The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on HIV and AIDS Programs in a High Prevalence Country: The Case of Malawi

This paper examines the effect of the global financial crisis on the delivery of HIV and AIDS-related services in Malawi. It does so by examining the direct effect of the crisis on Malawi’s economy and the financing experience of civil society organization involved in the delivery of services. The paper finds that Malawi’s economy survived the global crisis relatively unscathed but there was clear evidence of a sharp deterioration in funding for agencies engaged in HIV- and AIDS-related programs in 2008 and 2009. Thus the gap between service delivery and service demand appears to have increased considerably in those years.