Towards identifying impacts of HIV / AIDS on food security in Southern Africa and implications for response. Findings from Malawi Zambia and Zimbabwe.

It is commonly agreed that HIV and AIDS have contributed to the depth of problems faced by rural households in southern Africa in the context of the 2002 food emergency. What is much less understood is the extent of that contribution and how it varies according to the demographic structure mortality and morbidity profile of households. The purpose of this study is to help fill this information gap and to further our understanding of the impact of HIV/AIDS on acute food insecurity in southern Africa. Data generated from emergency food security assessments conducted in Malawi and Zambia in August and December 2002 and from Zimbabwe in August 2002 were used to study the relationship between HIV/AIDS proxy variables and food security parameters. Although the HIV/AIDS pandemic is of global concern it is in Africa where the effects of the disease are most acutely felt. Of all global HIV infections roughly 70% are located in Africa where an estimated 28.5 million people live with HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS 2002). The disease is now responsible for more annual deaths in Africa than any other cause. The southern Africa sub-region in particular bears a disproportionate burden of HIV/AIDS cases. It is here that the world’s highest rates of HIV infection are to be found: in a number of southern African counties the adult prevalence rates are over 30% (Botswana Lesotho Swaziland and Zimbabwe (UNAIDS 2002). Southern Africa is currently experiencing the worst food security emergency in a decade. Each of the three countries in this report has been receiving large amounts of international food aid and other humanitarian assistance since mid-2002. Since December 2002 at least 25% of their entire population have required food assistance. In Zimbabwe the food security crisis is particularly severe with over half of the country’s population requiring assistance. Current indications are that food aid will again be required in parts of the region particularly in Zimbabwe during the coming consumption year of April 2003 to March 2004 (SADCFANR VAC 2003). It is now well recognised that household food insecurity in rural and urban southern Africa cannot be properly understood if HIV/AIDS is not factored into the analysis. Carolyn Baylies (2002) notes that HIV/AIDS can on one hand be treated in its own right as a shock to household food security but on the other it has such distinct effects that it is a shock like none other. Livelihoods-based analysis of linkages between food security and HIV/AIDS show that the impact is systemic affecting all aspects of rural livelihoods (Haddad and Gillespie 2001); and that effective analysis of the causes and outcomes of HIV/AIDS requires a contextual understanding of livelihoods unique to a given area and/or social groups (FEG 2000). The results presented in this report clearly indicate that households affected by adult morbidity mortality and with a high demographic load are significantly more vulnerable to food security shocks than are other households. Insofar as these indicators suggest the presence of HIV and/or AIDS this analysis strongly implies that HIV/AIDS has significantly increased the vulnerability of households to acute food insecurity in 2002-03. The analysis has shown that these households suffer from marked reductions in agricultural production and income generation leading to earlier engagement in distress coping strategies and ultimately a decline in food security. The cumulative impacts of HIV/AIDS on food availability food access and coping capacity are compounded resulting in amplified negative impacts on overall household food security. The analysis further demonstrates that different morbidity mortality and demographic profiles have different effects on food security processes and outcomes. Key differences are seen according to whether or not the household has an active adult present or a chronically ill person whether the head of household is chronically ill whether there is a high dependency ratio or whether the household has taken in orphaned children. Each of these characteristics has further nuances that are affected by age and gender. In addition there are differences between wealth groups in the extent to which proxy indicators affect food security processes and outcomes. There is some evidence that the presence of proxy indicators has a significantly greater impact on poorer households than they do on better-off households although this is not always the case (vis. the effects of chronic illness or death in adults on incomes). In this way already vulnerable households become even more vulnerable with the affects of HIV/AIDS. This study suggests that the impacts of HIV/AIDS on food security in the context of the 2002 food emergency are strong and negative. It also suggests that these impacts are complex and require urgent and innovative responses in the 200-04 marketing year and beyond. The critical question for programming policy advocacy and research is: what can be done to prevent slow or even reverse a downward spiralling livelihood trajectory for HIV/AIDS affected households? (excerpt)