JOHANNESBURG, - HIV/AIDS has been highlighted as the predominant threat to
development in Zimbabwe, according to a UN Development Programme (UNDP) report.
The Zimbabwe Human Development Report 2003, "Redirecting Our Responses to HIV
and AIDS", was launched on Thursday in the capital, Harare.
The researchers argue that the "devastating impact of the epidemic, which is at
its worst in the Southern Africa sub-region, is benchmarked against a historical
context of widespread socioeconomic vulnerability (lack of development) of the
population over many decades".
The report postulates that, "in view of the strong linkages between development
and vulnerability, the current multisectoral response, which is largely
biomedical in content, is necessary but far from being sufficient for combating
and reversing the spread of HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe in particular, and Southern
Africa in general".
This was premised on a number of acknowledgements by individual nations and
international organisations, including the African Union and the United Nations.
The UN declaration on HIV and AIDS had said "HIV/AIDS is compounding poverty and
is now reversing or impeding development in many countries, and should therefore
be addressed in an integrated manner".
Since the first HIV/AIDS case was identified in Zimbabwe in 1985, infection
rates had "progressively increased to the adult prevalence [rate] of 33.7
percent in 2002", the report noted.
Key indicators of human development had meanwhile been steadily declining.
"Overlaying the HIV and AIDS epidemic on Zimbabwe's development course in the
past two decades shows a close relationship between the evolution of the
epidemic and deterioration of human development in its broad sense."
Although the economy grew by around three to four percent in the 1980s, the
1990s "generally saw a decline in economic growth and a persistence of the
structural problems of poverty and inequality", the UNDP found.
"HIV infection has increased dramatically from the low levels of the late 80s,
when development was reasonably strong, to over 30 percent in 2002. This
coincidence is clear evidence of development gone wrong. Life expectancy has
dropped from 61 years in 1990 to 34 years in 2003. While the children of mothers
with no education experienced an under-five mortality rate of 119 per 1,000,
those of women with higher than secondary school education experienced a
mortality rate as low as 21 per 1,000 - indicating that education remains an
important developmental indicator."
The report stressed that "maternal mortality figures were estimated to be 283
deaths per 100,000 live births during 1984-1994, rising sharply to 695 per
100,000 live births during 1995-1999".
All these negative trends were associated closely with HIV/AIDS.
There were also "strong indications of stress in the education sector as a
result of HIV and AIDS mortality and morbidity of both staff and pupils, as well
as due to brain drain", which was compounded by the ever-increasing number of
orphans and vulnerable children.
Combating and reversing the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic was "the ultimate
war for the survival" of Zimbabwe.
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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004