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HIV/AIDS, State fragility, and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1308: A View from Africa

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 20; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13533312.2013.854580

1743-906X

Nana K. Poku,

Human Rights and Development

AbstractWhen, in 2000, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) discussed a global response to the growing HIV/AIDS pandemic, it was the first time in the institution's history that its members had debated a non-mandated issue. The preserve of this institution had, until then, been focused on preventing wars and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Yet the mounting evidence on the societal impacts of HIV/AIDS was no less devastating for affected communities. In most heavily affected societies, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS doubled in less than ten years. But was the case that led to UNSC Resolution 1308 overstated? This article revisits the case that led to the Security Council meeting and argues that, far from being overstated, Resolution 1308 helped to avert a crisis of unimaginable proportions. ABOUT THE AUTHORNana K. Poku is visiting Professor of African Politics at the University of California, Berkeley, and former Director of the United Nations Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa.Notes1. ‘Report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations on the Follow-Up of Organisation of African Union Declaration on HIV/AIDS in Africa’, Council of Ministers, July 1998, Yaounde, p.12; ‘Breaking the Back of HIV/AIDS in Zambia: Scaling Up and Expanded Response through a Multi-Donor Debt for Development Arrangement’, Paper by Honorable Dr. Ktele Kalumba, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Government of the Republic of Zambia, The XIth International Conference on AIDS and STDS in Africa (12–16 September, 1999: Lusaka, Zambia); ‘ILO, HIV/AIDS: A Threat to Decent Work, Productivity and Development’, Document for discussion at the Special High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work, Geneva, 8 June 2000, p2.2. Nana K. Poku, ‘The Global Fund: Context and Opportunity’, Third World Quarterly, Vol.23, No.2, 2002, pp.283–98.3. Estimates of funding for the HIV/AIDS response have been updated regularly since 2000. The latest estimates were published in July 2013 by UNAIDS. The methodology underlying them is straightforward: it involves estimating the unit contributions from bilateral and multilateral donors. As the details of the related methodology have been presented elsewhere; see N.K. Poku, ‘Financing: A Case for Improving the Quality and Quantity of Aid’, HIV/AIDS special issue, International Affairs, Vol.82, No.2, March 2006.4. Richard A. Fredland, A Sea Change in Responding to the AIDS Epidemic: Leadership Is Awakened’, International Relations, Vol.XV No.6, 2001, pp.89–101.5. N. Poku, ‘AIDS in Africa: An Overview’, International Relations, Vol.XV, No.6, 2001, pp. 5–14.6. Colin McInnes and Simon Rushton, ‘HIV, AIDS, and Security: Where Are We Now?’, International Affairs, Vol.86, No.1, 2010, p.225.7. Tony Barnett, ‘HIV/AIDS and State Fragility’, AIDS, Security and Conflict Initiative (ASCI) Synthesis Paper, New York: Social Science Research Council and Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’, 2009, p.6.8. World Health Organization (WHO), ‘Everybody's Business: Strengthening Health Systems to Improve Health Outcomes: WHO's Framework for Action’, Geneva, 2007.9. WHO, ‘Africa's AIDS Epidemic in Context’, Geneva: World Health Organisation, 2012.10. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and WHO, ‘AIDS Epidemic Update’, Geneva, 2012.11. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSTATS), ‘HIV/AIDS, Global Projections, and Analysis’, Background paper for the Office of the Secretary-General, New York: UNSTATS and UNAIDS, 2000.12. US National Intelligence Council, ‘National Intelligence Estimate: Global Infectious Disease Threat and its Implications for the United States’, Washington, DC, 2000; René Bonnel, ‘HIV/AIDS and Economic Growth: A Perspective’, South African Journal of Economics, Vol.68, No.5, 2000, pp.820–55.13. Claude Ake, The Marginalisation of Africa: Notes on a Productive Confusion, Lagos: Malthouse Press, 1996, p.14.14. Robert H. Jackson, Quasi-States: Sovereignty, International Relations, and the Third World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.15. Mahmood Mamdani, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism, Kampala: Fountain, 1996, p.12.16. Nana K. Poku, Africa in the Age of Neoliberalism: Security, Development, and Change Since the 1980s, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.17. N.K. Poku (ed.) Neoliberalism