Explaining Russia’s Struggle to Eradicate HIV/AIDS: Institutions, Agenda Setting and the Limits to Multiple-Streams Processes

Abstract

One of Russia’s ongoing public health challenges is the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Using qualitative methods focused on elite interviews and document analysis, the article argues that despite widespread recognition of this problem, there is still no strong political commitment to eradicating AIDS. Theoretically, John Kingdon’s “multiple streams” agenda-setting framework is applied and critiqued. It was found that in the absence of a convergence of Kingdon’s multiple streams and an effective policy entrepreneur, state autonomy in policy making will increase and will not take civil society’s interests into account.

Keywords:

• Russia
• HIV/AIDS
• comparative
• policy making
• institutions
• politics
• civil society

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank those who participated in this study for sharing their experiences and views with us.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Prior to participant recruitment, ethics approval was sought from and granted by the Ad-hoc Ethics Committee at Oxfam in Russia. Written consent was obtained from the participants and anonymity was guaranteed.

Notes

1. To validate our point, we conducted a qualitative methodological approach through an analysis of specific “search terms” in major internet search engines. We chose the Google and Yandex search engines for their extensive coverage and reporting of Russian media articles. We searched Google and Yandex using the following key words: “ВИЧ”, “СПИД”. Key media are defined as major media outlets with an Average Issue Readership of over 200,000 readers (for newspapers) and an Average Daily Audience Share of over 10 per cent (for TV channels) (TNS Gallup).

Additional information

Funding

The research was part of Oleg Kucheryavenko's work in ECSN BRICSAM Program at Oxfam GB. There was no specific grant funding number for this support.

Notes on contributors

Eduardo J. Gómez

Eduardo J. Gómez is an Associate Professor in the College of Health at Lehigh University. A political scientist by training, his research focuses on the politics of public health policy reform in the emerging economies.

Oleg Kucheryavenko

Oleg Kucheryavenko, M.D., M.P.H., is a physician executive who helps organizations and governments transform healthcare systems through data-driven and technology approaches. Oleg specializes in healthcare system transformation, healthcare policy, business strategy, and data-driven healthcare management. He has published with Harvard University, World Economic Forum, the World Bank and was honored by the World Bank in 2017 with the President’s Award for Excellence.