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Abstract
Since the southern African food crisis of 2001/02, the ‘new-variant famine’ (NVF)
hypothesis first proposed by de Waal and Whiteside (2003) has become an important part of
the conventional wisdom surrounding the relationship between HIV/AIDS and food crises in
the region. The NVF hypothesis suggests that HIV/AIDS is eroding agrarian livelihoods and
exacerbating the effects of drought and other shocks on agrarian communities. These
concepts have begun to shape the HIV/AIDS mitigation and food security policies and
programs of governments and development agencies. To date, however, there is a dearth of
empirical evidence to support the NVF hypothesis, and there have been no studies
specifically designed to tests its predictions.