HIV/Aids, livelihoods and food security

With increasing concerns regarding the impact of HIV/AIDS on people's livelihoods, there is growing need to reorientate agriculture, food and nutrition security programs to take account of HIV/AIDS, and to fill critical gaps in our knowledge where these exist. RENEWAL - the Regional Network on HIV/AIDS, Rural Livelihoods and Food Security - is a capacity development/action research initiative based in east Africa, which aims to foster proactive linkages between national agricultural and public health organisations, and between academia and policy makers.

The preparatory phase of this initiative is currently under way in Uganda and Malawi, involving national multi-sectoral stakeholder workshops that, in turn, generate priorities for action and for targeted research. Action research studies, focused on at least one of the priority areas and directly involving local partners, are selected and funded out of an Action Research Fund (ARF). Findings will be discussed in subsequent policy workshops. The initiative is facilitated by the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

See the project website for more details (www.isnar.org/renewal) and the IFPRIs website for two linked essays on AIDS and food security (www.ifpri.org/).