About The HVI
The HIV pandemic has increased the challenge for attaining sustainable development in Southern Africa. There has been a marked decline in quality of life, especially for poor and marginalized populations, while virtually all sectors of society have been affected by the pandemic. According to Save the Children, 2002, the pandemic is threatening the lives of some 16 million people in the region.
UNAIDS (2002) reports that of the 25.3 million infected people with HIV in the world, 70% of the total are in sub-Saharan Africa. The report also states that of the entire infected population of adults in Africa, 20% came from only eight southern African countries – Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Such a situation in the region is alarming and has called for greater efforts in understanding how the pandemic affects the livelihoods of the African communities and hence inform policy on actions that need to be taken to reverse the impact on society especially with specific reference to agriculture and food security.
Given this background the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) in collaboration with Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and European Union (EU) undertook a seven country study in 2004 whose main objective was to assess the impact of HIV and AIDS on agriculture and food security. One of the key outcomes of this study was to develop and test a statistical index that attempts to quantify vulnerability introduced into different households by HIV and AIDS. The index would provide a baseline on how to quantify the different degrees of vulnerability experienced by different households. This gave birth to the concept of the HVI.
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