HIV/AIDS, poverty and schooling in Tanzania and Uganda
Gould,Bill|Huber,Ulli / 2001

A review of the literature and modelling evidence on the impact of HIV/AIDS on schooling in Tanzania and Uganda suggests that the importance of HIV-related demographic causes (rising childhood deaths and teacher morbidity/mortality) on falling or stalling enrolments has generally been overstated relative to other factors, notably rising poverty and a growing public and private perception of a failing schools system. On-going DFID-funded modelling and field research work on school enrolments, absentees and dropouts in both countries are showing that enrolments in primary and secondary schools in the past and in projections to 2010 are more likely to be affected by policy variables (notably financial support for expansion in the education and health sectors) and by constraints associated with rising poverty (including increasing differentiation of HIV and non-HIV households) than by direct demographic demand. The paper provides support for the view, identified for example in the Tanzanian Poverty reduction strategy paper (2000), that the impact of HIV/AIDS needs to be seen by analysts in terms of a cross-cutting issue, to be set alongside such issues as governance, gender and environment, affecting the nature and dimensions of poverty and its alleviation, rather than HIV/AIDS being seen primarily in apocalyptic and mono-causal terms as ‘the biggest threat to the continent’s development’ (UNAIDS, December 2001).