Grant: Doctoral Research Award - PA: Health Services/Pop. Health HIV/AIDS Research

The HIV/AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan Africa is staggering, and though only 10% of the world's population live there, it is home to over two-thirds of the world's HIV-infected people. The region has suffered over 80% of AIDS-related deaths, yet despite efforts, the epidemic continues. Not only are countries devastated by the epidemic, but their development status and high proportion of other vulnerabilities among their populations compromises whatever defences they have. Mozambique, for example, has prevalence rates ranging from 3-35%, with a national estimate of 16%, predominantly heterosexual infections. Mozambique is characterized by poor knowledge of HIV/AIDS, lagging access to preventive and therapeutic services relative to the rest of southern Africa, compounded by the world's most severe health worker shortage. Exacerbating factors include inadequate education systems, poverty, and gender inequality. HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects women, through infection and social role, rendering the epidemic a women's issue. What remains unclear is exactly how these multiple factors interact to make HIV/AIDS both a sociocultural and epidemiological problem in Mozambique. To explore the complex mix of factors influencing HIVAIDS among women in Mozambique, I will use grounded theory, informed by situational analysis methods of mapping relationships, discourses, and action, to identify how the intersections between and among factors such as gender, colonization, race, poverty, politics, food insecurity, health policy, economics, culture, and globalization impact HIV/AIDS in Mozambican women. Study findings will inform programming and care for women affected by HIV/AIDS, and can further inform donor, NGO, and national policies on prevention and planning of health and social service delivery for vulnerable women in Mozambique.