Praxis Note 10. The crushing impact of HIV/AIDS on leadership in Malawi

The stark statistics for HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa are terrifying. Each year, countries like Malawi, for example, are losing more teachers than are being trained. Seventy per cent of major hospital capacity is taken up by HIV positive patients, and orphans now amount to 8 per cent of the population. Such statistics become even more frightening when we dare to think through the implications over the next ten years, when the situation will deteriorate as those already infected get sick and die.

The impact of HIV on leaders infected by the virus is increasingly obvious and distressing, and yet the impact on leaders affected by the virus is more widespread and insidious. Leaders, in countries like Malawi, are not just leaders in their organisations (and having to bear the weight of HIV in their workplace), but are also leaders in their extended and rapidly extending families.

This Praxis Note highlights the extreme, but largely invisible costs that HIV is inflicting on CSO leaders. To remain relevant in such a context capacity building providers need to look for ways to assist leaders in proactively addressing these issues, both on an individual level and corporately. I