Abstract
In 2014, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) published the Gap Report, which states that a new biosocial response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic is required to reinforce the biomedical strategy – Vision 90:90:90 – which is designed to end AIDS by 2030. This article provides a descriptive account of how a community–university partnership developed and piloted an innovative, transdisciplinary approach to HIV and AIDS management that could represent a nascent biosocial candidate to reinforce the biomedical strategy. The biosocial strategy has been labelled as the Taming Wicked Problems Framework that is influenced by ontological perspectives associated with complexity theory. The article focuses on how the Taming Wicked Problems Framework was developed by co-opting and repurposing management techniques associated with complexity into an action-oriented HIV and AIDS combination intervention. Three years after the pilot began, the Taming Wicked Problems Framework continues to provision the partnership with opportunities to ‘tame’ non-linear, biosocial aspects of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in rural South Africa. However, with the benefit of hindsight, there are some improvements and caveats that are highlighted so that future applications will be more robust. It is suggested that the Taming Wicked Problems Framework could represent one localised biosocial response that could contribute to ending AIDS by 2030.
Highlights
This article provides a descriptive account of how the Taming Wicked Problems Framework ( ‘the Framework’) was developed
The strategic purpose of the article is to open a conversation about developing a biosocial response – which the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has called for – that makes sense to grass-roots communities
The article is structured as follows: firstly, background information about the pilot is provided; secondly, the meta-theoretical and pragmatic factors that influenced the design are presented; thirdly, the Framework is described; fourthly, the discussion section provides extra theoretical layers that have been consolidated during the learning process and, fifthly, a tentative statement is provided about the potential of the Framework to contribute to the biosocial response that UNAIDS has called for
Summary
This article provides a descriptive account of how the Taming Wicked Problems Framework ( ‘the Framework’) was developed. The strategic purpose of the article is to open a conversation about developing a biosocial response – which the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has called for – that makes sense to grass-roots communities. The common theme which links the practical and strategic objectives is the development of a mechanism to identify and respond to both linear and non-linear dynamics that influence the HIV and AIDS biosocial environment. The article is structured as follows: firstly, background information about the pilot is provided; secondly, the meta-theoretical and pragmatic factors that influenced the design are presented; thirdly, the Framework is described; fourthly, the discussion section provides extra theoretical layers that have been consolidated during the learning process and, fifthly, a tentative statement is provided about the potential of the Framework to contribute to the biosocial response that UNAIDS has called for. Because of the continued frustration that WWS was reporting about the influence or influences of the ABC-legacy, reducing its impact became the practical focus of the partnership. The partnership agreed that the challenge was a ‘wicked problem’ and should be tackled by attempting to build resilience to the challenge, rather than trying to solve it
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