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This study aims to examine the latent capability of alternative-responsible tourism and ecotourism management in sustainable tourism and rural communities' livelihoods in Musina Municipality in Limpopo Province, South Africa, and benchmark the capability with other African countries amid climate change and environmental degradation dilemmas. Hence, the aforementioned objective coordinates with various agrarian locations elsewhere abroad.

Literature reviews, document reviews, interviews, and focus group discussions were employed to gather data, which was enriched by field observation views. To this end, potential climate change-linked environmental degradation, rural tourism, agricultural, and environmental management issues came to the fore.

Environmental degradation poses a possible threat to natural resource management, as evidenced by the rural development, ecotourism and agricultural activities within the study region. Thereupon, environmental degradation supplements the probability of adverse effects from climate change and precarious incomes. According to the research, responsible tourism and ecotourism are vital to promoting sustainability in rural localities.

The plenteous biodiversity of the municipality offers a better scenario for sustainable ecotourism in tandem with agritourism efforts to address the identified ongoing and liability issues. These issues have therefore symbolized the need for an adequate and allied tourism strategy to boost the local people in Musina Municipality and, conceivably, throughout the continent.

At present, the Chinese economy has entered the “new normal” phase with the transformation of development stages from the low-income to the middle-income ones. Accordingly, there appear a series of innovations in development theories. Innovations involve creative destructions. Therefore, innovative development theories at the present stage either deny the prevailing principles of development economics, or deny the theories that once effectively guided development at the low-income stage, or even sublate some of the development polices which were propelled and proved effective at the beginning of the reform and opening-up. The fundamental reason is that, as the development stages evolve, there occur new development tasks, new periodical characteristics and new laws of development. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Any development theory from abroad will find it difficult to correctly guide and clarify development problems in a socialist country, such as the huge population and the extreme imbalance between the urban and the rural and among regional developments.

In conclusion, China, as a large world economy, has made innovations in its economic development theory, which indicates that it intends to perfect itself rather than seek hegemony. As the world’s second largest economy, China should adapt to the transformation and further free people’s minds instead of adhering to the old patterns of thinking. It should think over the path of development for a great world economy from the historical starting point of a large world economy and find development strategies to transform itself from a large economy to a great economy, so as to realize the dream of the Chinese nation to build a powerful country.

Only political economy studies both the relations of production and the productive forces, and only a theory combining both can correctly guide China’s economic development, which especially needs to be promoted by taking advantage of socialist economic system. Therefore, the first and foremost principle for a socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is to insist on liberating and developing productive forces.

This study aims to examine Musina municipality’s tourism development status and plans with existing documents and respondents’ responses on their envisaged implications on tourism development and sustainability initiatives in Vhembe District, Limpopo Province, South Africa.

Surveys, interviews and focus group discussions, supplemented by field observation and document reviews, gray literature alongside published literature, were applied. Subsequently, Microsoft Excel and cross-tabulation analysis orchestrated the analysis of the data.

The policy and strategy aspects contributing to the previous and actual tourism statuses in Musina municipality are defined. The study concludes that Musina Municipality has rich tourism possibilities but lacks a better tourism strategy to empower local communities. Nonetheless, it dwells in the most tourism-based landscape within the Vhembe District of Limpopo.

Musina Municipality is one of the driest areas in the north of Limpopo Province in South Africa. It is also marked by impoverished rural communities. Studies on sustainable tourism and development have increased in recent years. However, rare studies specialize in synergies within various forms of tourism. Also, significant resources to advance local communities in rural areas are not sufficiently appreciated.

This study evaluates prospects of using ecotourism industry to advance community livelihoods in Musina Municipality, Limpopo, South Africa.

Using questionnaire surveys, interviews primarily, supplemented by focus group discussions and interviews, primary data has been collected reflective of the potentiality of ecotouristic activities in Musina Municipality. To a lesser extent, field observations contribute to these primary sources. Extra insights are obtained through documentary reviews (secondary sources). Data is analyzed using quantitative statistical techniques supplemented by qualitative approaches.

