1st Edition

The Political Economy of HIV in Africa

Edited By Deborah Johnston, Kevin Deane, Matteo Rizzo Copyright 2018
    190 Pages
    by Routledge

    180 Pages
    by Routledge

    Biomedical revolutions seem to have radically altered the environment for HIV transmission: anti-retrovirals (ARVs) and drugs to reduce mother-to-child transmission promise to cut HIV transmission rates, as does male medical circumcision. However, the hopeful messages of UNAIDS are tempered with warning about expenditure shortfalls and calls for funding. Contributions to this book remind us that, along with the external financial constraints, there have been new fractures in state power and in the organisation of health systems. More than this, the book fundamentally calls into question whether biomedical interventions can change the social roots of this disease. As well as considering new policy approaches, the book reasserts a long-standing political economy approach to HIV and to adapt it to reflect new competing theoretical approaches. The chapters attempt to connect the debates about HIV/AIDS to larger discussions about globalisation, class differentiation, inequity and uneven development in African countries. This book was originally published as a special issue of Review of African Political Economy.

    Introduction: The political economy of HIV Deborah Johnston, Kevin Deane and Matteo Rizzo

    1. Trapped in the prison of the proximate: structural HIV/AIDS prevention in southern Africa Bridget O’Laughlin

    2. The political economy of concurrent partners: toward a history of sex–love–gift connections in the time of AIDS Mark Hunter

    3. Wealthy and healthy? New evidence on the relationship between wealth and HIV vulnerability in Tanzania Danya Long and Kevin Deane

    4. Paying the price of HIV in Africa: cash transfers and the depoliticisation of HIV risk Deborah Johnston

    5. Exploring the complexity of microfinance and HIV in fishing communities on the shores of Lake Malawi Eleanor MacPherson, John Sadalaki, Victoria Nyongopa, Lawrence Nkhwazi, Mackwellings Phiri, Alinafe Chimphonda, Nicola Desmond, Victor Mwapasa, David G. Lalloo, Janet Seeley and Sally Theobald

    6. Revisiting the economics of transactional sex: evidence from Tanzania Kevin Deane and Joyce Wamoyi

    Debates

    7. The key questions in the AIDS epidemic in 2015 Alan Whiteside OBE

    8. 15 years of ‘War on AIDS’: what impact has the global HIV/AIDS response had on the political economy of Africa? Sophie Harman

    9. Breaking out of silos – the need for critical paradigm reflection in HIV prevention Justin O. Parkhurst and Moritz Hunsmann

    10. Microfinance and HIV prevention Janet Seeley

    Biography

    Deborah Johnston is a Reader in Development Economics at SOAS University of London, UK. She is a development economist whose research looks at the application of economics, political economy and feminist economics to issues of poverty, ill-health and wellbeing.

    Kevin Deane is a Senior Lecturer in International Development at the University of Northampton, UK. His educational background is in development economics, but his research draws on a range of disciplines including political economy, development studies, economics, public health and epidemiology, with an application to the economic and social drivers of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

    Matteo Rizzo is Senior Lecturer in Development Research Methods at the Department of Development Studies, Senior Lecturer in the Economics of Africa at the Department of Economics and a Member of the Centre of African Studies, all at SOAS University of London, UK. He is an editorial board member of the Review of African Political Economy.