Globalization and Problems with Developing Healthy Communities in Indebted Countries: Global Trends in ODA, External Debt and AIDS in HIPCs

The present paper puts an issue of public health into the context of globalization with a particular reference to the trend of decreasing Official Development Assistance ODA. The present paper refers to HIV/AIDS in developing countries that are eligible to participate in the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. By looking at HIPC countries with adult prevalence rate of HIV above 4%, the paper is taking an extremely emergent case of public health issue and is situating it in a global finance perspective, showing that even with such devastating problem the international commitment to assist countries most severely affected is not yet adequate. In doing so, the paper focuses on the importance of the external organizational and procedural framework for dealing with a global public problem like HIV/AIDS.