HIV, AIDS and Emergencies

In 2007, 33.2 million adults and children where known to be infected with HIV worldwide. 

The Sub-Saharan region is home to more than 60 percent of all people living with HIV, with impacts on families and communities that are comparable to a humanitarian crisis. Children orphaned by AIDS in Africa are estimated at 8.5 million of the total 15.1 million globally. Women and girls are the most affected. Biological and social-cultural factors expose women and girls to higher risk of infection, but they also bear the burden of the impact of AIDS due to socio-economic factors.

Vulnerabilities due to emergencies put an enormous pressure on individuals and households that are affected by and infected with HIV. The ability to cope of communities and households affected by AIDS during emergencies is extremely compromised as their safety nets and livelihoods assets are often depleted due to the impact of AIDS.

Furthermore, stress caused by emergencies places people at higher risk of HIV due to negative coping mechanisms that lead, for example, to exposure to sexual exploitation and abuse.

Preventing and mitigating the impact of HIV and AIDS

The humanitarian emergency in southern Africa in 2002 showed that HIV and AIDS, combined with food insecurity, have contributed to a new type of crisis that requires new response mechanisms. FAO is linking short-term and long-term responses to such emergencies.

FAO response to HIV and AIDS

Addressing the food security, livelihoods and nutritional needs of people affected and infected by HIV has formed an integral part of FAO response. FAO emergency and rehabilitation interventions aim to alleviate the double impact of the "emergency within the emergency". Key activities include:

• provision of appropriate inputs relief to vulnerable households to restore priority assets
• provision of tools, equipment and good agricultural practices to overcome labor shortages
• nutritional support for people living with HIV and affected communities
• access to skills building programmes for vulnerable orphans, children and youth such as junior farmer field and life schools and school gardens

Examples include:

• improving nutrition and provision of drip-irrigation kits to aid agricultural production of households affected by AIDS in food insecure districts in Lesotho
• promotion of diet diversification for malnourished people and communities affected by HIV and AIDS in Malawi
• Junior farmer field and life schools and school gardens targeting in and out of schools youths, refugees and demobilized child soldiers with a focus on providing them with good nutrition, agricultural, life and entrepreneurship skills in Malawi, Uganda, Sudan, Kenya and Mozambique
• Supply of inputs and fertilizers and provision of livestock in Uganda.