Institute of Development Studies
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Knowledge, Technology and Society Team
Linking technological change in health, agriculture and environment to poverty reduction and social justice.
HIV and Development
HIV and AIDS remains one of the greatest health and development challenges of our time. Despite knowing about HIV, and how to prevent transmission, for a quarter of a century there are almost 40 million people living with HIV worldwide and many more families and communities affected by the disease.
There have been diverse and creative responses to the pandemic and many lessons have been learned. However, we have also got tangled up in unproductive and over-simplistic debates about poverty, gender and AIDS.
There is an urgent need to approach HIV and development in new ways. It is not all about vulnerable women and poverty. On the other hand, we have the 'inequalising' and destabilising blaze of global economic development. Increasing wealth gaps (despite reductions in absolute poverty), mobility of people and goods (including drugs) and breaks with tradition all play their part. The new voids, opportunities and aspirations created in the tensions generated by affluence in the presence of relative scarcity has everything to do with HIV.
These dynamics multiply human (and viral-human) interactions in contexts where traditional (often highly unequal) gender orders are undergoing unexpected changes with contestations of sexual norms and dominant forms masculinity. This is situated within an increasingly commoditised exchange of pleasure and dreams (through sex and stimulant use). Goods and income - liquid cash - the ultimate lubricant for unfettered intercourse in the global ‘free market’ - are being redistributed. In a real sense HIV should be understood as a crisis of global capitalism.
It is now important to bridge disciplinary and sectoral boundaries, dispel with unhelpful development stereotypes of ‘vulnerable victims’ or stale old binary gender constructs to develop and adopt more purposeful and critical concepts and language for unlearning or translating old lessons, communicating new ideas and developing new kinds of partnerships.
The IDS approach to HIV and AIDS forges links across different areas of research, partnerships and communications to support an evolving body of research on the topic.
Our activities centre around four key themes:
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- Greig, A. and Edstrom, J. (2012) 'Mobilising Men in Practice: Challenging Sexual and Gender-based Violence in Institutional Settings' , Brighton: IDS
- Esplen, E. Greig, A. Cornwall, A and Edstrom, J. (2012) 'Politicising Masculinities: Beyond the Personal' , Brighton: IDS
- (2012) '"Born, lived and died - but counted or not?" Studies of HIV Communities in Africa (Highlights)'
- MacGregor, H. and Mills, E. (2011) 'Framing Rights and Responsibilities: Accounts of Women with a History of AIDS Activism', BMC International Health and Human Rights 11.Suppl 3:S3-S7
- (2011) '"Fertility in African Communities Affected by HIV" Studies of HIV in African Communities (Highlights) '
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