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UCT RESEARCH REPORT 2012
Development Policy
Research Unit
The Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU) specialises
in socio-economic research with a focus on labour
markets, poverty and inequality. The DPRU’s mandate
is to undertake academically sound, high-quality policy
relevant research; to maintain and develop effective
networks with government, civil society and the research
community in Southern Africa; to engage in training
and teaching activities; and to participate directly in the
process of formulating, implementing and evaluating
policy. The DPRU further aims to train a new generation
of research economists within the unit. During 2012 the
DPRU continued its engagement with labour-market
issues, and its partnership with the Africa Growth Initiative
(AGI) at the Brookings Institution has also been highly
successful. The AGI aims to raise the African voice in
global policy debates on Africa and the partnership has
resulted in the publicationof two labour-market policy
papers. The Labour Market Intelligence Partnership, was
formally launched in September 2012 by the Minister
of Higher Education and Training, and focuses on
creating a credible labour-market intelligence framework
to ensure better information-gathering, analysis and
overall systems synergy.
Director: Professor H Bhorat
E-mail: haroon.bhorat@uct.ac.za
Web: http://www.dpru.uct.ac.za
Southern Africa Labour and
Development Research Unit
The Southern Africa Labour and Development Research
Unit (SALDRU) conducts research directed at improving
the well-being of South Africa's poor. It was established
in 1975 and played a central role in documenting the
human costs of apartheid through conferences and the
Second Carnegie Enquiry into Poverty and Development
in South Africa (1983–1986). From 1992 to 1994 SALDRU
co-ordinated South Africa's first non-racial national living
standards sample survey and, in the post-apartheid period,
it has continued to gather data and conduct research
directed at informing and assessing anti-poverty policy.
SALDRU hosts the J-PAL Africa, the regional office for
Africa of J-PAL. SALDRU's largest contemporary project
is the running of South Africa's first national longitudinal
survey of well-being, the National Income Dynamics Study,
on behalf of the Presidency. Every year SALDRU offers
extensive training in the analysis of survey data to a broad
array of South Africa's academics, graduate students and
researchers from NGOs and government.
Director: Professor M Leibbrandt
E-mail: murray.leibbrandt@uct.ac.za
Web: http://www.saldru.uct.ac.za
Health Economics Unit
The Health Economics Unit (HEU) was established in
early 1990 in the School of Public Health and Family
Medicine and was accredited as a formal research entity
in the university in 2007. The HEU works to improve
the performance of health systems through informing
health policy and enhancing technical and managerial
capacity in sub-Saharan Africa. Its foundation is academic
excellence in health economics and management. The
core objectives of the HEU are to conduct high-quality
research in health economics, health policy, and systems;
to develop capacity in health economics, health policy,
and systems research in Africa through postgraduate
training and related capacity development initiatives; and
to translate research findings into policy and practice.
Director: Associate Professor S Cleary
E-mail: susan.cleary@uct.ac.za
Web: http://heu-uct.org.za/
Centre for Social Science
Research
The Centre for Social Science Research (CSSR) is an inter-
disciplinary research centre dedicated to conducting
and building capacity for systematic, evidence-based,
policy-relevant, replicable social science research
in South Africa and across Africa. CSSR projects are
usually team-oriented, bringing together multiple local
and international researchers, and offering postgraduate
students significant opportunities for hands-on training.
Substantively, the CSSR conducts research in the broad
areas of globalisation, industrialisation, democratisation,
development, poverty, and public health. The four units
that comprise the CSSR conduct research on a range of
social dynamics, using survey data (especially the Cape
Area Panel Survey and the Cape Area Survey) and related
qualitative data, a range of issues around democratisation
in South and Southern Africa, using public-opinion data
but also creating new systematic databases on elections,
legislatures and local government, the social impact
of HIV/AIDS, including issues of parenting, disclosure,
sexual behaviour and public welfare, and on globalisation,
industrialisation, innovation, and the dynamics of global
value chains on developing-country industrial sectors.
Director: Professor J Seekings
E-mail: jeremy.seekings@uct.ac.za
Web: http://www.cssr.uct.ac.za/
Research Groupings
associated with this theme