‘It Depends on Them’ – Exploring Order and Disjuncture in Responding to the Local Needs of AIDS Affected Communities in the Kingdom of Swaziland

Abstract

Though the role of global–local partnerships in the HIV/AIDS response has been widely advocated, many social theorists question their ability to promote sustainable change in the lives of everyday communities. This is often related to the distance between policy and governance structures, and, the realities of life in AIDS affected communities. This article unpacks the specifics of this ‘distance’ in the context of the HIV/AIDS response in the Kingdom of Swaziland. A framework applies the notions of ‘order and disjuncture’ to structure a discussion of policy documents and a thematic analysis of focus group data with participants who ‘live’ the outputs of policies enabled by global–local partnerships. Findings uncover that programming and community difficulties emerge around assumptions about responsibility (which link back to international discourses on volunteerism) and actual requirements for supporting community life in the context of the pandemic.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my colleauges Professor Alan Whitside and Khaled Ahmed for their extremely helpful coments on earlier drafts of this work. I would also like to thank two blind reviewers for their detailed suggestions which greatly improved the scope of this work.