Continuities in the HIV/AIDS Policy Debate in South Africa.

Lj Fry

doi:10.4314/ajid.v7i2.1

Abstract

Wouters et al. (2010) critiqued the prospects of success for South Africa's new National Strategic Plan (NSP) for HIV/AIDS; they stressed the need to mobilize people living with HIV/AIDS and their communities in order to implement the comprehensive HIV/AIDS strategy. Utilizing the South African sample from the Fourth Round of the Afrobarometer survey, this paper identifies the factors which predicted respondent selection of HIV/AIDS as an important issue for the government to address. The identification of HIV/AIDS as an important governmental problem became the study's dependent variable. Other possible important factors were whether respondents had personal knowledge of HIV/AIDS, meaning they knew someone who died of AIDS, poverty, and their assessments of the way the government was handling the HIV/AIDS crisis. Respondent background and demographic characteristics were also included in a logistic regression analysis. The results identified three factors that predicted respondent choice of HIV/AIDS: race, especially being a Black South African, the choice of health as a governmental priority, and the rural-urban dimension. The conclusion was that HIV/AIDS, as opposed to health, should be the focus of campaigns designed to mobilize public support of comprehensive HIV/AIDS strategies in South Africa.

Highlights

In a seminal paper, Caldwell, Orubuloye, and Caldwell (1992) pointed to what they called the under-reaction of those parts of sub-Saharan Africa most affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic; this included both the public and private reaction to the seriousness of the HIV/AIDS phenomenon
The Round (2) of Afrobarometer surveys revealed some significant increases in public consciousness regarding HIV/AIDS, with South African respondents who identified HIV/AIDS as a national problem increasing to 26 percent in 2002, up from 13 percent in 2000. (Afrobarometer, 2004)
The first is knowledge of AIDS, knowing someone who died of AIDS as well as the poverty measure used by Justesen (2011) and this study

Summary

Introduction

Caldwell, Orubuloye, and Caldwell (1992) pointed to what they called the under-reaction of those parts of sub-Saharan Africa most affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic; this included both the public and private reaction to the seriousness of the HIV/AIDS phenomenon. That issue is addressed in this paper by building upon earlier papers generated by the Afrobarometer Project, the source for the data used in this study The first of these papers asked the question, "How do ordinary people experience and understand the HIV/AIDS pandemic?" (Whiteside et al, 2002). The Round (2) of Afrobarometer surveys revealed some significant increases in public consciousness regarding HIV/AIDS, with South African respondents who identified HIV/AIDS as a national problem increasing to 26 percent in 2002, up from 13 percent in 2000. By 2004, when Round 2.5 was conducted, almost one- third of South Africans (30 percent) cited AIDS as one of the three “most important problems facing the country that government ought to address,” virtually the same as the 31 percent who noted the issues of crime and security. This shows that the focus on AIDS as a public problem had increased substantially, moving from less than 1 percent in 1999, to 13 percent in 2000, 26 percent in 2002, and to 30 percent as measured in 2004 (Afrobarometer, 2006)

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion