“AIDS is Money”: How Donor Preferences Reconfigure Local Realities

SummaryThere is growing concern that the global response to AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is compromising the region’s human development more broadly. Through a case study of Malawi, I examine the impact of AIDS prioritization by international donors on the country’s NGOs and analyze why AIDS wields such influence on development work. In the last 20 years the Malawian NGO sector has evolved to favor AIDS above all else. AIDS has come to possess prestige and legitimacy that other development sectors are denied. Although guided by good intentions, AIDS efforts may have hindered attempts to address other, non-AIDS, development issues.