Bachelor of Arts Honours in Rural Development

Purpose:

The Bachelor of Arts Honours in Rural Development [B.A. Honours (Rural Development)] is designed to adequately ground the learners in rural development imperatives and equip them with skills as well as with knowledge of how to conduct solution-oriented research. Thus, with the B.A Honours (Rural Development) learners will be prepared for studies in Masters and PhD studies. Upon successful completion of the qualification, the learner will be able to:

• Interrogate the knowledge from multiple sources about the rural development landscape.
• Show an understanding, and an ability to use diverse methods, techniques and tools to solve rural community challenges.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the complex nature and operations of non-governmental organisations (NGOs); community-based organisations (CBOs); cooperatives; and Microfinance Institutions (MFIs).
• Apply techniques of independent scientific research and enquiry process.
• Manage a project in a rural area based on an understanding of the roles and relationships between elements within the rural communities.

Rationale:

The Bachelor of Arts Honours in Rural Development, at NQF Level 8 is a professional Degree that seeks to address poverty and underdevelopment that haves become major societal challenges throughout the world. As long as these problems persist, the search for sustainable solutions will remain on the global social justice and development agendas.

In South Africa, more than 47% of the people reside in areas that are classified as 'rural' (Statistics South Africa, 2003). Almost 75% of the rural population lives in poverty. Lack of consensus of what constitutes poverty; ineffective leadership for development; substandard communication infrastructure; high levels of household food insecurity; sub-optimal provision of basic services, the HIV and AIDS pandemic; lack of employable skills which precipitate high underdevelopment and unemployment rates; poor infrastructure; high illiteracy rates; lack of community voice due to inadequate involvement in decision making processes (especially children, women and youth) and the perception that rural people are 'un-bankable' are some of the major issues that constrain development in Southern Africa.

Moreover, the search for appropriate and sustainable solutions to the land question and climate change continue to dominate the agenda of rural development. This qualification seeks to address the problem of implementation of policies and programmes development practitioners in private establishments, government bodies and NGOs face. It also assists with further development of competencies of identifying, analysing and addressing typical diverse and complex socio-economic development problems.