A vicious cycle: AIDS, famine and poverty

Smallholder peasant families in Malawi face two major risks: AIDS and famine. Malawi has the eighth highest prevalence of HIV and AIDS in the world. It is also prone to food shortage and experienced a major famine in 2001-02.

Researchers from CARE International in theUSA, and Oxford University in the UK, examine the relationship between famineand HIV and AIDS in rural Malawi. Historically, Malawian rural householdsrelied on migrant labour in the country’s tea plantations, and miningindustries of neighbouring countries. This helped to support their subsistenceagriculture and protect them against the effects of famine and food shortage.

Over the past two decades, migrant labouropportunities have reduced. During the recent famine, rural households had torely heavily on ‘ganyu’ casual labour for foodsecurity, rather than on income from out-migration. These shifts in livelihoodspatterns have occurred due to increasing HIV prevalence in rural areas of thecountry.

Ganyu traditionally involved people exchanging their labour for goods,services or cash within their neighbourhoods. In recent years, poorer farminghouseholds have become increasingly reliant on ganyulabour to meet their immediate food needs.

During the famine women, facing intensecompetition because labour supply far exceeded demand, often resorted totravelling outside the village to find ganyu work.They sometimes engaged in compromising sexual transactions. Their exposure tothe long-term risk of contracting HIV and AIDS was weighted against the moreimmediate need of preventing their household from starvation.

The research shows:

• Women’stransactional sex became increasingly incorporated into informal ganyu labour contracts during the famine. Introducing safesex practices into this kind of informal transaction is extremely difficult.
• AIDSis taking a devastating toll on agricultural families: of the householdssurveyed, five percent had one or more members who were chronically sick.Forty-three percent had one or more members who were intermittently ill.
• Traditionalreligious and cultural leaders, the media, and the National AIDS Commission allplay a role in influencing sexual behaviour in an era of HIV/AIDS. However, themessages they promote can be conflicting.
• Inthe last 10 years, the rate of HIV infection among women, particularly youngwomen, is rising faster than the rate for men.

Just as HIV and AIDS is increasingvulnerability to famine, famine is increasing vulnerability to HIV and AIDS.Policies must be specifically directed at breaking this vicious cycle. Theresearchers recommend:

• Achievingfood security should be the first priority for policymakers. A free supply ofagricultural inputs is preferable and less expensive than humanitarianresponses to frequent famine.
• Supportingrural people, particularly women and young people, to diversify theirself-employed income-earning activities. This would decrease their reliance onexploitative ganyu contracts.
• Increasingwomen’s control over their livelihoods would help them reduce their risk ofcontracting HIV.