April 14, 2005
AIDS Ravaging Economies, Causing Hunger, Say Experts
OneWorld US

AIDS is having a devastating impact on farms, economies, and societies' ability to feed themselves, health and agricultural experts warned Thursday.

Abid Aslam, OneWorld US

WASHINGTON, D.C., Apr 14 (OneWorld) - AIDS is having a devastating impact on farms, economies, and societies' ability to feed themselves, health and agricultural experts warned Thursday.

The warning, from the Washington, D.C.-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), came as three-day talks began in Durban, South Africa to figure out how best to protect agriculture and food and nutrition security from the ravages of AIDS and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes it.

Additionally, this weekend, governments that hold shares in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund will confront demands to cancel their debt claims against African countries so that money then freed up can be plowed into efforts to combat AIDS and other problems.

''Research and experience have confirmed that HIV/AIDS and food insecurity are increasingly entwined in a vicious cycle,'' said Stuart Gillespie, an IFPRI researcher and chief organizer of the conference. ''Malnutrition and food insecurity heightens susceptibility to HIV exposure and infection, while AIDS in turn exacerbates hunger and malnutrition.''

The cycle is especially vicious in rural communities, said IFPRI, which is part of a global network of agricultural research centers funded by governments, U.N. agencies, the World Bank, and philanthropies.

Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for the majority of people infected with HIV. Development workers said this means that agricultural policies and programs blind to HIV/AIDS can actually accelerate the spread of the disease and fail to help households cope with its effects.

''This disease is having disastrous consequences for agriculture by affecting adults at the height of their productive years, reducing labor power and other resources, and making it difficult for poor people to provide food for their families,'' said Joseph Tumushabe, a consultant to the U.N. Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa.

''Ensuring rural livelihoods, including those dependent on agriculture, and mainstreaming HIV/AIDS work into all rural development projects, is critically important for mitigating the effects of the epidemic,'' he added.

Yet, efforts to take a broader view of the disease have been blinkered by bureaucracy.

''Within the development community, HIV/AIDS is often viewed only as a health issue, separate from agriculture and other sectors. As a result, there is limited collaboration across sectors, resulting in lost opportunities to fight this pandemic effectively,'' said Gladys Mutangadura of the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa. ''But HIV/AIDS is a large-scale problem, requiring a large-scale response.''

Since 1985, more than seven million farmers have died of AIDS in the 27 most affected countries, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Beyond the death toll, labor productivity decreases, crucial assets such as land are eroded, and the transfer of knowledge from one generation to another is blocked, IFPRI said.

Research in Kenya showed that farming families' food production fell by as much as 68 percent following the death of a male head of household, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development. In Tanzania's poorest households, surviving family members cut the amount of food they ate by 15 percent following the death of an HIV-infected adult.

In the developing world's poorest communities, families often are forced to sell what livestock they own to pay for funeral expenses, effectively ending their ability to keep farming. And where dwelling or land rights are linked to physical presence, the death of a household head can result in widows' or orphans' eviction, forcing them to search for new livelihoods.

The cumulative consequences can be devastating especially in regions like Africa, where nearly two-thirds of the population depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Agriculture accounts for 30-40 percent of the continent's gross domestic product (GDP) or economic output, IFPRI said.

Businesses located in areas with high HIV/AIDS rates suffer from high absenteeism and staff turnover, loss of institutional memory, and reduced innovation, the group said. When the HIV rate in a population reaches 5 percent, per capita gross domestic product (GDP) can be expected to fall by 0.4 percent a year; when the rate reaches 15 percent, a country can expect an annual drop in national income of more than 1 percent.

By 2010, the GDP of South Africa, which represents 40 percent of sub-Saharan Africa's economic output, will be 17 percent lower than it would have been without AIDS, IFPRI said, drawing on a wide array of research.

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund will confront stepped-up calls to address HIV/AIDS and a slew of other problems over the weekend, when the institutions' government shareholders hold annual spring meetings here.

Activists' demands include full cancellation of debt claims against African countries by the bank and fund, with the resulting freed up money plowed into health and other programs. Bank and fund shareholders are expected to discuss a plan to finance such a move.

Many African, Asian, and Latin American countries spend more on debt servicing each year than they can expend on health care, education, or fighting AIDS, said Neil Watkins, national coordinator of the anti-debt group Jubilee USA Network.

Other groups involved in the campaigning range from the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Health Global Access Project (Health GAP) to Africa Action and the U.S. Fifty Years is Enough Network, which seeks an end to bank and fund policies and programs it says are harmful to people and societies.

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