Social Change and Interest in Family Planning in Ghana: an Exploratory Analysis |
| |
| Authors: | D I Pool |
| |
| Institution: | International Population Program, Cornell University, and from July 1971, Department of Sociology, Carleton University. The fieldwork for this survey was carried out as a part of the Population Council's Teaching and Research Program at the University of Ghana. The computations and writing for the draft paper presented to the African Studies Association Annual Meeting, New York, 1–4 Nov. 1967, was carried out while I was on the faculty at the University of Western Ontario. Grateful acknowledgement is made for the assistance I was given by faculty, administration and students, and by research assistants, especially my wife, Patricia D. Musson, and Gail Frankel. |
| |
| Abstract: | This article examines the ways that pastors have mobilised their religious followers to address the issue of HIV and AIDS in Ghana and Zambia. The work argues that successful pastors have utilised church organisational structures to support and empower their activities, they have framed HIV and AIDS mobilisation messages in a way that is acceptable to their congregants and to their broader societies, and they have capitalised on changing political opportunities, particularly those opportunities for collaboration with external actors such as donors and Western churches. The work situates the analysis in Zambia and Ghana, two countries that contrast in their HIV prevalence rates and the amount of donor attention and funding they have received for combating HIV and AIDS. The article asserts that while pastors have agency in the social mobilisation process, they are also affected by the broader social and cultural contexts in which they operate. |
| |
| Keywords: | HIV/AIDS Zambia Ghana leadership churches AIDS stigma social mobilisation donors |
|
|