The study confirmed substantial ecotourism potential of the Musina Municipality and that this potential is manifest irrespective of geographic and demographic factors. However, the study reports a low current ecotourism impact in the Musina Municipality with consequential minimal benefits accruing to the enhancement of the standard of living in the local community. An inference is made that the key gap area impeding the realization of ecotourism potential in the Musina Municipality is the absence of a well-articulated tourism strategy linked to the sustainable economic development of the communities involved. Several fruitful initiatives for ecotourism consonant with local factor endowments are proposed.

Although, taken in topical isolation, matters of community livelihoods and sustainable development have been increasingly coming to the forefront of research on tourism, few studies have taken a holistic approach predicated on the integration of community livelihood and sustainable development roles of various forms of ecotourism in community development within many rural areas. This study represents the first case study employing an integrated approach to analyze ecotouristic potential of rural Musina Municipality, one of the driest areas in the far North of Limpopo Province, South Africa, characterized by low standard of living juxtaposed with high touristic potential.

This study assesses the “possibilities of utilizing sustainable tourism to improve community sustenance in Musina Municipality, Limpopo, South Africa.”

Therefore, to competently discern the implications of tourism in Musina Municipality, data got accumulated by questionnaire surveys, interviews, focus group discussions, document reviews and field observations. Thus, Microsoft Excel, Spreadsheet and Cross-Tabulation Analysis provided both quantitative and qualitative data analyses.

The study identified immense tourism potentials attached to low tourism influences and privileges on the local community's advancement. The relationships and contributory factors pointing to the present and latent tourism situations in Musina Municipality got critiqued. The study inferred that the Musina Municipality is well enriched with tourism potentials and necessitates a fitting tourism plan to profits the locals.

Musina Municipality is one of the driest districts in the remote North of Limpopo Province, South Africa. It is aggregated by meager livelihoods of rural communities, as do most rural communities abroad. However, the Municipality exemplifies some of the numerous tourism-based areas in the Vhembe District of Limpopo. The undertakings of tourism, community sustenance and sustainable promotion have been more proceeding to the lead. However, diverse investigations neglect to efficiently estimate the fundamental points and the complete functions of multiple forms of tourism in community development within many rural expanses.

The purpose of the study was to determine the major criteria for a credible integrated development planning (IDP) process in Mbombela municipality, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa.

The study utilizes a combination of sequential exploratory and explanatory mixed methods. About 120 key informants participated in the structured questionnaire, and a further seven interviews were conducted as elite interviews. Four multistakeholder workshop sessions with up to sixty-six participants each were conducted.

To strengthen the integrated planning in local government, the study recommended “stakeholder participation and ownership,” “leadership and accountability,” “impact and outcome-based focus,” “a compact value chain” and “monitoring and evaluation.”

The IDP process is a tactical planning gadget designed to achieve transformation and introduce new systems of governance. IDPs currently tend to lack standard criteria to measure their performance in promoting public leadership and responding to community needs, which is a major challenge in many municipalities across South Africa. Since its introduction in 2000 to fast-track service delivery, concerns have been raised about why there are still constant protests alleged to be caused by poor service delivery.

This impact assessment provides empirical evidence from household producer surveys to test the assumptions surrounding the contribution of participatory varietal selection (PVS) activities on seed sector development. The purpose of this paper is to focus on household access and adoption of common bean varieties from seed provision services and local markets to determine if, and under what social conditions, PVS activities stimulated seed uptake and market participation.

The propensity score matching technique and simple regression analysis were used to estimate the impact and compare household performance across three farmer groups located in Hoima, Uganda.

PVS increased access to and adoption of improved varieties and supported additional intermediate development outcomes when farmer group characteristics were aligned with PVS efforts. Specifically, PVS was more likely to stimulate market purchases of newly introduced varieties in the farmer group located closest to markets. The project did not however, improve all the development objectives that were evaluated. PVS most critically, did not increase the probability that households received the specific varieties they desired.

