Programmes and appeal 2008-2009

Southern Africa: A spiral of despair

Southern Africa is home to more than 70 per cent of the HIV- and AIDS-affected population of the entire world. When a third of a country’s people are HIV-positive, as they are in Swaziland, the virus pervades all aspects of everyday life. Around a quarter of the population is HIV-positive in Botswana and Lesotho, and a fifth in Namibia and South Africa.

The threat posed by HIV and AIDS, coupled with erratic rainfall patterns, increasing natural disasters and weakening government capacity to deal with the situation, now demands a new approach from the humanitarian assistance community.

Of the ten countries included in the southern Africa zone, only four register life expectancy at birth to be more than 40 years. None of the ten shows a figure over 50 years. In Swaziland, a child born today can expect to live only 33 years, on average. In Angola, 260 children out of each 1,000 born will die before they reach the age of five. These are recent figures from the 2006 Human Development Report of the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme).

There is no other region in the world where HIV and AIDS cuts across all other humanitarian issues in the way it does here. The very fabric of communities is affected by the grim reality of so many people being infected with the virus. Even people not directly affected by HIV/AIDS have the constant psychological threat of the sheer presence and possibility of the disease all around them.

The Red Cross is strong in the southern Africa zone thanks to its community-level reach. Increasing numbers of Red Cross volunteers are brave and energetic HIV-positive people who are determined to fight the biggest challenge their region has ever seen.

Poor and unpredictable weather is the main cause for the endemic insecurity about food that persists in the region. When combined with grinding poverty and the HIV epidemic, each new challenge presented to communities multiplies the effects of the other to form a negative spiral of despair.

The Red Cross relies increasingly on regional knowledge and expertise to combat this triple threat of hunger, poverty and HIV. Communities can only be saved from these vulnerabilities – or maybe even outright extinction – from within. They need resources, skills and a genuine willingness to save themselves. As the Red Cross is permanently part of these communities, it is in the best possible position to coordinate the work of everyone involved in an effort to combat the deadly triple threat.

1. All figures are in thousands of Swiss francs (CHF).

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Complete document: Programmes and appeal 2008-2009 (28.7 Mb, 88 pages)	Chapter 3: Snapshots of the Red Cross Red Crescent in action in 2007 (24.2 Mb, 40 pages)	Southern Africa: A spiral of despair (456 Kb, 2 pages)