"Local Demand for a Global Intervention: Policy Priorities in the Time of AIDS" (from the shameless self promotion department)

My paper, “Local Demand for a Global Intervention: Policy Priorities in the Time of AIDS,” has been published in the most recent issue of World Development. The article draws on my dissertation research in Malawi in 2008. I studied the policy priorities of rural Malawians. I wanted to know how they would rank government’s dealing with the AIDS epidemic when compared to dealing with other pressing problems, such as lack of access to clean water. Here is the abstract:

The success of global health and development interventions ultimately depends on local reception. This paper documents localdemand for HIV/AIDS interventions in Africa and seeks to explain patterns of demand using data from a country hard-hit by AIDS. As international agencies and national governments scale up HIV/AIDS interventions in Africa, I find HIV-positive respondents more highly prioritize HIV/AIDS programs, however, cross-national opinion data paired with interviews of villagers and their headmen in rural Malawi show weak prioritization of HIV/AIDS. The data illustrate a misalignment of policy preferences in the global-to-local hierarchy, highlighting the import of studying preferences of intended beneficiaries.

The gated version of the paper is here. A pre-publication (non-gated) version is here. If you want the published version but don’t have a subscription to World Development, please email me and I will send you a PDF.