On 23 and 24 June 2002 the Southern African Regional Poverty Network (SARPN) hosted a workshop to look at the impact of HIV/AIDS on land rights, tenure and use. The workshop looked at three country studies commissioned by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Kenya, Lesotho and South Africa, a similar study undertaken by Oxfam in Malawi, a number of personal testimonies from people in Southern Africa living on the land with HIV/AIDS, and a personal narrative recorded in Uganda. These personal accounts gave participants a chance to hear first hand how the HIV/AIDS pandemic is affecting the lives of people in the region.
In addition to researchers involved in the studies, presenters and discussants, participants in the workshops included people active in work on HIV/AIDS and on land rights, tenure and use, a representative from the Agricultural Office of the Tanzanian government, representatives from the South African Government’s Departments of Health and Land Affairs and representatives of the FAO, UNAIDS, Oxfam and SARPN.
Although HIV/AIDS clearly has major impacts on the livelihoods of people living on the land in Africa there have been few attempts to date to study these impacts. Given this situation, the pilot studies presented at the workshop were essentially exploratory and aimed at gathering qualitative rather than quantitative information. The aim of the workshop was to:
- Bring issues around HIV/AIDS and land use into the public domain
- Interrogate the methodology used in the pilot studies
- Identify regional perspectives on individual countries
- Synthesise the findings into programmatic recommendations
- Create a bridge from research to policy change.
This report focuses on the debate and issues that emerged at the workshop rather than the content of the studies and presentations. The studies are available on the SARPN website (view papers).
Opening the workshop, Mr Q-B West, the FAO South African representative, outlined the extent of the pandemic in Africa, and emphasised that it is a development as well as a health issue. HIV/AIDS has already killed 7 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, with the prospect of a further 16 million deaths. Poverty, poor nutrition, armed conflict and gender inequality all contribute to the spread of the disease which in turn worsens problems like gender imbalance and unequal distribution of resources.
Ms Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda of Unifem said that the community care strategies most African countries have adopted in response to HIV/AIDS place most of the burden of care on women but do not provide them with additional resources and support. She also pointed out that land issues are political and that researchers need to look at national policies in the context of globalisation and the role that integration into the global economy plays in HIV/AIDS and land issues.
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