Development Southern Africa

Aims & Scope

Development Southern Africa (DSA) is an internationally accredited, multi-disciplinary journal focusing on development policy and practice in the southern Africa region.

Founded in 1984, DSA has become an important forum for presenting area-based scholarship in the social sciences and encouraging articles that seek policy solutions to local and regional socio-economic development challenges.

It remains the southern Africa journal of choice for several disciplines (economics, sociology, agricultural economics, development studies, political science, amongst others), and it publishes articles in respect of the key development issues in the region.

These include poverty, unemployment, tourism, agriculture, business development, infrastructure development and other related development themes.

The journal encourages quantitative and qualitative policy relevant research articles, shorter research notes, book reviews and debates.

As DSA is widely read by policy makers, we encourage authors to make policy suggestions based on the evidence conveyed in the article.

DSA also welcomes proposals from guest editors for special issues, and encourages first time authors to co-author articles for such theme editions.

DSA publishes six issues annually.

View Aims & Scope

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Metrics & Ranking

Impact Factor

Year	Value
2025	1.3
2024	1.30

SJR (SCImago Journal Rank)

Year	Value
2024	0.460

Quartile

Year	Value
2024	Q2

h-index

Year	Value
2024	56

Journal Rank

Year	Value
2024	12396

Journal Citation Indicator

Year	Value
2024	475

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Abstracting & Indexing

Journal is indexed in leading academic databases, ensuring global visibility and accessibility of our peer-reviewed research.

• Scopus
• Google Scholar
• Web of Science

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Subjects & Keywords

Journal’s research areas, covering key disciplines and specialized sub-topics in Social Sciences, designed to support cutting-edge academic discovery.

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Most Cited Articles

The Most Cited Articles section features the journal's most impactful research, based on citation counts. These articles have been referenced frequently by other researchers, indicating their significant contribution to their respective fields.

• Making tourism work for the poor: Strategies and challenges in southern Africa

  Citation: 175

  Authors: Caroline, Dilys

• Mining companies' role in sustainable development: The 'why' and 'how' of corporate social responsibility from a business perspective

  Citation: 169

  Authors: Ralph

• Describing and decomposing post-apartheid income inequality in South Africa

  Citation: 169

  Authors: Murray, Arden, Ingrid

• Poverty and inequality in South Africa: critical reflections

  Citation: 163

  Authors: David, Edward

• The role of land-based strategies in rural livelihoods: The contribution of arable production, animal husbandry and natural resource harvesting in communal areas in South Africa

  Citation: 161

  Authors: Charlie M, Sheona E, Ben

• Linking agribusiness and small-scale farmers in developing countries: Is there a new role for contract farming?

  Citation: 157

  Authors: Johann, Kurt

• Factors influencing household food security among smallholder farmers in the Mudzi district of Zimbabwe

  Citation: 120

  Authors: Nelson, Byron, Clifton, Kefasi, Shephard

• Urban food insecurity and the new international food security agenda

  Citation: 110

  Authors: Jonathan S, G Bruce

• Community-based tourism as a sustainable solution to maximise impacts locally? The Tsiseb Conservancy case, Namibia

  Citation: 109

  Authors: Renaud

• The urban informal sector in sub-Saharan Africa: from bad to good (and back again?)

  Citation: 105

  Authors: Deborah

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