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by Rick James, April 2005
Available in English, Spanish and Chinese
The stark statistics for HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa are terrifying. Each year, countries like Malawi, for example, are losing more teachers than are being trained. Seventy per cent of major hospital capacity is taken up by HIV positive patients, and orphans now amount to 8 per cent of the population. Such statistics become even more frightening when we dare to think through the implications over the next ten years, when the situation will deteriorate as those already infected get sick and die.
The impact of HIV on leaders infected by the virus is increasingly obvious and distressing, and yet the impact on leaders affected by the virus is more widespread and insidious. Leaders, in countries like Malawi, are not just leaders in their organisations (and having to bear the weight of HIV in their workplace), but are also leaders in their extended and rapidly extending families. Many leaders are being torn apart by cultural demands at home and professional demands at work. The current situation is impossible to sustain and something will soon give. Unless there is a change, good leaders and effective organisations may collapse, losing the most valuable, but also most vulnerable of development resources, and leaving Africa unable to rise to the mounting humanitarian challenge.
PraxisNote 10 - HIVAIDS.pdf (281Kb)