Methodology: Scope, concepts, methods and data

1.6.1 Scope of the study

This study endeavours to analyse the human development dimension of the SADC sub-region and the key social and economic human development indicators, which provide an assessment of the subregion’s achievements in the various areas of human progress. The study covered the reference period 2000 to 2011 but extends back as far as the data would allow, but not before 1990. It covered all 15 SADC member States: Angola, Botswa-na, DRC, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

1.6.2 Conceptual framework and concepts

The study took a multi-pronged approach to coverage and analysis of human development in its widest sense. Conceptually, this meant elaborating a partial framework for ongoing comparative analysis of the SADC subregion, taking into account the heterogeneity of member States in terms of the levels of development and resource endowments. At the conceptual level, the following focus areas are covered in the HDR-SA 2012:

i. Macroeconomic situation: This is considered based on macroeconomic variables such as GDP, inflation, unemployment/employment, monetary and fiscal outcomes, and external economic performance (trade, debt, balance of payments, foreign direct investment and so on)

ii. Geographic situation and resource endowments: This is elaborated based on the country’s land area, water area, other natural resources (minerals, forest, arable land, etc.), population size and composition (as bearing on markets), population density, ethnicity and culture, demographic dimensions (mortality, morbidity, human settlement, household dynamics, etc.) and other factors

iii. Business environment and regulation: Looking at conditions for doing business, drawing from World Bank’s ease-of-doing-business reports

iv. Microeconomic situation: Covering aspects to do with disaggregated views of employment and unemployment, labour and poverty, and firms or the private sector

v. Policy environment: national laws, policies, plans, strategies, frameworks, institutions and other relevant factors, and their various roles in national and human development

vi. Infrastructure: state of transport (roads, railways, airways and waterways), water and sanitation, housing, energy, telecommunications, and so on.

These areas are expected to cover the social, economic, political and geographic dimen-sions of human development and progress in a broad sense in every SADC member State.

In terms of specific concepts, the study addressed the following key indicators and sectoral issues⁶: (1) poverty and (income) inequality; (2) primary, secondary and tertiary enrolment rates; (3) adult literacy; (4) life expectancy; (5) infant mortality and maternal mortality rates; (6) malnutrition; (9) human capital capacity and skills; (10) employment and la-bour; (12) education; (13) health; (14) access to water and sanitation; (15) communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria; (16) gender; (17) people with spe-cial needs (for example people with disabilities, refugees, internally displaced people); (18) social dimensions and culture; (19) ICT and e-commerce/business opportunities; (20) infrastructure; (21) energy; (22) land and agriculture; (23) climate change and sustainable environmental management; (24) human settlement and industrial location; (25) good governance (transparency, accountability in service delivery); and (26) peace, security and conflict resolution. As far as possible the 26 key indicators and sectoral elements will be country-specific and disaggregated by age (children vs. adults), sex (male vs. female), and geography (urban vs. rural).

In part, the value addition of this study was in its effort to establish the salient nexuses among the five thematic areas described above, as well as in offering both synthesised subregional and detailed subregional perspectives on the status of and prospects for hu-man development in SADC. There is obvious policy significance to these contributions to national and subregional policy formulation, strategic thinking and plan implementa-tion. The insights of this study make a modest contribution to informing and furthering SADC’s development agenda.

6 All of these are well-known and theoretically and/or operationally defined, for instance in Seshamani (2010) or www.un.org/millenniumdevelopmentgoals.

1.6.3 Methods of analysis

The study collected and analysed both primary and secondary data using a variety of methods. Specifically, the methods of analysis involved:

Key informant consultations: this was mainly with ECA-SA, towards ensuring the effective and customised execution of this assignment and towards the formulation of robust and reliable dissemination, policy uptake and sensitisation strategies and plan. The formula-tion of draft frameworks for routine data collecformula-tion, producformula-tion of future HDRs and dis-semination, as well as preparation of the draft road map, all critically depend on continu-ous close consultation with ECA-SA, the contracting authority.

Desk review analysis: this confronted the subject matter from the perspective of empirical and “grey” literature (informally published written material, such as reports). This also ac-commodated a retailed policy review based on insights from official national documents (such as governments’ development plans and frameworks, donor agreements, subregional agreements and treaties, etc.).

Secondary data analysis: this offered comparative static and trend descriptive statistics of the subregion and member States therein, based on secondary (meta) data from authentic sources.

1.6.4 Data collection process, data tools and data management

In keeping with the methods of analysis and the overall study approach, the data collection process was multi-pronged. The format of key informant consultations was informed by the preferences of the contracting authority, ECA-SA. Naturally the main source of infor-mation for the key informant consultation component was the key informants themselves, who provided the terms of reference and report outline of the HDR, among other things.

For the desk review and secondary data collection processes, data collection guidelines and checklists were developed as part of the research undertaking, and were internally and externally vetted for quality, completeness and reliability. As earlier stated, this study builds on past efforts, including similar reports produced by SADC and various authors, and so reference was made to key relevant materials. ECA-SA played a key facilitation role in the identification of secondary sources of data from previous efforts. The data collec-tion covers all 15 SADC member States and yields both qualitative and quantitative data.

The main sources of data were publicly available government, donor, and local and inter-national development partner documents, including data available at inter-national statistical offices or bureaus and reference materials on the Internet at officially recognised websites.

Such sources include the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), African Eco-nomic Outlook (AEO), UN institutions, etc. A database was created using MS Excel for the management of quantitative data. Some of the quantitative data are summarised in Annex 1. The qualitative data were managed in transcript- and checklist-form using MS Word.