The AIDS Epidemic in Malawi and its Threat to Household Food Security

Abstract

AIDS is one of the factors that threaten household food security in rural Malawi. Interviews with respondents from a random sample of 65 rural Malawi households suggest that the threat of AIDS to household food security lies in its impact on social immunity the collective resistance against problems. Social immunity is rooted in social capital endowments the reciprocity and redistribution opportunities embedded in networks of interpersonal ties. Favorable social capital endowments engender significant sharing of labor food income and time among households and mitigate the negative effect of AIDS on the food security of any specific household. However when the spread of AIDS reaches an epidemic threshold it makes illness and death so extensive that ties in the extended family networks get fractured social capital endowments become unfavorable reciprocity and redistribution are undermined social immunity is weakened and food security gets compromised. Results of this research suggest that as of 1996 there were signs that the epidemic was approaching threshold levels in rural Malawi. The results also suggest that the analysis of the impact of AIDS and initiatives aimed at controlling that impact should not just be undertaken at the household level but more importantly at the extended family level. (authors)