THE DOUBLE THREAT Of HIV/AIDS AND DROUGHT ON RURAL HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY IN SOUTHEASTERN ZIMBABWE

Abstract

This chapter provides a case study of how Zimbabwe's HIV/AIDS epidemic has contributed to shaping its ongoing food security crisis. It explores the combined impact of HIV/AIDS and drought on the food security of rural households. Fieldwork conducted in the semi‐arid, southeastern region of Zimbabwe relied on a combination of ethnographic and survey‐based methods. The analysis examines the implications of a double‐threat from drought and HIV/AIDS by comparing data from a severe drought year in 2005 with a nondrought year in 2004. It explores household food insecurity as a product of a complex strategy for accessing food that depends on a household's resource base, its ability to exploit opportunities in the marketplace, and channel resources through its social network. The findings suggest that the combination of drought and HIV/AIDS intensifies immediate and long‐term food security. However, the differences in food security attributed to HIV/AIDS are sometimes blurred by an ongoing economic crisis that has made survival difficult in general. This article contributes to studies about HIV/AIDS and livelihoods in rural Zimbabwe and has relevance for understanding of how other HIV/AIDS epidemics can erode household food security in drought prone areas.

Hunger and power: Politics, food (in)security and the development of small grains in Zimbabwe, 2000-2010

“…Countrywide, households affected by the menacing HIV/AIDS pandemic embraced a small grains diet arguing that it helped boost their immune systems. 71 Emphasising that small grains had been integral to traditional meals (pre-dating colonial rule), health practitioners encouraged their consumption again. 72 Moreover, despite the political contestations that characterised the post-FTLRP period, a great number of the communal farmers were able to get material and educational support on how to grow small grains from the different international donor and religious agencies, including World Vision, ORAP, Catholic Relief Services and the World Food Programme.…”