Civil Society’s Response to the HIV/AIDS Crisis in

Authors: Richard G Wamai

Publish Date: 2014

Volume: , Issue: , Pages: 361-398

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Abstract

Shouldering twothirds of the global HIV/AIDS prevalence of 34 million subSaharan Africa has been the “ground zero” for intense research scrutiny and interventional programming over the last three decades This programming landscape cannot be characterized without the role of civil society organizations CSOs which include a broad spectrum of nongovernmental organizations NGOs faithbased organizations and communitybased organizations CBOs In a context of crises in the sociopolitical economy and deteriorating health indicators in the early 1990s the rapid growth of CSOs filling in the expanding spaces coincided with the emergence and eventual explosion of HIV/AIDS subsequently bringing about the rise of AIDS NGOs The NGOization of HIV/AIDS services would develop not only organically—driven by HIV activists at the grassroots—to fill gaps where governments lacked in response but also as they were spurred on by large external official and philanthropic donor funds Throughout Africa these groups have been responsible for transferring significant proportions of the now about US 10 billion annual global spending to needy persons affected by HIV/AIDS and have played a leading role in developing and implementing policies strategies and programs to mitigate the impact of and to prevent and treat the disease The response by CSOs has followed the historiography geography and patterns of spread often utilizing approaches based in solid scientific evidence but also as dictated by the funders Despite challenges and criticisms this effort has helped reduce HIV incidence by 25  in 22 African countries during 1990–2009 and expand treatment access from just 50000 persons in 2002 to over 5 million in 2011

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