The Development Aid Situation in Malawi

Abstract In this chapter, I demonstrate the powerful and influential role that international donors (bilateral and multilateral agencies and INGOs) play in constructing AIDS policies and programmes. Additionally, this chapter emphasises that aid conditionality can fail to respond effectively to the AIDS epidemic by demonstrating how funding is often donor led. For example, if donors disagree with policies being implemented in the country to which they are supplying aid, whether it is the way money is being spent or the type of policies the government implements, then they will withdraw funds. I provide an example of the British Government suspending aid because it was unhappy with the President of Malawi’s autocratic management style. The paradox of such policies in practice is that they reduce the ability of nation states to be self-sufficient and instead put them in a dependency relationship with international donors. In this chapter, I also show how the AIDS epidemic was considered to be exceptional, thus requiring exceptional efforts at prevention and mitigation. That HIV requires a response above ‘normal’ health interventions began as a Western response to the virus. I also look at the influence the national elite in Malawi have in shaping international perceptions of sexual cultural practices and AIDS.