Men's Migration and Women's HIV/AIDS Risks in Mozambique

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This exploratory project will help to better understand the links between married men's migration from rural areas and the exposure of their wives to HIV/AIDS risks in sub-Saharan Africa. Migration is commonly implicated as an important factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS, but most attention has been focused on the HIV/AIDS risks of migrants, primarily men, in cities and other destination areas. Relatively little systematic information exists about migrants' wives remaining in rural areas and their exposure to both infection risks and information on prevention relative to women whose husbands do not migrate. Migration may affect women's HIV/AIDS views and risks directly-through their relationships with their migrant husbands. Yet, migration may also affect women's HIV/AIDS knowledge and risk exposure indirectly-by transforming their marital unions, altering their social and economic constraints and opportunities, and reconfiguring their social and sexual networks. These changes may encourage and/or facilitate women's extramarital partnerships, but at the same time, may give them greater ability to avoid risky sex with both their marital and extramarital partners. In exploring these complex direct and indirect effects, the proposed project will test a novel conceptual model of rural women's HIV/AIDS risks and prevention and assess the feasibility of a study design involving collection and analysis of mutually complementary quantitative and qualitative data. The project will be conducted in the south of Mozambique, an area with high levels of labor out-migration and rising HIV prevalence. Specifically, the project will: investigate the effects of men's migration on their marital unions and on their wives' economic security, social autonomy, and social networks; compare wives of migrant and non-migrant men with respect to HIV/AIDS awareness and risk perceptions; and compare wives of migrant and non-migrant men with respect to exposure to HIV infection risks and practice of prevention. To achieve its aims, the project will include a complementary mix of quantitative and qualitative methods: a representative survey of married and women in four rural districts and a series of in-depth interviews with a subsample of survey respondents. The results of this research will advance our knowledge of the social factors shaping the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. They will also provide invaluable information for interventions aimed at reducing HIV/AIDS risks among rural African women.