Simon Duphey

The impact of HIV/AIDS pandemic on rural livelihoods. The case of the Ghana-Togo border region.
Supervisors: Dr Deborah Sporton and Dr Jan Rigby

This PhD research intends to investigate the impacts of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on rural livelihoods in the Ghana-Togo border region. The study is important because there is not much known about the indirect effects of HIV/AIDS deaths and illness on livelihoods in African border regions that may be trans-national and multi-local in nature. Due to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) protocol (2000), the Ghana-Togo borderland is characterised by `unrestricted cross-border´ movements of people, who share a common ethnic ancestry (the Ewes) and practise similar mixed livelihoods such as subsistence agriculture, trading and handicrafts, but who have been subject to different colonial histories and post-colonial policies.

The study will therefore examine the interactions between mobility, long term illness and livelihoods among the same people (Ewes) divided by a common border and subject to different colonial and post colonial policies. Migration is a factor that contributes to the spread and transmission of HIV. As a consequence, the high mobility of population in West Africa between Cote I´voire (world´s largest producer of cocoa) and Nigeria (world´s sixth largest producer of oil) which passes through Ghana has been identified and named as the Abidjan-Lagos Transport Corridor project (World Bank Project, 2003) has therefore been instigated to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS among transport workers, migrants, commercial sex workers and local people living along the corridor.

Thus, much research has focused on transmission of HIV/AIDS with little emphasis on the direct/indirect effects of HIV/AIDS deaths and illness on rural livelihoods. According to Seeley and Pringle (2001: 2), "HIV/AIDS is not only a health issue that demands prevention and care for the sick; it is also a livelihoods issue, since, if AIDS-depleted households are not the target of particular support, the precarious livelihoods of survivors are likely to collapse under the impact of the epidemic".

HIV/AIDS may alter access to assets, to family and community, and a person with HIV/AIDS is still a person with responsibilities and needs that are transferred to the household when he or she is too weak. The hardship inflicted by HIV/AIDS, through the loss of family members, the costs of care, and the loss of workers highlights the need for support for different livelihood strategies at times of crisis and beyond.

The picture of the HIV/AIDS spread and pandemic on the two sides of the Ghana-Togo border is not known nor are the cross-border links between households and their livelihoods.

Conceptual framework to be used
The proposed research builds on the sustainable livelihoods framework. The concept of livelihoods has gained wide acceptance as a valuable means of understanding the factors that influence people´s lives and well-being, particularly those of the poor in the developing world (Carney, 1998; Davies, 1996; Rennie and Singh, 1996; Bernstein et al., 1992). Chambers and Conway (1998 : 4) defined a sustainable Rural Livelihood as "A livelihood that comprises the capabilities, assets (including both material and social resources) and activities required for a means of living. That a livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks and maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets both now and in the future, while not undermining the natural resource base". Sustainable livelihoods approaches place people at the centre of development and the life of the household, community or region and not solely the clinical condition or the medical solution.

The framework recognises a livelihood as a multi-dimensional comprising different assets that the people can use to earn a living. According to Seeley and Pringle (2001: 11) a livelihoods approach to the HIV/AIDS pandemic "offers the chance to mitigate its impact on the poor by looking at their circumstances `in the round´ looking at the connections between different livelihood assets and taking into account the fact that an intervention in one area will impact on other areas of people´s lives".

Aim
This project aims to investigate the impacts of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on rural livelihoods in the Ghana-Togo border region.

Although the role of population mobility in the transmission of STDs and HIV/AIDS in cross-border areas is now widely recognized (UNAIDS Western Africa Initiative), little is known about the indirect effects of HIV/AIDS deaths and illness on livelihoods in these areas that may be trans-national and multi-local in nature. Due to the ECOWAS protocol, the Ghana-Togo borderland is characterised by `unrestricted cross-border´ movements of people, who share a common ethnic ancestry (the Ewes) and practise similar mixed livelihoods such as subsistent agriculture, trading and handicrafts. The study will therefore examine the mobility, HIV/AIDS and livelihood nexus among the same people divided by a common border and different policies.

Objectives
The research will specifically:

1. Explore the nature and significance of cross-border networks (e.g. families, tribal groups, trading networks, waged labour and mobility) to rural livelihoods
2. Evaluate the cross-border impacts of severe illness such as HIV/AIDS on these networks and livelihoods
3. Compare the role of institutions, both formal and informal (e.g. customary laws, laws of inheritance) in mediating access to livelihoods particularly among HIV/AIDS affected households on either side of the border
4. Evaluate and compare the ways in which colonial legacies and contemporary policies constrain and enable livelihoods in HIV/AIDS affected households either side of the border.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic constitutes one of the most profound and complex challenges facing poverty alleviation and development; with negative impacts on health, social and economic progress. Globally, Sub-Saharan Africa is the `hotbed´ of the HIV/AIDS pandemic (Krieger et al., 2003) as it has just over 10% of the world´s population, but is home to more than 60% of all people living with HIV, estimated at 25.8 million (UNAIDS, 2005). In 2005, an estimated 3.2 million people in the region became newly infected, while 2.4 million adults and children died of AIDS (UNAIDS (2005) op cit.). The HIV/AIDS pandemic has therefore become a `thorn´ in the socio-economic development of most developing countries in general, and specifically, sub-Saharan African countries. Drimie maintains that, "this is a region that can least afford the direct and indirect costs associated with the epidemic as it is characterized by illiteracy, poverty and lack of access to housing, health care and nutrition" (Drimie, 2002:3).

Previous Research

• 1988 Unpublished BA Hons Thesis: Population growth and agricultural systems in Dzodze.
• 1996 Published MPhil Thesis: Agricultural Modernization: A case study of the Role of Financing in the Ketu District of Ghana. www.ub.uit.no/fag/sosiologi/hovedoppgaver
• 1996 Unpublished article: Planning as an Embedded Process: Institutional Implications for Developing countries
• 2004 Unpublished PGCE research paper in Norwegian – How does the classroom environment influence the learning situation of school children

Research Interests

• Social, Cultural and Economic Geography
• Population dynamics, Demography, Mobile populations and incidence of Vulnerability
• Poverty Alleviation strategies
• Livelihood studies and HIV/AIDS impacts on rural livelihood.

Conference Presentations
Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers Annual International Conference ( RGS-IBG, 2006 ) London University (Queen Mary), June 2006.

Contact Details

Address: University of Sheffield, Department of Geography, Winter Street, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK
Tel: + 44 (0)114 222 7973
Mob: +44 (0)7896 311292
Fax: +44 (0)114 222 7907
E-mail: s.k.duphey@sheffield.ac.uk

* Contact while in Ghana (mob): +233 244612806