and Change in Contemporary Africa, Aldershot: Ashgate, forthcoming 2014; see also Greg Mills and Jeffrey Herbst, Africa's Third Liberation, London: Penguin Press, 2012.18. Muriel Visser-Valfrey and Justine Sass, UNAIDS and Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on Education, ‘HIV/AIDS and Education: A Strategic Approach’, Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, 2003.19. Nana K. Poku, ‘AIDS and Governance’, Background paper prepared for Africa Development Forum 2000, 3–7 December 2000, Addis Ababa: Economic Commission for Africa, 2000.20. Paul Bennell, ‘The Impact of the AIDS Epidemic on Schooling in Sub-Saharan Africa’, Background paper for the biennial meeting of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa, 5–9 December 1999.21. Clive Bell, Shantayanan Devarajan and Hans Gersbach, ‘The Long-Run Economic Costs of AIDS: Theory and an Application to South Africa’, Heidelberg and Washington, DC: Heidelberg University and World Bank, 2003.22. Malcolm F. McPherson, ‘Human Capital, Education, and Economic Growth: The Impacts of HIV/AIDS’, Background paper for the Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa, 2003.23. Ibid., p.15.24. René Bonnel, ‘HIV/AIDS: Does it Increase or Decrease Growth? What Makes an Economy HIV-Resistant?’, Paper presented at the International AIDS Network Symposium, Durban, 8 July 2000.25. Ibid.26. US National Intelligence Council (see n.12 above).27. US National Intelligence Council, ‘The Next Wave of HIV/AIDS: Nigeria, Ethiopia, Russia, India, and China’, Washington, DC: National Intelligence Council, 2002, p.2.28. UNAIDS, ‘2012 UNAIDS World AIDS Day Report: Results’, Geneva, 2012.29. This future is based on my own best-guess estimation using data from UNSTATS.30. Nana K. Poku, Security and Development in Southern Africa, Westport,CT: Praeger, 2001; Nana K. Poku and David Graham (eds), Migration, Globalisation, and Human Security, London: Routledge, 2000; Nana K. Poku and David Graham, Redefining Security: Population Movement and National Security, Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998.31. Statement by Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, on maintenance of international peace and security, and the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on international peace and security, at the United Nations Security Council, 7 June 2011.32. Tony Barnett and Alan Whiteside, AIDS in the Twenty-First Century: Disease and Globalization, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.33. Richard A. Fredland, ‘A Sea Change in Responding to the AIDS Epidemic: Leadership is Awakened’, International Relations, Vol.15, No.6, 2001, pp.89–101.34. Nana K. Poku, ‘HIV/AIDS Financing: A Case for Improving the Quality and Quantity of Aid’, International Affairs, Vol. 82, No.2, 2006, pp. 345–58.35. Elizabeth Lule, Richard Seifman, and Antonio C. David (eds), The Changing HIV/AIDS Landscape: Selected Papers for the World Bank's Agenda for Action in Africa, 2007–2011, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009.36. Kenneth Hill, ‘Adult Mortality in the Developing World: What We Know and How We Know It’, New York: United Nations Population Division (UNPD), 2003.37. Debbie Bradshaw, Pam Groenewald, Ria Laubscher, Nadine Nannan, Beatrice Nojilana, Rosana Norman, Desiree Pieterse, Michelle Schneider, David E Bourne, Ian M Timæus, Rob Dorrington and Leigh Johnson, ‘Initial Burden of Disease Estimates for South Africa, 2000’, South African Medical Journal, Vol.93, No.9, 2003, pp.682–88.38. Poku (see n.17 above).39. Hill (see n.36 above).40. Joshua A. Salomon, Daniel R. Hogan, John Stover, Karen A Stanecki, Neff Walker, Peter D. Ghys and Bernhard Schwartländer, ‘Integrating HIV Prevention and Treatment: From Slogans to Impact’, PLoS Medicine, Vol.2, No.1, 2005, p.e16.41. Poku (see n.17 above).42. Salomon et al. (see n.40 above).43. Virginie Supervie, ‘Antiretroviral Drugs-Based HIV Prevention Methods: What Impact on the HIV Epidemic?’, Med Sci [Paris], Vol.29, No.4, 2013, pp.373–82.44. Pride Chigwedere, George R. Seage III, Sofia Gruskin, Tun-Hou Lee and M. Essex, ‘Estimating the Lost Benefits of Antiretroviral Drug Use in South Africa’, Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, Vol.49, No.4, 2008, pp.410–15.45. Giuseppe Ippolito and Giovanni Rezza, ‘HIV Treatment as Prevention: Population Effect vs. Individual Protection?’ Ann Ig, Vol.25, No.2, 2013, pp.93–7.46. Paul W. Denton, Jacob D. Estes, Zhifeng Sun, Florence A. Othieno, Bangdong L. Wei, Anja K. Wege, Daniel A. Powell, Deborah Payne, Ashley T. Haase and J. Victor, Garcia, ‘Antiretroviral Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Prevents Vaginal Transmission of HIV-1 in Humanized BLT Mice’, PLoS Medicine, Vol.5, No.1, 2008, p.e16.47. Ibid.48. UNAIDS and WHO (see n.10 above).