Global and Local Health Governance: Civil society,human rights and hiv/aids

From the outset in the mid-1980s the international response to hiv/aids has been characterised by an emphasis on the human rights aspects of the pandemic, and on recognition of the pivotal role of civil society actors (csos). But how the rights-based conception of hiv/aids and the international legitimation of csos play out at the local level depends not only on the vertical coordination between global and local levels but also on government–cso relations and the understanding of the pandemic in individual countries. South Africa and Cambodia provide comparative examples of ‘glocalised’ responses to hiv/aids. Both countries were among the hardest hit in their respective regions. But, while the South African government was slow to acknowledge the severity of epidemic, the Cambodian leadership quickly initiated a comprehensive response to it. The two cases illustrate how opportunity structures at the international and national levels created different local responses to hiv/aids, with significant consequences for the epidemic over time.