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Striving for Normality in a Time of AIDS in Malawi

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  • Pauline Peters
  • Peter A. Walker
  • Daimon Kambewa

Abstract

Drawing on a twenty-year study, we examine the effects of HIV-related illness and death on villagers in Malawi during 2006. Contrary to unidimensional images of an AIDS disaster, we found people striving for normality - trying to control the abnormal circumstances of the rising toll of HIV-related illness and death. Just over 40% of the sample households had experienced at least one death (certainly to likely) related to HIV, but only about 10% were found to be suffering acute or serious livelihood stress due to HIV deaths. The ability to deal with illness and death depended on households’ preexisting characteristics, particularly income level and, critically, on their placement in the extended matrilineal family. But increasing pressures on an already severely stressed population, and failure of the current ‘community-based’ approach to deliver needed help argue for more concerted efforts to link the HIV epidemic to broader based development.

Suggested Citation

  • Pauline Peters & Peter A. Walker & Daimon Kambewa, 2008. "Striving for Normality in a Time of AIDS in Malawi," CID Working Papers 167, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    • Handle: RePEc:cid:wpfacu:167
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ellis, Frank & Bahiigwa, Godfrey, 2003. "Livelihoods and Rural Poverty Reduction in Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 997-1013, June.
    2. Susan Cotts Watkins, 2004. "Navigating the AIDS Epidemic in Rural Malawi," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 30(4), pages 673-705, December.
    3. Gillespie, Stuart & Kadiyala, Suneetha, 2005. "HIV/AIDs and food and nutrition security," Food policy reviews 7, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Tibaijuka, Anna Kajumulo, 1997. "AIDS and economic welfare in peasant agriculture: Case studies from Kagabiro village, Kagera region, Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 963-975, June.
    5. Tim Allen & Suzette Heald, 2004. "HIV|AIDS policy in Africa: what has worked in Uganda and what has failed in Botswana?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(8), pages 1141-1154.
    6. Kirsten P. Smith & Susan Cotts Watkins, 2005. "Perceptions of Risk and Strategies for Prevention: Responses to HIV/AIDS in Rural Malawi," PGDA Working Papers 0305, Program on the Global Demography of Aging.
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    Cited by:

    1. Bansi Malde & Marcos Vera-Hernández, 2022. "Spillovers of Community-Based Health Interventions on Consumption Smoothing," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70(4), pages 1591-1629.
    2. Swidler, Ann & Watkins, Susan Cotts, 2009. ""Teach a Man to Fish": The Sustainability Doctrine and Its Social Consequences," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 1182-1196, July.
    3. Rachel Bezner Kerr, 2012. "Lessons from the old Green Revolution for the new: Social, environmental and nutritional issues for agricultural change in Africa," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 12(2-3), pages 213-229, July.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • R20 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - General
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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