This study found that PVS can support the key pillars of seed sector development. In addition to increasing household access to new varieties, free seed dissemination promoted market participation and stimulated local seed market development.

This study addressed the need to consider intermediate development outcomes in impact assessments of development interventions. The findings clarified the contribution of PVS in the context of broader development goals and identified farmer group dynamics associated with enhanced impacts among rural producers in Uganda.

The nature of the collaborations that exists among the organizations in the climate change and agriculture sectors can influence the tailoring of climate forecasts into information useable for adapting agricultural practices to the risks posed by climate change. Also, the extent to which farmers are integrated into this organizational collaboration network can influence their access to climate information. This paper aims to examine how organizational collaborations in the process of climate information generation and dissemination acts as either barriers or enablers of farmers’ access to and use of climate information in Ghana.

This study used key informant interview and questionnaire survey to interview the organizations in the climate change and agriculture sectors. Using network analysis as an analytical framework, the authors estimated the networks’ core-periphery, density, reciprocity and degree centrality.

The authors observed that communication of climate information to farmers is mostly influenced by the collaborations between governmental organizations and nongovernmental organizations. Nevertheless, information flow and exchange through organizational collaboration network is having limited effect on improving farmers’ knowledge about climate risks, impacts and available risk response options. This is mostly because the feedback flow of information from farmers to national level organizations has not been effective in addressing localized climate/agro challenges.

This paper provides a critical overview of key issues in influencing the relevancy and usefulness of climate information in the Ghanaian agriculture sector. Insights gained and recommendations made are essential for deploying effective climate services in Ghana and can be relevant for many African countries because of similar socioeconomic contexts.

Xi Jinping’s speech on the theme of “Continuously Exploring the New Zeitgeist of Marxist Political Economy in China,” dated back to November 2015, has illuminated the historical background, social roots, practical basis, basic characteristics, Zeitgeist, ideological realm and other issues relative to the development of “Systematic Economic Theory” with Chinese characteristics (hereinafter referred to as SETCC). The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Exploring the SETCC marks a fundamental postulation for the development of contemporary Chinese Marxist political economy, and an important indicator of the Chinese wisdom thereof.

Unswervingly adhering to the new development concept as the leading factor, General Secretary Xi Jinping’s elucidation of the theoretical propositions and practical topics of building a modern economic system has, starting from the five aspects of development mainline, strategic support, fundamental approach, necessary road and institutional guarantee, and their interrelationships, unfolded new connotations and opened up a new realm of Xi’s New Economic Zeitgeist with new explorations on the structure and system of SETCC.

This paper first explains the development of Xi Jinping’s economic thoughts and reveals its systematization characteristics.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of Islamic microfinance services (IMFS) on women’s empowerment in rural Bangladesh.

The study is based on a multi-stage sampling technique. The primary data are collected through a face-to-face survey of 389 women respondents who have received IMFS from the Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited. Cronbach’s alpha test is conducted to test the reliability and internal consistency of collected data. Paired-sample tests, logit regression and proportion hypothesis tests are conducted to measure the impact of IMFS on women’s empowerment. Descriptive and inferential statistics are used to interpret the data.

The study reveals that IMFS have led to structural transformation in the occupation dynamics of the respondents’ families from agriculture to retail businesses. IMFS have had a significant positive impact on household income, savings and expenditure; have improved standard of living and human capital formation; and have enhanced all three dimensions of empowerment, namely, economic empowerment (ECEM), socio-cultural empowerment (SCEM) and familial empowerment (FLEM). Of them, ECEM and SCEM have positively contributed toward overall women’s empowerment, while FLEM has a negative but insignificant impact on overall empowerment. The respondents’ perception also supports the finding that IMFS have benefited rural women and empowered them.

The study is based on primary data. It leads to an inquiry as to whether women are dominant in familial affairs. If so, it may reduce the state of happiness and overall women’s empowerment. There is a clear gap in the existing literature about this inquiry.