Evaluating HIV/Aids prevalence and sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa: the role of health expenditure.

BACKGROUND

The sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) present the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS worldwide; resulting to a significant development challenges at country, region and global level. The previous studies explain at least in part, the impact of the epidemic, however the impact of HIV/AIDS in long-term economic behavior were not yet clear. There is clearly few or absence of studies on the impact of the impact of the epidemic on sustainable development.

OBJECTIVE

This study focused on macroeconomic analysis of the HIV/AIDS impact on sustainable development in SSA.

METHODS

The study utilized a panel dataset covering 23 countries from 1993 until 2016, and employed Panel ARDL/PMG.

RESULT

Our findings reveals a stable long-run relationship between sustainable development and HIV/AIDS prevalence. The error correction coefficient was statistically significant and conclude that HIV/AIDS prevalence has long-run impact on sustainable development.

CONCLUSION

The main implication of our study is that, achieving a sustainable development in the presence of high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in SSA is very challenging and as such, the responsiveness of HIV/AIDS to sustainable development should be maintained at minimum which would require more efforts on HIV/AIDS control programs and increase health expenditure.