HIV/AIDS is a global pandemic. The epicentre of this pandemic is sub-Saharan Africa, where 15% of the population is infected versus the global average of 3.9%.1 Within sub-Saharan Africa, 60% of those infected with HIV/AIDS are girls or women.2 Looking at the general female population, those who are poor and uneducated are much more likely to be or become infected than their more privileged counterparts.3 Other markers of difference such as geographical location within countries, sexual orientation and marital status also differentially affect the probability of infection, thus demonstrating the complexity of characteristics and interactions to be considered when responding to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

This brief paper will explore some of the limitations of the northern response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa, namely how context is currently inadequately understood. We will detail social mechanisms that powerfully affect the female experience of the epidemic. Then, borrowing from the field of feminist scholarship, we will suggest a framework for exploring complex power structures to enable northern organizations to better understand the intricacies of context as they help to formulate a contextualized response to the epidemic.