Browsing by Author "Kilonzo, Rehema G"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

Adopting a combination of labour-saving mechanisms for increasing rural women’s participation in livelihood strategies in Busega district in Tanzania
(Brill Academic Publishers in The African Review, 2022) Ngowi, Edwin E; Ngusa, Deborah A.; Kilonzo, Rehema G
The paper aims at examining rural women’s adoption of a combination of labour-saving mechanisms such as improved water supplies and harvesting techniques, cooking facilities and means of transport for household chores with its implications in diversi- fying livelihood strategies in Busega District of Tanzania. The study adopted Diffusion of Innovations Theory to explain the importance of adopting labour-saving mecha- nisms to reduce rural women’s workload and save time for diversifying livelihood strat- egies. The study employed cross-sectional research design to collect data from 210 rural women. Household survey, interviews, focus group discussions and non-participant observations were used to collect primary data. Cross-tabulation, One-way ANOVA, five point Likert scale and multiple logistic regression were employed to analyse quan- titative data. Content analysis was employed to analyse qualitative data. The study revealed that, 61.43% of rural women were limited to adopt any kind of labour-saving mechanisms. In addition, the multiple logistic regression revealed significant differ- ences at p-value of 0.05 for the likelihood of diversifying livelihood strategies. As such, rural women’s participation in livelihood strategies differed greatly based on the abil- ity to adopt labour-saving mechanisms for reducing the workload of household chores. The study recommends that development stakeholders should implement develop- ment programmes centred on increasing prospects of adopting a combination of labour-saving mechanisms for reducing the burden of household chores to save time for diversifying livelihood strategies.
Placing social development at the centre of Africa’s economic growth and livelihoods nexus
(2015) Kilonzo, Rehema G; Ngowi, Edwin E
Introduction A major characteristic of the interdisciplinary field of development studies since its establishment in the 1940s has been a series of sea-level changes in analytical thinking about the process of development itself (Potter et al. 2004). This search for new theo- retical conceptualisations of development has been mirrored by changes in the practice of development in the field. As such, there has been much debate and controversy about development, with many changing views and highly contested strategies. How- ever, the dominant view for the last couple of years has been that social development in Africa has been side-lined to economic growth (Desai and Potter 2011). This chapter provides a deep discussion while drawing on examples from the existing literature on social development and economic growth. Development as a general term has been interpreted into two ways. One is econom- ically orientated, dealing mostly with economic structures, and the other is social, fo- cusing on improving the capabilities of people’s daily lives and their well-being (Crush 1995). The economic interpretation follows the framework that assumes the behaviour of the individual to be rational, self-interested and market oriented. The hypothesis is that these individuals live outside historical, social and geographical contexts (Piron 2004), and as a result, the conditions of development in some developing countries go unrecognised. Despite efforts to enhance social policy in African states, economic cri- teria continue to dominate policy design, as is the case in many developing countries. This brings challenges regarding models of development, partly a result of structural adjustment economic reforms that increased their influence in development policy processes. This made the reforms extend from managing resources and ensuring finan- cial practicability, to establishing the strategic directions for medium and long term growth (Sen 2000)