HIV and Population Mobility in Southern Africa

Within southern Africa, livelihoods are increasingly based on mobility, with the search for income opportunities in different locations and sectors seen as a sound risk management by many.  Poverty and exploitation, separation from regular partners and social norms, and a lack of access to HIV prevention and care programmes make labour migrants and mobile workers vulnerable to HIV infection.

Mobility, and the loneliness and isolation this generates, especially contributes to the phenomenon of multiple concurrent sexual partners, which is arguably one of the leading drivers of HIV within southern Africa.

Migrant and mobile workers often live and work under difficult circumstances, whereby preventing STIs or HIV is not perceived as an immediate priority.

 United Nations General Assembly Special Session(UNGASS) on HIV/AIDS

In June 2001, the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on HIV/AIDS adopted the Declaration of Commitment which acknowledges the needs of migrants and mobile populations as a vulnerable group.  In paragraph 50 of the Declaration countries commit to:

“By 2005, develop and begin to implement national, regional and international strategies that facilitate access to HIV/AIDS prevention programmes for migrants and mobile workers, including the provision of information on health and social services”

Partnership on HIV and Mobility in Southern Africa

In order to address the HIV vulnerability of labour migrants in southern Africa, IOM developed the Partnership on HIV and Mobility in Southern Africa (PHAMSA), which aims to reduce the HIV incidence and impact of AIDS among migrant and mobile workers and their families.

Active since 2004, PHAMSA implements HIV prevention projects in sectors that are characterised by high levels of population mobility.

These are:

                                                                     

         

 

PHAMSA's programme approach is to focus on the individual risk factors of HIV infection as well as the structural and environmental factors that influence individual behaviour. This approach is based on evidence that individual choices about sexual behaviour are dependent on the socio-economic and cultural environment in which migrants live and work.