There are a number of theoretical considerations that studies on HIV/AIDS and land need to take into account in promoting policy change. Prolonged illness and early death alter social relations and institutions governing access to land, land holding, and entitlement across dimensions of age and gender. Analyses need to take account of:
- Cultural, legal, political and other social dimensions affecting land entitlement
- How HIV/AIDS affects land entitlement and how land entitlement affects HIV/AIDS
- Whether lack of entitlement to land increases vulnerability to HIV/AIDS
- How HIV/AIDS impacts on institutions involved in land administration
- The inputs needed for effective land use by HIV/AIDS affected households
- The fact that entitlement is not static and changes across gender and age
- The complex continuum from landed to landless
- The fact that although access to land may not be the most effective livelihood strategy for HIV/AIDS affected households in rural areas it is likely to remain central to their survival.
Achieving policy change
The central policy issue is how access to land can contribute to the prevention, care and support of HIV/AIDS affected households and the mitigation of impacts. Effective intervention requires identifying the different stakeholders and their roles. The fact that players may be largely ignorant of the role, or potential roles of other stakeholders can lead to duplication and gaps.
How policy comes into being affects its implementation. If government is involved throughout the process it is likely to give the policy greater priority. We return to this point and some of the initiatives emerging from the workshop in the last section ‘What next’.
Where government is not involved, stakeholders have to ensure that it recognises the importance of the information for policy development. Governments may not see land issues, and the rural sector as important. In addition we need to be aware that the ability of governments to implement policy is affected by the HIV/AIDS crisis. We also have to look at what is already part of policy and being implemented, and what is new. For example property rights for women is an established issue, but HIV/AIDS gives it new dimensions.
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