Please note - this is a temporary window. id21 is joining forces with Eldis and therefore the id21 website has been suspended. Soon all id21 content will be available on the Eldis website.

The impact of HIV/AIDS on humanitarian assistance

HIV/AIDS and emergencies are now at the top of the humanitarian policy agenda. The combined effect of climatic, economic and social issues led to a crisis in several countries in southern Africa during 2002–2003. This crisis brought to the forefront the complex interactions between HIV/AIDS, food security, livelihoods and humanitarian action. As the number of people affected with HIV/AIDS continues to rise, the pandemic presents key challenges for humanitarian and development assistance.

Research from the Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) provides guidance to aid agencies working in southern Africa. Drawing on interviews with a wide range of humanitarian actors involved in the crisis, it calls for a clearer understanding of how HIV/AIDS impacts on livelihoods and how food insecurity increases susceptibility to HIV/AIDS. Humanitarian agencies urgently need to mainstream HIV/AIDS issues and work more closely with development practitioners.

HIV/AIDS has negative, gender-specific impacts on food security at a household level. There has been a greater focus on agriculture and other aspects of livelihoods have been neglected. Information about the scale of the impact of HIV/AIDS on food security at national and regional levels is limited. With the information that is currently available, it is difficult to assess the relative importance of HIV/AIDS compared to bad governance or bad weather with respect to food security.

The southern Africa humanitarian crisis in 2002 and 2003 raised a series of practical questions around the programming of humanitarian aid as aid agencies grappled to develop clear and comprehensive relief responses and deliver food to over 14 million people in six countries.

The researcher notes that:

The international response relied heavily on international aid agencies – notably the World Food Programme, the Red Cross movement and a few large international NGOs – while national governments were much less involved than during the 1991/92 crisis.
Support to national health systems was comparatively neglected.
Doubts about the capacity of relatively small organisations to manage large-scale relief programmes were raised - particularly in the context of HIV/AIDS.
It is recognised that people with HIV have additional energy requirements but providing them with food, different from that given to other drought victims is difficult given that few people know their HIV status, there is stigma surrounding AIDS and there are targeting difficulties.

Although most relief agencies now have HIV/AIDS policies many key questions relating to the provision of assistance in the context of an AIDS epidemic remain unanswered. Practical programme experience is at an early stage.

ODI suggests that:

Early-warning systems and assessments need to incorporate analysis of HIV/AIDS and its impact on livelihoods, especially for such vulnerable groups as widows, the elderly and orphans.
The targeting and delivery of aid must be sensitive to the possibility of AIDS-related stigma and discrimination.
HIV/AIDS related vulnerabilities must be factored into the design of methods of food aid delivery and distribution: labour-intensive public works programmes should consider the needs of labour-constrained households, the elderly and the chronically ill.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic reinforces the existing need for humanitarian programmes to be gender-sensitive: women need to be more involved in relief distribution and the control and supervision of supplies.
HIV/AIDS reinforces the need for health issues to be considered as part of a humanitarian response.
The impact of HIV/AIDS on livelihoods highlights the necessity for major investment in social protection and welfare: given the limited capacity and resources of many African governments, this implies a long-term donor commitment.

Prevention, treatment and mitigation of HIV/AIDS need to take place over decades. Humanitarian aid, based as it is on short-term time horizons and funding cycles, is ill-suited to meet this long-term challenge. It is important to be clear about what the relief system can and cannot do.

Source(s):
“HIV/AIDS and humanitarian action” HPG Report 16, Overseas Development Institute, Humanitarian Policy Group by Paul Harvey, April 2004 Full document.

id21 Research Highlight: 5 October 2004

Further Information:
Paul Harvey
Humanitarian Policy Group
Overseas Development Institute
111 Westminster Bridge Road
London, SE1 7JD
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7922 0300
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7922 0399
Contact the contributor: p.harvey@odi.org.uk

Overseas Development Institute, UK

Views expressed on these pages are not necessarily those of DfID, IDS, id21 or other contributing institutions. Articles featured on the id21 site may be copied or quoted without restriction provided id21 and originating author(s) and institution(s) are acknowledged. Copyright © 2009 IDS. All rights reserved.

id21 is funded by the UK Department for International Development. id21 is one of a family of knowledge services at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. id21 is a www.oneworld.net partner and an affiliate of www.mediachannel.org. IDS is a charitable company, No. 877338.