economic intelligence and data on the performance of the Cape Town economy. The City of Cape Town already publishes Economic Performance Indicators for Cape Town (EPIC) on a quarterly basis1. The OECD (https://www.oecd.org/sdd/leading-indicators/31837055.pdf) in 2023 developed a Handbook stating the following: “Business Tendency Surveys are carried out to obtain qualitative information for use in monitoring the current business situation and forecasting short-term developments. Information from these surveys has proved of particular value in forecasting turning points in the business cycle. The purpose of this Handbook is to show how these surveys are designed and carried out, how the results are processed and how they can be used for economic analysis”. Ideally, business confidence levels in the Cape Town economy need to be compared to business confidence index levels in other Metropolitan cities and/or national business confidence levels wherever this may be feasible so to inform a comparative analysis of business confidence levels. The following points of departure are informing this Cape Town business confidence survey methodology project: 1. The methodology will be informed by a review of existing business confidence surveys in South Africa. This will include exploring whether it is possible for the proposed survey methodology to replicate existing survey methodologies in important aspects so as to allow comparability in survey results (either national surveys and/or other local business confidence surveys). 2. The methodology will seek to build on existing business confidence survey initiatives wherever possible. This will require exploratory discussions with the Bureau of Economic Research and potentially others. 3. The methodology will seek to balance the need to obtain timeous/ rapid / regular insights and feedback on business confidence with the need to ensure a crediblesample and sufficient number of respondents that addresses issues such as the level of confidence and margin of error when interpreting the survey results. Van Rooyen (2011)2 summarises some of the literature on what business confidence is and why it is important as follows: According to Pellissier (2002: 52), business confidence means “the degree of sentiment towards risk-taking by business for whatever reason”. The concept of business confidence is a valuable tool for measuring the prevailing economic climate. Research has shown that business-conditions surveys (the term preferred by Aylmer & Gill 2003:19) help us to predict business behaviour (Collins 2001: 1). An increase in business confidence might increase private investment in fixed capital goods, which will also eventually support economic growth. A decline in business confidence suggests that people are uncertain about the prospects of their company’s performance and in the business environment within which the company operates (Aylmer & Gill 2003; Kershoff 2000: 2–4). The BER has found that business confidence index levels are good indicator for the business cycle. Key progress to date has involved an initial literature review, the development of an BCI methodology framework document and conducting key informant interviews with five following organisations involved in existing BCI surveys in South Africa.
Modelling the Long-term Salinization of the Cape Flats Aquifer in the Philippi Horticultural Area
(2024) Prof. N. Jovanovic; Ms. Erin Plato; Mr Clinton Andries
For decades, the City of Cape Town relied heavily on groundwater as its primary source of supply for agricultural activity in the Phillipi Horticultural Area (PHA). Groundwater is extracted from boreholes, held in holding ponds, and then used for crop irrigation. The IPCC expects that semi-arid regions in the Southern Hemisphere will be the most affected by rising surface temperatures, decreased rainfall, and increased evaporation. This increase will put tremendous pressure on the quality and quantity of groundwater resources. This study hypothesizes that if groundwater and irrigation holding ponds are subjected to climate variability forces, groundwater and irrigation water salinity will increase. This study aims to develop a three-dimensional steady state model to estimate the extent to which irrigation-induced salinity affected groundwater in the past and present. Moreover, another aim is to assess how future climate change scenarios and increased groundwater abstraction may affect the salinity of Cape Flats Aquifer (CFA). Groundwater levels and chloride concentrations were used to calibrate the groundwater flow and transport model for the past state and validate the model for the present state using MODFLOW and MT3D codes respectively. Then, a variable density model (SEAWAT) was used to delineate the freshwater-saltwater interface for past and present states. Thereafter, the validated model has been used to simulate the impacts of three projected Global Climate Models under Socioeconomic Pathways 245 and 585 (i.e. an average of long-term rainfall, predicted rainfall 2050-2060 and 2090 -2100) on groundwater recharge and groundwater solute concentrations. From the existing Global Climate models (HadGEM3-GC31-LL, AWI-CM-1-1-MR, BBC-CSM2-MR) under Shared Socioeconomic Pathway 245 and 585, one climate model, HadGEM3-GC31-LL, was selected to perform sensitivity analysis of abstraction scenarios. The results of this study found that depth to water decreased from 18 to 16m from winter to summer in regions of the aquifer with clay lenses. Moreover, the chloride concentration is greater in the summer season compared to the winter season (e.g. Borehole EM-08) for most boreholes for both past and present state. As a result of summer irrigation more saline water has a higher chance of being recharged compared to winter where rainfall may act to dilute the aquifer. The HadGEM3-GC31-LL was selected as it is widely used in climate studies for weather generation for the future state. The results showed that the SSP245 (2050-2060) scenario had a slightly lower salinity (less than 10%) when compared with the SSP585 (2050-2060). Lower rainfall during SSP585 has led to a slight increase in salinity when compared to SSP245, probing the need to abstract more water and overall increasing irrigation return flow. Moreover, the seawater freshwater interface has encroached much further inland in the SSP585 scenario in comparison with the SSP245 scenario. This study is important to inform farmers to improve water management, especially if abstraction rates should be significantly higher in the future, on which crops to plant currently as most of the plants are sensitive to moderately sensitive to salt. The farmers are advised to improve irrigation techniques and plant salt-resistant crops in future, especially under increased abstraction scenarios. The municipality is advised to monitor the water quality of the Cape Flats Aquifer as the municipality plans to augment the domestic water supply during time of low rainfall.
Improving Communication to Improve Services: Strengthening Sanitation Servicing in Informal Settlements
(2023) Prof Fiona Anciano; Dr Mmeli Dube; Mfundo Majola; Yanga Dubula
This project was motivated by the overarching theme of building ‘local responsiveness for a better future’. The work focussed on how the City of Cape Town (CCT) can better understand, engage, and respond to the needs and imaginaries of residents in informal settlements in relation to sanitation provision. Specifically we looked at the servicing and maintenance of Container Based Sanitation (CBS). The City works in this area to provide alternate sanitation technologies such as CBS in areas where the provision of waterborne sanitation is not possible or feasible. The research secondly supported the City in enhancing approaches to working with and for citizens of Cape Town in the areas of active citizenship and citizen generated data. The research explored what type of resident-state engagement residents of informal settlements desire and how this relates to current CCT communication platforms. The research focussed on BM Section in Khayelitsha and employed several methods including: a) focus groups with residents; b) workshops with residents of BM Section and CCT; c) tracking of servicing requests by residents and d) a survey. We found that residents would strongly prefer to report service requests to a person rather than through digital channels. Most digital channels are not know about or user friendly to residents, due to poor information sharing and high data costs/lack of access to WIFI. The most promising digital channel for logging requests is WhatsApp. Even when provided with data residents were inactive in using digital channels to report faults. Residents would however like to be more involved in the servicing chain, by for example, being trained to provide repairs. There was a strong desire for a more engaged form of communication, beyond information sharing and towards co-creation of solutions.