AIDS mobilisation in Zambia and Vietnam: explaining the differences

Abstract

This article compares AIDS mobilisation in Zambia and Vietnam. It looks specifically at the goals of AIDS movements in the two countries, arguing that the Vietnamese movement has been more singular in its focus with its major objective being to achieve representation of people living with HIV (PLHIVs) in AIDS decision-making. In Zambia, the movement has had multiple agendas: human rights protection, biomedical interventions, and economic development for PLHIVs. Instead of assessing how well the two movements have met these goals, the authors use insights from the scholarship on AIDS mobilisation to analyse why these different objectives exist. They argue that epidemic type, movement identity, political culture, and economic, political, and external structures lead to this variation. Through its cross-regional examination of significantly different countries, this comparative case study contributes to knowledge of AIDS mobilisation.

Keywords:

• AIDS activism
• collective identity
• political culture
• Zambia
• Vietnam

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the US Fulbright African Research Scholar Program and Calvin College for financial support, as well as Dennis Altman, Kent Buse, Corwin Smidt, and two reviewers for helpful suggestions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amy S. Patterson

Amy S. Patterson is Professor of Political Science at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. She is the author of The Politics of AIDS in Africa (2006) and The Church and AIDS in Africa: The Politics of Ambiguity (2011).

David Stephens

David Stephens is Chief of Party for the USAID Pathways for Participation Project in Vietnam. He holds a Ph.D. from La Trobe University in Melbourne. He has researched community-based human rights responses to HIV and provided HIV technical advice to governments and communities in Australia and many Asian countries since 1987.