Broken condoms, corroded trust : the politics of HIV prevention in Namibia

This thesis examines the ways in which conceptions of "safe sex" through condom use differ between the targets, critics and promoters of HIV prevention strategies in urban Namibia. To this end, the author conducted interviews and participant observation among young people, Pentecostal religious leaders, and HIV prevention experts in Windhoek, Namibia's capital, between August and November 2006. Among these first two groups, the spread of what HIV prevention experts labelled as "rumours" or "myths" about condoms were found to be common. Young people perceived the safety of safe sex to be influenced by the brand and cost of condom used, while Pentecostal religious leaders instead questioned the safety of condoms in general, using scientific data and tapping into media outlets to challenge their promotion as a viable way of ending the HIV epidemic in Namibia. In contrast, HIV prevention experts largely conceived of safe sex as a rational choice made by individuals to either abstain, be faithful or use condoms, conceiving of anti-condom discourses as "rumours" or "myths" that could best be combated with the dissemination of biomedical information. I argue that such an approach does little to halt the spread of anti-condom discourses, since it neglects an acknowledgment of the social and historical factors specific to Namibia that have been shown elsewhere to both impact healthy behaviours, as well as to facilitate the spread of rumours targeting health interventions

Room to Flourish: Lessons for Canadian Grantmaking Foundations from Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands

While Canada has experienced a long and successful history of encouraging social participation and community activity through its grantmaking foundation sector, this article argues that Canada’s historic and present-day regulatory restrictions have limited the extent to which its foundation sector has been allowed to innovate and flourish. To exemplify the types of tractable regulatory schemes that have allowed grantmaking foundation sectors in comparative contexts to prosper, the evolution of the grantmaking foundation sectors in Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands is examined within the context of social origins theory. One important contribution of this article is to compare their regulatory frameworks to the Canadian context. It concludes with lessons learned for the Canadian grantmaking foundation sector and for public officials to consider.Bien que le secteur des fondations subventionnaires au Canada ait connu une longue histoire de réussites dans l’encouragement de la participation sociale et de l’activité communautaire, cet article soutient qu’une réglementation restrictive autant dans le passé qu’au présent a limité l’innovation et l’épanouissement dans le secteur. Afin de montrer comment une réglementation plus souple pourrait permettre aux fondations canadiennes de prospérer davantage, cet article recourt à la théorie des origines sociales pour examiner le secteur en Suède, en Allemagne et aux Pays-Bas. Une contribution importante de cet article consiste ainsi à comparer les contextes réglementaires dans ces pays à celui du Canada. En conclusion, il fait des recommandations pour les fondations subventionnaires et le secteur public canadiens

“Free Condoms are like Cheap Clothes, they Tear Quickly”: Mistrust in Condoms among Young People in Windhoek, Namibia

Condom distribution is taken for granted as one of the pillars of effective HIV prevention strategies in developing countries, and has been a foundational governmental strategy in Namibia, a country with a 19.6% seroprevalence rate, since the mid-1990s. This article presents the results of field research conducted in Windhoek in 2004 and 2006, by exploring the ways in which young, urban Namibians express mistrust in the efficacy of free condoms. While the government and other HIV prevention agencies assert that all condoms are equally effective in preventing the transmission of HIV, young people instead articulate distinct understandings of condom use as a way to practice “safe sex”, which are dependent, in part, upon the brand, origin and cost of the condom in question. Contextual factors, such as government oversights concerning safe condom distribution and an abusive history of family planning, may have contributed to the widespread mistrust in condoms apparent across the country. Innovative approaches that move beyond the provision of technical information about condom safety are necessary if this mistrust is to be overcome in Namibia