Globalization, Social Justice, and the Helping Professions by William Roth Katharine Briar-Lawson

Author:William Roth, Katharine Briar-Lawson [William Roth, Katharine Briar-Lawson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Education & Teaching, Educational Theory, Aims & Objectives, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Social Work, Sociology
ISBN: 9781438432229
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2011-04-28T04:00:00+00:00

Implications of HIV/AIDS for Africa's Debt and Development

HIV/AIDS is not a problem unique to Africa. However, this pandemic affects over twenty-four million people in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. Most of those afflicted with this ailment are men and women between the ages of fifteen and forty-nine. The loss of parents in this age range is negatively impacting the care of children and taking its toll on the work force, including teachers. A major concern is the long-term consequences this pandemic will have on both the social and economic development of Sub-Saharan Africa.

It has been reported that Sub-Saharan Africa has spent approximately $13.5 billion per year repaying debts to the WB, IMF, and other donors. Many have argued that this money could be used for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and social services. In addition, the West had been slow to intervene with cost-effective medicines to deter the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa. However, as the pandemic has taken hold and the social structure of the continent has become permanently altered by catastrophic loss of life, the West began to respond. In January of 2003, President Bush asked Congress to fund the Millennium Challenge Account. This initiative was designed to encourage African countries to exemplify good governance in exchange for US foreign aid. The aid would address the spread of HIV/AIDS in twelve African and two Caribbean countries ($15 billion over a three-year period) (Dao 2003). Bush appealed to wealthy G8 countries to join him in addressing this pandemic in Africa. In July 2005, the prime minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair hosted a conference of the G8 countries to encourage the recommitment to addressing the HIV/AIDS problem in Africa and to help reduce poverty in the poor countries of this continent (Johnson 2005). It is important to note that all of these efforts illustrate an intention to marshal a global response to problems in Sub-Saharan Africa and other poor regions of the world.

Efforts to address the issue of affordable medicine for HIV/AIDS were, and continue to be, a focus of several international organizations like Doctors without Borders, Oxfam, and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Aids Healthcare Foundation helped to develop an international social movement to challenge patent laws, which were instituted by WTO and supported by the policies of the WB and IMF. These laws and policies make it nearly impossible for the African countries to have an adequate health care system, while attempting to structure their economies to effectively deal with the challenges of economic globalization.

Globalization's impact on healthcare in Africa is illustrated by sustained pressure on GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a global British-owned pharmaceutical company, which produces AIDS antiretroviral drugs sold in South Africa. This company had been resistant to reducing the price of drugs to something affordable by people in poor countries. In the United States, the largest AIDS organization, AIDS Health Foundation (AHF), led a number of initiatives to combat the high price of GSK's AIDS drugs (AIDS Week 2003). AHF was instrumental in convincing the California Public Employees Retirement System,

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