Kim Yi Dionne, “Doomed Interventions: The Failure of Global Responses to AIDS in Africa” (Cambridge UP, 2018)

AIDS is one of the primary causes of death in Africa. Of the more than 24 million Africans infected with HIV, only about 54% have access to the treatment that they need. Despite the progress made in mitigating this disease in the global north, unfortunately, Africa is left behind. In her new book Doomed Interventions: The Failure of Global Responses to AIDs in Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2018), Kim Yi Dionne examines the obstacles to AIDs interventions in Africa. She challenges the narrative that the failure of these responses is because of insufficient funding or the lack of political will. She argues that designers of these intervention programs are often far removed from the agents who have to implement them and that the priorities between the international organizations who finance these interventions and the local people who have to navigate AIDs in Africa are often misaligned. She makes a case for local actors, priorities, and participation in the design and implementation of these intervention programs.

Professor Kim Yi Dionne. She is an Assistant professor of Government at Smith College. Professor Dionne teaches courses on African politics, ethnic politics and field research methods. Her research interests include political behavior and public opinion, health, ethnicity and research methods. The substantive focus of her work is on the opinions of ordinary Africans toward interventions aimed at improving their condition and the relative success of such interventions.

Bekeh Utietiang Ukelina is an Assistant Professor of History at SUNY, Cortland. His research examines the ideologies and practices of development in Africa, south of the Sahara. He is the author of The Second Colonial Occupation: Development Planning, Agriculture, and the Legacies of British Rule in Nigeria.

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