The Elusive African Renaissance by George Klay Kieh Jr

Author:George Klay Kieh, Jr.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 2018-08-22T16:00:00+00:00

World Health Organization (WHO): Global Program on AIDS (GPA): 1987 to 1995

The main thrust of the GPA’s approach to HIV/AIDS was medical and epidemiological. Their focus and approach was short term. This amounts to a rushed fire-service approach. It was built on the model of past experiences with infectious diseases (Garrett, 1995; Wright 2017). The program was composed of short and medium term strategies. It was developed in Geneva and disseminated to Third World regions. Modification of the program was only allowed at the margins based on local experience. The program was developed out of deductive theoretical reasoning. The main goal was to save money for the organization, which in general is not a bad idea (Barnett and Whiteside 2002:74–75). But this is achieved at great cost.

Knowledge and Attitude Studies were conducted at local level so that the director of the program at the local level can acquire information on “local sexual culture.” This was aimed at enhancing the director’s ability to make implementation adjustments. Later, behavior was added to the mode of intervention which became “Knowledge, Attitude and Practice and Behavior Model” intervention (Kippax and Crawford, 1993; Campbell, 1997:274; Barnett and Whiteside, 2002:74–75; 331; Brehm, 2014). It is rooted in individualistic psychology. The Health Belief Model asserts that any behavior decision made by the individual is a product of his or her knowledge, beliefs and attitudes (Barnett and Whiteside, 2002:75; Merson, Black and Mills, 2001:64–65; Dalal, 2015). Not only does the theory assumes the individual is in full control of his or her actions, but that he or she is rational. The approach emphasizes “intention” and the rational choices made to realize chosen goals. The problem with this approach is that it abstracts human sexuality from its complex socio-cultural context. The approach is rooted in experimental psychology. It ignores the fact that human sexuality is embedded in the social and cultural context of a society (Montano, 1986; Azjen and Eishbeing, 1980; Herdt and Polen-Petit, 2013). This notwithstanding, the strength of the approach is that it has moved beyond the limited focus on body and mind. It widens the dimensions through which the epidemic could be tracked.

Although from 1987 to 1996 the WHO’s Global Programs on AIDS recognized that the complexity of the HIV/AIDS pandemic was beyond the biomedical approach, the institution in practice was organizationally resistant to change its modus-operandi and mindset. Consequently, the biomedical approach persisted. The goal was to control the process of transmission of the disease by focusing on “core transmitters” or “super spreaders.” But while this approach was feasible for other diseases where the social network of an infected person could be easily tracked, it was extravagantly expensive to do the same for HIV/AIDS patients. Moreover, there was no treatment for HIV/AIDS until 1987 when AZT was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration and in 1995, the U.S. government approved the use of anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) which is considered to be the most effective drug cocktail against HIV/AIDS (Dobson, 2007:199; Fetene and Mesfin, 2013).

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