School of Built Environment & Development Studies

Dr Sithembiso Myeni

	Position	Post-doctoral Fellow
	Discipline
	Phone	031 260 3374
	Email	Myenis1@ukzn.ac.za
	Campus	Howard College
	Office Address	Room F194 Memorial Tower Building,

Bio

• Sithembiso Myeni graduated from Durban University of Technology (Diploma in Public Management and Bachelor of Technology in Public Management), then University of KwaZulu-Natal (Master of Development Studies), and the University of Manchester (PhD in Development Policy and Management). His areas of broad interests are political parties, local governance, gender and politics, state reform and service delivery. Prior to joining UKZN, he worked as a principal investigator in a collaborative research project on women and political parties for the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) and National Democratic Institute for International Affairs – SA (NDA –SA).
• From 2004-2007, Sithembiso worked as a researcher on a number of research projects for the CGE, such as the 2005 Gender Opinion Survey; HIV/AIDS and the Elderly; Widowhood; and Women and Local Governance. He is also participating in on-going field research with Prof Bracking, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, UK, on black economic empowerment policy and economic justice, which is exploring the views of business people on how government policy is working with respect to helping historically disadvantaged people in the private sector.

Research

• His current research within the SARCHi Chair for Applied Poverty Reduction Assessment research programme (under Sarah Bracking) explores the relationship between housing programmes and poverty reduction in South Africa with a focus on the role of local government in service delivery and implementation. This research is bringing in to view the complex and fluid interconnections between modern and traditional structures (or formal and informal institutions) in the provision of houses in rural areas, and the distributional consequences of these for those needing homes.
• Sithembiso is focusing on a project with the title, Poverty Reduction and Housing Programme(s) in South Africa
• Since 1994 the South African government, through its National Housing Subsidy Scheme (NHSS), has embarked on the large-scale provision of state-subsidised housing to low-income households across the country. The NHSS currently consists of the Integrated Residential Development Programme (IRDP), individual subsidy, consolidation subsidy, Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme (FLISP), institutional subsidy and rural subsidy. Moreover, in spite of the high political profile of subsidised housing provision in South Africa, and its simultaneous contribution to poverty reduction and political unrest, there is a surprising dearth of consolidated information and research around the programmes, policies and practices, particularly the selection and allocation process as well as their impacts on poverty reduction. This project seeks to investigate the complexity and multi-scalar governance of various policies, processes and practices operating at national, provincial and local levels in the implementation of rural subsidy schemes and programmes. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods including in-depth interviews, documentary analysis and household surveys, we document the effectiveness of rural housing programmes (or rural subsidy schemes) to poverty reduction as implemented by Jozini Municipality since inception. From this, we then make an assessment of the development impact of rural housing and highlight lessons, successes and challenges in the service delivery process.