Food and nutrition insecurity, HIV/AIDS, and gendered vulnerability in Buhaya, Tanzania

This article draws on socio-cultural anthropological research conducted in a rural village in Buhaya, Tanzania, and focuses on how food and nutrition insecurity and gendered vulnerability fuel HIV/AIDS. Poverty, land insecurity and agricultural decline have increased in Buhaya, affecting men and women. However, women are the primary farmers and providers of household food and nutrition security and are more limited by their access to land and other resources including capital, economic livelihood alternatives and education. Poor women with dependents who lack adequate access to land and the ability to provide household food and nutrition security may engage in poverty-induced transactional sex as a means to secure daily food for their household. In the process they make their children, themselves and their partners vulnerable, increasing the likelihood for HIV/AIDS transmission on a larger scale. This article encourages the development and implementation of policies which acknowledge the crucial roles that women play in food and nutrition insecurity, the roles that food and nutrition insecurity play in fueling the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and gendered vulnerability.