HIV/AIDS and Food and Nutrition Security: Interactions and Response

Today, there is an urgent need for a broader understanding of the integral role that food and nutrition security can and should play in better matching the scale, breadth, and interconnectedness of HIV/AIDS' causes and impacts. According to several studies, inequalities of several sorts including gender, mobility, orphanhood, malnutrition and maternal nutritional status are central to the HIV risk that people face. Different actors need tools and processes to turn their growing knowledge into appropriate responses. One such tool is the HIV/AIDS lens developed by Loevinsohn and Gillespie in the context of the emerging, Regional Network on HIV/AIDS, Rural Livelihoods and Food Security (RENEWAL) initiative. The lens is designed to support evidence-based reflection on how a particular situation or particular policy may increase or reduce the risks people face either of contracting HIV or of suffering severe consequences from AIDS-linked illness and death. Thus, the lens helps clarify options for response.