About the AIDS and Economics Network (AEN)

The AIDS Economics Network (AEN) is an informal group of researchers, policymakers, consultants, and others from various organizations, including NGO's, development agencies, multilaterals and universities. Members of the AEN have been meeting, at their own expense or their organization's, once or twice a year to share their views and their work in are of the economics of AIDS in developing countries.

The first meeting of the AEN was in August of 1993, and was chaired by AIDSCAP/Family Health International and USAID. By May 1998, a total of eight sessions had been conducted on a wide variety of topics of interest to economists working in the field of HIV/AIDS.

Currently AEN has 125 members from 14 different countries. Organizations represented include UNAIDS, WHO, the World Bank, UNDP, UNICEF, PAHO, FAO, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the French Embassy, NIH, the Bureau of the Census, USAID, DHHS, USDA, the Department of State, 18 universities and 24 private organizations.

The day-long sessions generally are scheduled every 6 months, and have been maintained as informal meetings designed to: 1) identify the activities of various organizations, 2) hear the latest information on the social and economic impact of HIV/AIDS, and 3) interact with individuals who are performing leading edge research in the field of AIDS and economics.

Face-to-Face Meetings of the Network

The topics covered have varied significantly, although the goal of AEN has been to focus on one or two main topics during each sessions. The topics have included:

The cost-effectiveness of HIV/AIDS prevention (Group discussion)
Microeconomic analyses vs. macroeconomic analyses (Group discussion)

The socioeconomic impact of HIV/AIDS in Honduras (Mike Sweat/Steven Forsythe: AIDSCAP)
AIDS in Kenya (Paul Delay: USAID; Susan Hassig: AIDSCAP)

AIDS and agriculture (Lynn Brown: IFPRI)
AIDSCAP’s Private Sector AIDS Policy (PSAP) kit (Mathew Roberts/Steven Forsythe: AIDSCAP)

The cost-effectiveness of HIV/AIDS prevention (Anne Mills/Charlotte Leighton: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)

Household impact assessments (Mead Over/Martha Ainsworth: The World Bank)
Cost analyses of interventions in Thailand (Steven Forsythe: AIDSCAP)

The socioeconomic impact of HIV/AIDS in Asia (David Bloom: Harvard Institute for International Development)

Findings from the World Bank’s book, "Confronting AIDS"(Mead Over: World Bank)
Sectoral impact assessments (Steven Forsythe: AIDSCAP)
AIDS and development (Stefano Bertozzi: UNAIDS)
The economics of commercial sex (Eric Jensen: The College of William and Mary)

"Confronting AIDS: Public Priorities in a Global Epidemic" Presentation by Martha Ainsworth & Mead Over of the major messages of the recent Policy Research Report. (See materials from "Confronting AIDS" on this site.)
Discussion of links between AIDS and health reform with specific reference to financing anti-retroviral therapy
Introduction of the Internet AIDS Economic Network (Lawrence MacDonald)
Financing Anti-retroviral Therapy in Developing Countries (Nicholas Prescott on Thailand, Jorge Saavedra on Mexico, Joseph Brunet-Jailly on Cote d'Ivoire)
General Discussion of ARV financing issues
(See materials from the on-line discussion: "ARV Treatment in Developing Countries" on this site.)

An On-Line Conference: From May 4, 1998 through May 29, 1998 the AIDS Economics web site hosted an on-line conference entitled "ARV Treatment in Developing Countries: Questions of Economics, Equity and Ethics".  The conference was by invitation-only.  160 people from over 30 countries visited the conference site. Invitees included members of the AEN and others.

Next Steps

Plans are currently underway to expand AEN in order to access more economic researchers from developing countries. Topics which are being considered for future meetings include:

  1. Social and economic determinants of the spread of HIV/AIDS (debt, SAPs, etc)
  2. Evaluating socioeconomic impact research as a policy tool
  3. The economic aspects of research on AZT and pregnant women
  4. Assessing the impact of HIV/AIDS on education

The work of the AEN will be supplemented by this web site and accompanying electronic tools.

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