In many public sector organisations, there has been little or no adoption of a proactive asset management strategy. Where an extensive property portfolio exists, this can result in poor overall utilisation of the portfolio, exemplified by excessive vacant property or properties not being put to best use. In such situations there is a risk that the building stock deteriorates more rapidly than expected, leading to expensive maintenance and repair charges. Lack of a proactive asset management strategy will impact on the services delivered by such organisations. Public Sector Property Asset Management covers all aspects of asset management in the public sector, including the overall concept, the development of asset management strategies and the implementation of asset management practices. It evaluates asset management strategies, processes and practices to show how effective management of property assets support business activities or service delivery functions. The reader will understand the importance of improving decision-making through the recognition of all costs of owning and operating those assets throughout their lifecycle, leading to improved business process activities or service delivery functions which greatly assist in meeting the social and economic objectives of such organisations. Written for all practitioners currently involved in asset management, the book will also be useful in the university environment, to those teaching, researching or learning about asset management in the public sector.

The dispossession of widows--commonly referred to as "property grabbing"--is one of the most prevalent and entrenched forms of violence that women experience in Malawi. This book presents findings of case-studies of Malawian women who have encountered dispossession of matrimonial property when their husbands died. It provides a theoretical framework and definitions; outlines the causes of this practice, the form it takes and its harmful economic, psychological and physical effects; and discusses the cultural, economic and legal factors that perpetrate it. The study then examines how the justice delivery system deals with the dispossession of widows as a form of gender-based violence; revealing how the present justice system, and structures of delivery fail to respond to this form of gender-based violence widely considered a violation of human rights. Women and Law in Southern Africa-Malawi is the Malawi branch of the prestigious Women and Law in Southern Africa Research Trust (WLSA). WLSA was born out of a group of women and men in southern Africa who wanted to advance the legal situation of women; and was founded in 1988 at a regional conference held in Zimbabwe by a group of lawyers and social scientists. It is regional and action-orientated and aims to improve the situation of women through advocacy and lobbying for law and policy changes. The organization works in the following southern African countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Since inception WLSA has undertaken research, and published several titles on women and the law on for examples women and the administration of justice: family related issues; the changing concept of the family;and gendered African traditions, women human rights law.