The Impact of Income-Generating Projects on Stimulating theDevelopment of Entrepreneurial Activities in Communities: The HoldingHands Case

C. M. Niesing, S. van der Merwe and D. M. Potgieter
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C. M. Niesing: North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, Potchefstroom, South Africa
S. van der Merwe: North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, Potchefstroom, South Africa
D. M. Potgieter: North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, Potchefstroom, South Africa

International Journal of Business and Economic Affairs (IJBEA), 2016, vol. 1, issue 1, 36-46

Abstract: The poverty levels of rural households in South Africa remain an unresolved issue. The South Africangovernment introduced interventions and policies to combat the issue of poverty and inequality through the initiationand development of income-generating community projects. The scope of this study focuses on exploring the use ofincome-generating community projects to facilitate sustainable community development. These projects do have apositive impact on communities, but fail to develop into sustainable businesses. Participants of these income-generatingcommunity projects are mostly women. Even though these interventions battle to develop into sustainable businesses,they have a positive impact on sustainable economic development through the stimulation of other entrepreneurialactivities in communities that increase nancial, human and social capital in these communities. The methodology of thestudy consisted of a qualitative single case embedded design that was used to construct constructivist grounded theory.The Holding Hands income-generating community project in the North West Province, South Africa, was used to developthe case study. The case study was constructed in ATLAS.ti on a timeline using a document analysis to develop thethemes and codes. The gaps in the data were lled by conducting interviews with the participants of the project. Toensure the sustainable development of income-generating community projects over time is a challenging exercise becausethere are various factors of crucial importance that have an impact on the development of these projects that cannotalways be controlled. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance to identify the impact of interventions on communitiesto be able to identify the key elements that should be focused on to ensure sustainable community development. The ndings of this study identi ed for the case of the Holding Hands income-generating community project, the initiation ofan income-generating community project stimulated the development of other entrepreneurial activities in the community.The bene ts of this project impacted the community in various ways and contributed to sustainable communitydevelopment. These ndings contribute to strengthening the sustainable development of income-generating communityprojects and to maximize the impact of sustainable community development. Therefore entrepreneurial skills should bea core development focus in the skills development programmes included in the development plans of income-generatinginterventions. These interventions should be designed to identify entrepreneurs, develop their skills, provide funding tothem as well as the support and mentoring required to develop an environment where entrepreneurship could ourish.Replicating these interventions in a responsible, well-designed manner in various communities will have a positive impacton the levels of poverty and job-insecurity currently experienced in South Africa.

Keywords: Sustainable community development; Income-generating community projects; Entrepreneurial ac-tivities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aya:ijbeaa:2016:p:36-46

DOI: 10.24088/IJBEA-2016-11006

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