Rationale

As the largest employer in Africa, agriculture is particularly affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In West Africa, the statistics on HIV prevalence do not reflect the true picture because the available statistics underestimate the prevalence, while some countries are increasingly being affected by the pandemic.

The interrelationships between HIV/AIDS, agriculture, nutrition and food security are complex and the potential impacts of this growing crisis for West Africa’s rural households and communities are serious. HIV/AIDS has several serious agriculture-related impacts, including the loss of family labor for production and resource management, loss of livelihoods, assets, and local ecological knowledge, and the adoption of increasingly unsustainable coping strategies and technologies. These devastating consequences highlight the grim reality of the pandemic as a development challenge, and underscore the urgent need for strategic action.

The linkages and relationships among the community of actors in HIV/AIDS mitigation, including community based implementing organizations, policy makers, funding agencies and research institutions have not generally been strongly accentuated in development practice. Highlighting such linkages will foster collaborative learning and enhance the incorporation of such learning in the design and the delivery of future programs.

In West Africa in particular, there is very little empirical knowledge on the particular needs of HIV/AIDS affected households, especially with regards to agricultural and nutritional maintenance and improvements. A further issue which emerges in the field is the practical difficulty of implementing training, outreach and agricultural extension work with often illiterate, elderly people.

Across Africa, many innovative projects and models responding to these challenges are being implemented to mitigate the effects of HIV/AIDS. Experiences that have been gained provide a rich opportunity for learning and exchange among the practitioner and research community in West Africa. These in turn can usefully inform and guide new programs and policies at various levels.