Inception meeting held with Professor Betty Mubangizi as Chair and Principal Investigator

A team of researchers who successfully applied for the COVID-19 Africa Grant recently held a virtual inception meeting. The two-year project titled ‘Understanding the Interplay Among Vulnerabilities, Livelihoods, and Institutional Dynamics in the Context of COVID-19: A Case Study of Selected Rural Communities in South Africa’ is funded under the auspices of the Science Granting Councils Initiative in Sub-Saharan Africa, a consortium of Research Granting Councils. The study is a collaborative effort among various stakeholders, both in core academic and non-academic institutions. It brings together a team with diverse expertise from three academic institutions across three Countries. Prof BC Mubangizi, the Chair of SARChI in Sustainable Rural (Local) Livelihood based in the College of Law & Management is the Principal Investigator.  Dr Okem Andrew Emmanuel from the School of Life Sciences, Dr Londeka Ngubane from the School of Applied Human Sciences and Dr Sokfa Francis from the School of Governance, IT and Management are Co-Principal Investigators from UKZN. International collaborators are drawn from France (Dr Ibrahima Barry of National Agro-Food School of Nantes) and Nigeria (Mr Niyi Adekanla of AIDLINE Research Ventures, Nigeria).

The project aims to unpack the dynamics among key constructs in, not only COVID-19 pandemic empirics, but also, vulnerability literature in general while drawing implications for socioeconomics shocks and responses. The study will provide insights into understanding the COVID-19 pandemic from different perspectives, focusing on rural livelihoods. The research targets explicitly two levels of analysis, the household and municipality.

The inception meeting brought together the researchers and local partners to design its implementation strategy. The inception meeting was attended by the Municipal Managers of Matatiele, Mr Matiwane Lizo and Bizana, Mr Luvuyo Mahlaka. Also in attendance was the Community Liaison Officer of Bizana, Ms Nyameka Ngejane. Both Mr Matiwane and Mr Mahlaka expressed their support for the project. They offered to mobilise critical stakeholders needed for the project’s success. They also expressed support for the inclusiveness that characterised the project design. The project will draw local stakeholders as part of the co-creation of knowledge and local capacity building. This approach is in keeping with Goal 3 of UKZ’s strategic plan, which seeks “to Promote High-Impact Societal and Stakeholder Community Engagement”. On her part, Prof Mubangizi thanked the project partners and expressed optimism towards the completion of the project and the potential impact of the project in understanding rural vulnerabilities and how shocks such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbate pre-existing vulnerabilities.