Foreword

Social and economic development are essential elements in the battle against AIDS. As the history of other devastating epidemics has shown, vulnerability is magnified by poverty, discrimination and despair. And people’s capacity to deal with the threat of disease is fundamentally shaped by the social and economic conditions in which they live.

A vigorous public response to HIV/AIDS goes hand in hand with wide-ranging efforts to improve levels of living for the majority of the population of the developing world. Infection rates will fall, and care improve, when many more people are able to find decent work without leaving their families and communities; when women are empowered; when living standards increase, generated by renewed economic growth and rising wages; when the quality and coverage of the public health and education systems improve significantly; and when new opportunities are created for civic action in a tolerant and democratic context.

In the following pages, Joseph Collins and Bill Rau remind us of the desperate economic and social conditions that form the backdrop for the spread of AIDS in many parts of the developing world. They highlight important responses by local people, who are dealing with the epidemic in innovative ways. And they ask hard questions about the effectiveness of approaches currently underlying some national and international HIV/AIDS programmes.

The paper closes with a partial agenda for further social science research on AIDS in the context of development. The kind of research that leads to policy and programme decisions deserves high priority, and UNAIDS and UNRISD are committed to fostering its development and application.