Briefing Paper 13. HIV/AIDS Policy: How to Readdress the Balance Between Global Provision and Local Civil Society?

How are shifts in the global aid architecture affecting HIV/AIDS policy and how far are these in tune with (or disconnected from) the responses of local civil society? This paper analyses HIV/AIDS policy in relation to two shifts in the aid architecture – fragmentation of the health sector through global restructuring, and aid harmonisation. The objective is to address the disconnects that exist between global HIV/AIDS policy and civil society responses to the HIV/AIDS crisis. It suggests that greater attention needs to be paid to incorporating civil society voice within policy processes on HIV/AIDS and that this will require couching HIV/AIDS debates not solely in the domain of disease control but in the broader realm of public health. Without this the prospects for responses premised on assessment of need from those from below are likely to remain weak.