WORKSHOP

Workshop
'
The politics of global advocacy and activism around HIV/AIDS'
International Centre for Participation Studies (ICPS), Department of Peace Studies
9 July 2009, University of Bradford, Conflict Resolution Room


What has happened to HIV/AIDS activism and advocacy? Almost three decades into the pandemic HIV/AIDS continues to cause great suffering, stigmatisation, and loss of life. This workshop feeds back from a research project on the politicisation of AIDS activism and HIV positive people’s collective action around HIV/AIDS in Tanzania carried out in 2007/8. The project explored why in contrast to South Africa AIDS activism in Tanzania has only emerged in a limited form. Yet, there are significant global campaigns around HIV/AIDS – but what are the connections between these global campaigns and the people living with HIV/AIDS on the ground? This is an informal workshop in which people will present their ideas, experiences and research findings, rather than formal papers. It is intended to open up space for discussion of the implications of our findings for the Tanzanian situation, global AIDS activism, and for global advocacy.


Programme:

8 July, 19.30 Dinner with conference delegates


9 July, 9- 9.15 Introduction and welcome by Professor Jenny Pearce
Tea and coffee will be available


9.15– 11.00 Session 1: Whose voice, whose agenda? Establishing the parameters for AIDS activism
Chair: Nadine Beckmann
Brief introduction by Julian Hows (Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS) and Adela Mugabo (PozFem UK) on the bases of their approaches, the key achievements and challenges (10 minutes each)
Questions to address: How are messages and agendas created? How to ensure that the grassroots have a voice in the processes of identifying direction and strategies? What are the tensions between the different levels of HIV/AID representation (i.e. grassroots, national, global)? What is the value of approaches based on the human rights paradigm and biomedical evidence when parts of the PLHA community particularly in the global South may argue within different frameworks?


11.00 – 11.30 Tea break


11.30 – 13.00 Session 2: Building movements
Chair: Jenny Pearce
Introduction on findings from Tanzania by Janet Bujra (10 minutes)
The South African treatment action campaign has been the only strong movement around HIV/AIDS. How can we make sense of its success, and of the failure or weakness of movements in other countries? What are the goals of collective action around HIV/AIDS – establishing a new form of global civil society, or the building of local movements, facilitated by the support of global networks like GNP+ and ICW+? What are the values and trade-offs of a holistic approach that asks for large-scale social transformations as opposed to an issue-based approach that mobilises around certain predefined topics (such as stigma, workplace policies, treatment, prevention etc.), and is either possible without the other?

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch

14.00 – 16.00 Session 3: Alternative strategies: advocacy and ‘dialogue’ (or insiderism?) versus confrontational politics
Chair: Jelke Boesten
Introduction on findings from Tanzania by Nadine Beckmann (10 minutes)
What alternatives are there for mobilisation and collective action around HIV/AIDS? How do we define advocacy and activism, and on what assumptions are these approaches based? What roles do insiderism, dialogue, and confrontational politics play respectively? What are the differences between the work of NGOs and other forms of collective action?