Cultural obstacles to the rollout of antiretrovirals: language, region and the backlash against AIDS funding
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2009
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University of Cape Town
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This paper employs quantitative analysis to explore the issue of cultural barriers to accessing highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) in developing countries. It begins with an econometric analysis of potential socio-economic determinants of HAART coverage, i.e. the number of people on HAART as a percentage of the total number needing it. The analysis suggests that language fractionalisation (a widely used indicator of cultural diversity) acts as a barrier to HAART coverage, whereas ethnic fractionalisation is not significant, although politically salient ethnic divisions may be. The most important drivers of HAART coverage are: region (notably, living in the hyper-epidemic region of the Southern part of the African continent); and access to donor funding. The effect of 'region' may, of course, be proxying for unmeasured 'cultural' variation that is not being picked up by the language and ethnic diversity variables. But it may also be picking up other imperfectly measured variables such as level of economic development and institutional strength or even unmeasured factors such as different variants of HIV. One thus cannot conclude from the fact that regional differences exist, that these have roots in cultural differences.
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Nattrass, N. (2009). Cultural obstacles to the rollout of antiretrovirals: language, region and the backlash against AIDS funding. Centre for Social Science Research: University of Cape Town.