This project will examine the impacts of the AIDS pandemic on the livelihoods of young people in rural Malawi and Lesotho. Several southern African countries with exceptionally high HIV prevalence have also experienced recurrent food crises in recent years a situation that has been (somewhat controversially) labelled 'New Variant Famine'. Several reports have suggested a link between the impacts of AIDS on children and their prospects of food security in adult life: for instance, children whose parents die of AIDS may fail to inherit land or other productive assets, and transmission of knowledge and skills between the generations may be disrupted, leaving young people ill-prepared to build food-secure livelihoods for themselves. This project will be the first to empirically investigate these propositions. Employing a participatory methodology and adapting DFID's sustainable livelihoods framework, the research will identify how AIDS-affected young people are incorporated into (or excluded from) current household livelihood strategies, the processes and practices that shape their access to livelihood opportunities, now and in the future, and how they make decisions about livelihoods. The ultimate aim is to develop, with young people, recommendations for enhancing livelihood sustainability, applicable at a range of scales from the local to national policy levels.

Case study research based in two villages, one in the mountains of Lesotho, the other in southern Malawi. Participatory methods involving 73 young people aged 10-24. Nine focused activities, mostly undertaken with single sex groups aged 10-17 or 18-24. Semi-structured interviews with 47 young people aged 18-24. Approximately half the participants were deemed 'AIDS-affected' on the basis that they had lost a parent (the majority of cases) or had a parent or other close relative that was chronically sick or were chronically sick themselves. Chronic sickness was taken as a proxy for AIDS as AIDS is not openly spoken about. Semi-structured interviews with 95 individuals representing government ministries, parastatal organisations, donor and UN agencies, NGOs, FBOs and local government and institutions concerning the policy and programming context of and responses to the issues raised in the research.