EMPOWERMENT, COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION AND SOCIAL-CHANGE IN THE FACE OF HIV AIDS/

Background: On the basis of recent social and behavioral research, tog ether with more than a decade of practical experience in countries aro und the world, an important shift has begun to take place in the model s or paradigms that have been developed to understand and respond to t he HIV/AIDS epidemic. A growing awareness of the complex social, cultu ral, political and economic forces shaping the epidemic - and, in part icular, of the link between the social injustice and increased vulnera bility to HIV infection - has led to the reformation of both theory an d practice aimed at responding to AIDS and meeting the needs of those most affected by the epidemic. HIV/AIDS prevention: The focus of HIV/A IDS prevention efforts has increasingly shifted from models aimed at c hanges in individual risk behavior to models aimed at community mobili zation. An earlier emphasis on information-based educational campaigns has given way to intervention programs aimed at enablement and empowe rment in the face of the epidemic. Perspectives: These developments ha ve been linked to a new awareness of the fundamental connection betwee n public health and human rights, and to a new understanding of the fi ght against AIDS as part of a much broader process of social change ai med at redressing structures of inequality, intolerance and injustice.