Making the means justify the ends?: the theory and practice of the RDP

Item

Title

Making the means justify the ends?: the theory and practice of the RDP

Description

So much has been said and written about the Reconstruction and Development Programme by a bewildering array of development specialists, politicians, bureaucrats and commentators that it seems inconceivable that anyone familiar with policy debates would still lack an understanding of it. But amid the speeches, publications, policy documents and newspaper articles, the RDP has lost its meaning and coherence. It has come to mean anything anyone wants it to mean; with a little ingenuity, anything can be made to fit in with the goals of the RDP. It has thus become too broad and imprecise to refer only to what was originally intended. This paper offers an analysis of the RDP's approach at national and provincial levels, and provides a conceptual framework within which the RDP's Basic Needs approach to development is assessed. It forms part of a continuing project which seeks to examine the RDP and its implementation by the provinces, and was based on interviews with provincial and national RDP officials, development planners in the provinces, and a thorough content analysis of official policy documents, memoranda and minutes. The institutionalisation of the RDP will be examined by analysing problems faced in the course of implementing it in the provinces. Gauteng, Mpumalanga and North West were chosen as case studies; w'hile they were selected randomly, the goal was to examine three provinces with different socio-economic profiles, allowing significant lessons to be extrapolated from their short experience of implementing the RDP. Their priorities and strategic approaches will be assessed, and problems examined, to suggest lessons for policy and planning that might throw light on similar issues in other provinces. Finally, the paper will analyse indications that the government is making subtle strategic changes towards rearticulating the RDP within a new time frame, and moving towards a tightly co-ordinated set of institutional structures and intergovernmental planning systems.,Social policy series

Subject

South Africa -- Economic policy

Reconstruction and Development Programme (South Africa)

Identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10962/74783

Creator

Rapoo, Thabo

Rights

Centre for Policy Studies

Rights Holder

Centre for Policy Studies

Provenance

The item is held at the Cory Library for Humanities Research, Rhodes University, on behalf of the Labour Research Service

Type

text

Extent

33 pages

Format

pdf

Language

English

useGuidelines

The materials are made available explicitly for research and educational purposes. Any use of these materials must be cleared with the Labour Research Service.

Publisher

Centre for Policy Studies

Date

[1996]

Item sets

General Materials

Media

vital_30338+SOURCE1+SOURCE1.0.pdf