New life in old frames: HIV, development and the ‘AIDS plus MDGs’ approach

There have been recent indications that AIDS’ primacy amongst global health issues may be under threat. In this article we examine a new response to this perceived threat to have emerged from the AIDS policy community: the ‘AIDS plus MDGs’ approach which argues that the AIDS response (the focus of MDG6) is essential to achieving the other MDG targets by 2015, and which stresses the two-way relationship between AIDS and other development issues. In framing AIDS in this way, the AIDS plus MDGs approach draws on a well-established narrative on the existence of a ‘virtuous circle’ between health and development, but at the same time makes some important concessions to critics of the AIDS response. This article - the first critical academic analysis of the AIDS plus MDGs approach – uses this case to illuminate aspects of the use of framing in global health, shedding light both on the extent to which new framings draw upon established ‘common sense’ narratives but also on the ways in which framers must adapt to the changing material and ideational context in which they operate.