Transfers, taxes and tariffs: fiscal instruments and urban statecraft in Cape Town, South Africa

Cirolia, Liza Rose; Robbins, Glen

doi:10.1080/23792949.2021.1921599

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Similarly, a study ( 13 ) exploring the systematic adoption of mobile health technology named financial and economic barriers as the top three factors affecting the implementation and scaling-up of mobile health tools. Data prices in South Africa are high despite efforts to reduce them, and the unemployment rate in South Africa was cited as being at an all-time high in 2021; and ( 14 ) as a result, many people cannot afford to buy data monthly. Although the RTHA is designed to work offline, some participants, especially new users, reported that the app does not work when they do not have mobile data.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A qualitative study to explore strategies to improve the Road to Health Application for maternal and child health outcomes in South Africa

Dietrich

Tsotetsi²,

Dubazane³

et al. 2023

Front. Digit. Health

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BackgroundThe Road to Health Application (RTHA) is essentially a digitalized version of the National Department of Health’s Road to Health book, and a hand-printed booklet given to mothers at the birth of each baby. The RTHA, like the booklet, provides guidelines for maternal and child health outcomes, with the goal of creating a database of children and caregivers in South Africa and teaching them how to raise a healthy child. This paper explored potential barriers and enablers to using the RTHA in the South African context based on user experiences.MethodsUsing a qualitative design, we conducted 50 serial interviews (two separate interviews, 1 month apart). Through convenience, sampling eligible participants were 18 years or older women who were pregnant and/or had a child under the age of 5 years. Participants included 25 existing users and 25 new users of the RTHA, who owned android smart phones at enrollment. Existing users were recruited telephonically through the National Department of Health database, and new users were approached at the antenatal care unit and wellness baby clinic (women with children under 5 years) at the Chris Hani Baragwaneth Academic Hospital. Upon enrollment, participants completed a brief survey on sociodemographics and mobile phone use, and thereafter, they had a baseline interview followed by a telephonic interview 1 month later. A semistructured interview guide was used to explore barriers, enablers, and the usability of the RTHA. Using thematic data analysis, we identified enablers and barriers to the use of the RTHA.ResultsA third (33%) of all participants reported IsiZulu as their main language of communication, and 6% of the participants reported English as their main language of communication. The RTHA was an important addition to the booklet that helped keep new mothers informed about child immunization and provided important information about healthy child rearing practices. However, multiple barriers were cited to using the RTHA; these included the fact that the app was only available in two languages, high data costs, lack of access to smart phones, and app functionalities. The enablers to using the RTHA included the accessibility of important information regarding prenatal and postnatal childcare.ConclusionThis study gives insight into the barriers and enablers from the end-user perspective to improve the RTHA for future use in South Africa and offers guidance on how to improve the RTHA to be more user-friendly, which could increase its usability among mothers. It further emphasizes the need to consider the challenges experienced by users in South Africa when developing future mobile health interventions to increase uptake.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A qualitative study to explore strategies to improve the Road to Health Application for maternal and child health outcomes in South Africa

Dietrich

Tsotetsi²,

Dubazane³

et al. 2023

Front. Digit. Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Similarly, Mizes (2021: this issue) takes up the importance of informality through the case study of street vendors in Dakar, Senegal. Continuing the focus on Global South cities and fiscal policy, Cirolia and Robbins (2021) look at the relational co-production of city governments through emergent fiscal relations, drawing on the case of Cape Town, whose consolidation as a special municipality was premised, at least in part, on its “one tax base” (p. 417).…”

Section: Engaging Fiscal Geographiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fiscal geographies between the crisis and the pandemic

Tapp,

Kay

2023

Environ Plan A

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This paper serves as an introduction to the themed issue on “Post-Crisis Fiscal Geographies.” In it, we review the growing body of work on fiscal policy and geography, with particular emphasis on taxation and tax policy. We argue that geographers and other scholars of political economy should pay greater attention to the state’s active capacities, particularly during the long troughs between the crises which tend to receive the bulk of scholarly and popular attention. We situate the three papers that comprise the special issue within the broader literature, closing by suggesting the need to broaden fiscal geographies scholarship beyond tax, as well as raising the possibilities for justice that could arise from closer engagement with fiscal policy.

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‘Policies Aren’t Pieces of Paper’: Tussles and Tactics in Action-Oriented and Agile Cultural Policy Research

Sitas

2023

New Directions in Cultural Policy Research

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Too often policies are thought of decrees, immovable objects, binding forces, and something that is delivered and received rather than made and negotiated on an ongoing daily basis. This chapter reflects on a five-year collaboration between the African Centre for Cities and the City of Cape Town’s Arts & Culture Branch, focusing on what it means to make and do policy locally, on an everyday basis, and in the context of fiscal restraints (exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic) and shifting politics and urban priorities. The chapter starts by introducing four interconnected ways in which to approach cultural and urban policy-making through collaborative policy research: as embodied, emplaced, enacted, and embedded. It then locates Cape Town as a city of contradictions, a creative city that is often at odds with its own creative identity and shows that while cultural policy exists, there is a mismatch between these ambitions and the fiscal reality. Despite these challenges, there are municipal champions within the governance arrangement of the City who are working to leverage policy for more inclusive and emplaced aims, and the chapter turns to consider Knowledge Transfer Programme and scholar-municipal collaborations in action-oriented policy research, paying pays particular attention to cultural mapping and planning as an antidote to elite-centric urban cultural objectives. Finally the chapter returns to what this means for local action-oriented cultural policy research, arguing for how emplaced and embodied policy knowledge and practice can be enacted in situated and embedded ways.

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Transfers, taxes and tariffs: fiscal instruments and urban statecraft in Cape Town, South Africa

Cited by 5 publications

References 47 publications

A qualitative study to explore strategies to improve the Road to Health Application for maternal and child health outcomes in South Africa

A qualitative study to explore strategies to improve the Road to Health Application for maternal and child health outcomes in South Africa

Fiscal geographies between the crisis and the pandemic

‘Policies Aren’t Pieces of Paper’: Tussles and Tactics in Action-Oriented and Agile Cultural Policy Research

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