Political economy, labor migration, and the AIDS epidemic in rural Malawi

Mike Mathambo Mtika

Social Science & Medicine, 2007, vol. 64, issue 12, 2454-2463

Abstract: This study examines how livelihood struggles push rural Malawians into AIDS-risky sexual behavior. The study involved in-depth interviews of 59 household guardians, four key informant group discussions, and after work observations and interviews of 19 people working, traveling, or running businesses. Findings reveal that circular migration has become a livelihood practice for adults aged 20-49 in rural Malawi through which they contract AIDS. This migration springs from the fragile political economy brought about by development strategies that did not build up and deploy human capital in rural communities. Doing so would advance local economic enterprise that would reduce prime age adults' involvement in circular migration and improve their opportunities for self-determination thus increasing the adoption of AIDS prevention interventions in rural Malawi. The abstinence, being faithful, and condom use (ABC) interventions in controlling AIDS need to be complemented by developing human capital and using it to unlock the economic growth and problem-solving potential in rural communities.

Keywords: Malawi; Circular; migration; Political; economy; Economic; insecurity; Multi-partner; sexual; relations; AIDS; epidemic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(07)00191-8
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:64:y:2007:i:12:p:2454-2463

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().