Civil war, sexual violence and HIV infections: Evidence from the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Kalonda-Kanyama, Isaac (2010): Civil war, sexual violence and HIV infections: Evidence from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Published in: Journal of African Development , Vol. 12, No. 2 (2010): pp. 47-60.

Abstract

This paper estimates the effect of conflict and conflict-related vulnerability factors, namely sexual violence and economic vulnerability, on HIV prevalence rates. We find that HIV prevalence rates are higher in conflict-affected regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) than in non-conflict regions, and that sexual violence and economic vulnerability significantly affect HIV prevalence rates. Specifically we find that (i) HIV prevalence is 1.64 % higher in war-affected zones than elsewhere in the DRC; (ii) the impact of sexual violence in conflict-affected regions is 55 times greater than on average (1.10 % versus 0.02 %); (iii) Civil war and sexual violence jointly increase HIV infection rates by 1.45 %; (iv) Finally, economic conflict-related vulnerability does not explain HIV infection rates. In contrast, a one percent point decrease in the poverty incidence, that is a reduction in economic vulnerability, increases HIV prevalence rates by 0.048 % regardless of the situation of conflict.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: AIDS, HIV, Civil war, sexual violence, DRC, Sub-Saharan Africa
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I10 - General; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O10 - General

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