The rise and fall of HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe: The social, political and economic context

For more than 10 years Zimbabwe has experienced social, political and economic instability, including the near collapse in 2008 of its health system. Paradoxically, this period has also seen a fall in estimated HIV prevalence, from 25.6% in 1996 to 13.7% in 2009. This article examines this development in a socio-political and historical context. We focus on the complex interplay of migration, mortality, individual behaviour change, and economic patterns in shaping the presumed epidemiological waning of HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe and explore the evolution and management of the country's HIV/AIDS response. Our assessment of the role that the Zimbabwean state has played in this development leads to the conclusion that a decline in HIV prevalence has been as much an artefact of dire social, political and economic conditions as the outcome of deliberate interventions. Lastly, we propose the need to contextualise available epidemiological data through qualitative research into the social aspects of HIV and the everyday lives of individuals affected by it

In the service of tyranny: debating the role of planning in Zimbabwe's urban `clean-up' operation

The paper debates the role of planning in `Operation Murambatsvina/Restore Order', Zimbabwe's 2005 controversial urban clean-up campaign. The discussion critically assesses two perspectives regarding the purported contribution and complicity of planning in what critics perceive to be the machinations of a regime that is internationally viewed as nefarious. This is done, first, by interrogating the role and contribution of planners and planning to the instigation and design of the operation before it was launched and, secondly, by determining the extent to which planners and planning served as the handmaiden of state repression during the operation. After weighing relevant empirical evidence on the culpability of planning, the discussion concludes that, while planning may escape the first charge, it certainly has a case to answer on the second