Humanitarian crises take many forms. Some involve violent conflict. Others
result from a combination of natural and man-made disasters. Invariably they
threaten lives through food shortages, and loss of shelter and basic
security—on a scale and with a severity that defy people’s capacities to
cope.
Increasingly, it is becoming evident that the HIV/AIDS epidemic can be a
potent factor in such crises. Indeed, the current food emergencies in southern
Africa highlight the potentially dynamic interplay between HIV/AIDS and other
crises—and the need to tackle them in unison.
In countries and communities where the prevalence of HIV is very high, the
epidemic already constitutes a major crisis. Millions have died. If current
trends continue, millions more will suffer the same fate.
Longstanding, severe epidemics are plunging millions of people deeper into
destitution and desperation as their labour power weakens, incomes dwindle,
assets shrink and households disintegrate. Weakened by AIDS, traditional
coping strategies become too frail to cope with further threats such as armed
conflict, crop failures or natural disasters. As is now evident in southern
Africa, an ensemble of setbacks can then converge to create a crisis.
The epidemic can rob households and communities of the capacity to produce
or afford food, turning a food shortage into a food crisis. If such an
emergency is allowed to persist, it can generate further social displacement,
disrupting education and health systems, spurring migration, and worsening the
sexual exploitation of women and children—all factors that favour the
further spread of HIV/AIDS.
