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UCT RESEARCH REPORT 2012
management; fisheries; behavioural aspects of natural
resource management including risk preferences and
cooperative behavior.
In 2012, EPRU was coordinated by Mare Sarr (Director)
and Jane Turpie (Research Convener). In addition, EPRU
has four senior research fellows (Anthony Black, Martine
Visser, Edwin Muchapondwa and Mare Sarr); seven
junior research fellows (Kerri Brick, Reviva Hasson,
Sunday Adewara, Byela Tibesigwa, Grant Smith, Sue
Snyman and Coretha Komba); an administration officer
(Libbi Downes) and four domestic research associates
(Stephanie Giamporcaro, Precious Zikhali, Harald
Winkler and Andrew Marquard). A number of PhD and
master’s students are also being funded and supervised
by EPRU. In 2013, Anthony Leiman is set to direct EPRU.
EPRU’s research fellows are actively involved in teaching
Environment and Natural Resource Economics, both
within the School of Economics and in the broader
university. Our research fellows have been particularly
prolific with a publication record of 16 papers in
reputable international and local journals, 4 discussion
papers and a book chapter.
EPRU has collaborated with a number of local and national
stakeholders on medium-size projects; these collaborators
include South African National Parks in the wildlife sector,
The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry in the
water sector, The Department of Environmental Affairs
and Tourism on marine and coastal management, The
Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and the
City of Cape Town on air quality management and energy
savings. Increasingly the unit’s efforts are being channelled
into research outputs accessible to policy makers.
Southern Africa Labour and
Development Research Unit
(SALDRU)
The Southern Africa Labour and Development Research
Unit (SALDRU) carries out research in applied empirical
microeconomics with an emphasis on labour markets,
human capital, poverty, inequality and social policy.
SALDRU is governed by an executive committee. It strives
for academic excellence and policy relevance.
SALDRU was founded in 1975 and, in the apartheid
years, conducted a number of surveys revealing the
negative impacts of apartheid on the population. In
the post-apartheid period, SALDRU has continued
to gather data and conduct research directed at
informing and assessing anti-poverty policy. Recent
survey projects include the ongoing Cape Area Panel
Study, the Financial Diaries Project, the Public Work
Research Project and the Quality of Life Survey. In
2006 the Presidency awarded SALDRU the tender
to set up and conduct the base wave of South
Africa's first national panel study of well-being, the
National Income Dynamics Study. In 2009 and 2011,
respectively, SALDRU won the tenders for the second
and third waves of NIDS. Fieldwork for the third wave
was conducted in 2012. In January 2011 J-PAL Africa
was launched as a project within SALDRU. Linked
to a global network of researchers, J-PAL Africa is
building capacity within Africa to run randomized
impact evaluations of anti-poverty programmes. In 2012
the National Treasury asked SALDRU to run a national
project to stimulate and support research in three
areas; employment, income distribution and inclusive
growth. Three national research groups are being put
in place to undertake this work.
Currently SALDRU's research team includes a Director
(Professor Murray Leibbrandt), a permanent Associate
Professor, the Executive Director of J-PAL Africa, a
Chief Research Officer, a Senior Research Officer, 3
Post-doctoral Fellows, a Survey Manager, 2 researchers,
19 research associates from within the School of
Economics, 4 honorary research associates. There
are 19 research affiliates, reflecting SALDRU’s active
national and international research collaborators. The
NIDS survey office is run by the survey manager and
contains 7 dedicated staff and, during fieldwork, up to
30 temporary staff members. The J-PAL Africa office is
run by the Executive Director, Kamilla Gumede, and has
two research managers and four research assistants.
Aside from the National Income Dynamics Study and the
work of J-PAL Africa, current research work falls into the
following research themes:
•
Post-apartheid Poverty, Employment, Education,
Health and Migration dynamics In 2012 our key
funders were the NRF Research Chair in Poverty and
Inequality Research, the NRF Programme, Grand
Challenges, Social Dynamics, European Union’s
NoPoor Consortium, the National Institutes of
Child Health and Development, the Presidency’s
Programme to Support Pro-poor Policy Development,
the National Treasury and the Centre of Higher
Education Transformation.
•
Fertility and Intergenerational Transfers (funded by the
Hewlett Foundation and Population Reference Bureau).
•
Social Protection, Public Works and the Labour Force
(funded by the International Development Research
Centre, the Ford Foundation and the British ESRC).
•
The Economics of Tobacco Control in Africa (funded
in 2011 by the American Cancer Society (ACS) and
in 2012 by the ACS and the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation).