Southern Africa Assessment: Food Security and HIV/AIDS

The document examines the 'entangling crisis' of food insecurity and HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa. It argues that while environmental triggers like drought cause immediate shortages, the severity of these crises is rooted in structural issues, including the removal of agricultural subsidies, the impact of EU agricultural dumping, and the depletion of agricultural labour due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The report calls for a shift from reactive food aid to integrated long-term agricultural investment and improved governance to build community resilience.

• Food insecurity in Southern Africa is an 'entangling crisis' where environmental triggers are exacerbated by structural poverty and governance failures. For example, the 2002–2003 crisis affected approximately 15 million people, including half who were children, across Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
• Economic liberalisation and the removal of agricultural subsidies have eroded rural livelihoods. In Zambia, the area under cultivation decreased by 23 percent between the 1980s and 1999, falling from one million hectares to 585,000 hectares primarily due to the removal of subsidies.
• European Union agricultural subsidies create structural barriers for African producers by stimulating overproduction and export dumping, which lowers global commodity prices. This is exemplified by the Mozambican sugar industry, where EU subsidies allow the EU to compete as the second largest sugar exporter despite higher production costs.
• HIV/AIDS creates a 'new variant famine' by targeting young, productive adults, thereby depleting human capital and agricultural labour. Projections suggest that by 2020, the agricultural labour force could be reduced by 26 percent in Namibia, 23 percent in Zimbabwe, 20 percent in Mozambique and South Africa, and 14 percent in Malawi.
• The HIV/AIDS pandemic has led to specific agricultural shifts, including a move toward less labour-intensive crops like cassava in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe between 1999 and 2000, and a loss of indigenous farming knowledge as breadwinners die and child-headed households struggle to maintain livelihoods.
• Southern Africa faces a critical shortage of healthcare professionals, with some doctors migrating to developed nations. A study by the Joint Learning Initiative noted that there are more Malawian doctors in Manchester, UK, than in Malawi, and only 50 of 600 Zambian doctors remained in their country after independence.

APA

Jooma, M. (2005). Southern Africa Assessment: Food Security and HIV/AIDS. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/050228FOOD.PDF

Chicago

Jooma, Mariam. Southern Africa Assessment: Food Security and HIV/AIDS. Institute for Security Studies, 2005. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/050228FOOD.PDF.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Jooma |first1=Mariam |title=Southern Africa Assessment: Food Security and HIV/AIDS |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=28 February 2005 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/050228FOOD.PDF |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{jooma2005southern, author = {Jooma, Mariam}, title = {{Southern Africa Assessment: Food Security and HIV/AIDS}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2005}, month = feb, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/050228FOOD.PDF}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }