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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Dimensions of vulnerability: the impact of HIV/AIDS on livelihoods in southern Zimbabwe, 1986-2007 |
Author: | Mushongah, Josphat |
Year: | 2012 |
Periodical: | Journal of Southern African Studies (ISSN 1465-3893) |
Volume: | 38 |
Issue: | 3 |
Pages: | 551-577 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Zimbabwe |
Subjects: | AIDS livelihoods rural households |
External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070.2012.700201 |
Abstract: | In the last two decades, a huge body of literature has been generated on HIV/AIDS and its multidimensional and pervasive consequences, particularly on lives and livelihoods of households and communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Using village studies conducted in the 1980s as a baseline, this article investigates the long-term effects of HIV/AIDS on a sample of rural households in southern Zimbabwe over a 20-year period. The author's aim is to contribute to studies of the impact of HIV/AIDS that take a longitudinal perspective, by investigating whether the trajectories, impacts and responses are consistent with other findings in this growing literature. For instance, has the predicted 'worst-case scenario' of disintegrating coping strategies, household dissolution, orphanhood and progressive and massive decline in agricultural production and food insecurity, been realized? This study, predominantly based on in-depth and deeply personal accounts, shows that the impact did not follow the predicted linear pattern. The task of isolating the effects of HIV/AIDS from other deleterious effects also proved difficult in a context characterized by multiple shocks and stresses which often reinforced one another. Village-level studies based on longitudinal perspectives, however, allow us to glean numerous insights and effective strategies for reducing vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] |