Publication

This papper identifies HIV/AIDS and food insecurity as the two most severe and interrelated humanitarian issues currently facing Southern Africa. The author discusses the causes of challenges to the right to food, cautioning against reducing the problem to a supply-demand imbalance. The author argues that the link between structural macroeconomic factors and chronic poverty is particularly pertinent to the discussion of agriculture and HIV/AIDS. Discussing the impact of gender inequality, brain drain and other structural forces, the author contends that the problem will not be solved through increasing food aid per se, but requires a considered response that must account for both external and 'man made' impositions on communities.