“The following pages identify HIV/AIDS and food insecurity (particularly in the rural areas) as the two most severe and inter- related humanitarian issues currently facing Southern Africa. It is argued that the current situation must be contexualised as an ‘entangling crisis’ of climatic factors, chronic poverty, the failure of economic and political governance, and the impact of HIV/AIDS on the ability of individuals to respond independently. The foregrounding of human security as a way of ensuring global stability (through preventative action) is gaining momentum particularly by major aid
donor countries. But with only ten years left to meet the 2015 deadline for the
millennium development goals there is an urgent need to reassess the most pressing issues facing African states and the communities that comprise them. Speaking at the launch of the “Make Poverty History” campaign in London’s Trafalgar Square, Nelson Mandela commented that “like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings… While poverty persists there is no true freedom.””
