Economics of Infidelity & STD's in Sub-Saharan Africa

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[B]U of O economist wins Polanyi Prize for research into the unfaithful
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BY ROBERT SIBLEY, OTTAWA CITIZEN NOVEMBER 25, 2013

OTTAWA â?? Infidelity. Sexual networking. Men cheating on women. Sexual disease. You might think such topics arenâ??t the stuff on which academic reputations are made, but youâ??d be wrong. Roland Pongou, an economist at the University of Ottawa, appears set to establish a stellar career of scholarly achievement on exactly these topics.

In the three years since he picked up his PhD from Brown University in the United States, the 37-year-old has produced more than a dozen papers, book chapters and technical reports looking at the question of why more women than men become HIV-positive and suffer HIV-AIDs-related deaths in certain regions of Africa. (Pongou has also picked up a Young Researcher of the Year Award, as well as a $55,000 scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.)

His conclusions are likely to be controversial and, to some, discomfiting. Pongou, a native of the West African country of Cameroon, has determined that societies organized on the basis of ethnic differences are more prone to the spread of HIV/AIDs than societies structured on, say, institutional arrangements. Moreover, cultures that are grounded in patriarchal traditions and, at the same time, regard male infidelity as a norm are their own worst enemies when it comes to preventing the spread of the disease.

â??Thatâ??s exactly what my research proves,â? he says in an interview a few days before the announcement that heâ??d won the prestigious Polanyi Prize for research in the field of economic science. He is one of five young scholars at Ontario universities to receive the award for 2013.

Pongou, an assistant professor of economics who came to Ottawa in 2010, was recognized for his research into â??networks of people who are unfaithful to their partners while expecting fidelity in return,â? the Council of Ontario Universities said in announcing the prize winners. â??Pongouâ??s research highlights the impact of gender within these networks, and explains why women are more affected than men by HIV/AIDS in certain societies.â?

According to Pongou, these sexual networks promote a â??gender gapâ? in the prevalence of HIV/AIDS. â??Iâ??m trying to understand why women are more infected that men in certain societies and not in others by HIV/AIDS. And also why HIV/AIDS is more concentrated in certain regions such as sub-Saharan African.â?

Some 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with the AIDS virus. Sixty per cent are women. As well, more women than men â?? 1.2 million compared to 800,000 â?? die each year form the disease. As far as Pongou is concerned, a clearer understanding of the relationship between gender and culture might go a long way to preventing millions of deaths.

One reason HIV/AIDS is so widespread in sub-Saharan Africa is because of the continued hold of traditional beliefs about relations between men and women, he says. The idea of womenâ??s rights and the equality of women may be well established in the West â?? if not always practised â?? but in Africa the customs of patriarchy continue to hold sway; men seek multiple sexual partners while expecting their wives to remain faithful. Indeed, a woman in a patriarchal society is likely to be more severely punished for infidelity.

It is, perhaps, no surprise then that the majority of those in â??infidelity networksâ? are men, Pongou observes. However â?? and hereâ??s where the issue of ethnicity comes in to play â?? these men are more likely to look outside their particular ethnic group for their adulterous partner, thinking that ethnic differences will keep their partners from finding out about each other. As Pongou puts it in his scholarly fashion: â??If I wanted to cheat on may partner, I would choose my second partner from outside the ethnic group of the first partner because I would like to maximize the social or ethnic distance between my partners. It might improve my chances of not being caught.â?

The problem is that when the would-be adulterer has several ethnic groups from which he can pick his partner, the greater the likelihood of spreading HIV/AIDs, Pongou says. â??If someone is infected, that infection will spread because the sexual networks can be very large.â? In this sense, he acknowledges, ethnic diversity encourages sexual infidelity and leads to a large sexual network, and that, in turn, makes the transmission of the virus easier.

â??My research explains that the high rate of HIV/AIDS in South Africa may be explained by the increase in the number of ethnic groups in that country,â? he says, noting that, after apartheid ended in the 1990s, immigrants from other parts of the continent poured into South Africa.

Over the past 20 years, the rate of HIV/AIDS in South Africa has spiked from about one per cent of the population to 25 per cent. Much the same took place in Botswana, where the HIV/AIDS rate jumped to 35 per cent from about two per cent in the 1990s. By comparison, HIV/AIDS rates in Cameroon have increased from one per cent to five per cent over the same period.

Pongou is careful to point out it is not so much ethnic diversity that is the problem, but rather the unwillingness of some societies to restructure themselves and integrate those diverse ethnic groups. Integration requires shedding long-held customs and cultural practices. â??The reality in Africa is that ethnic integration has to be addressed. Iâ??ve shown in my research that if, for instance, there are four ethnic groups in a city, that will increase sexual infidelity. And that will increase the prevalence of HIV/AIDs. If you address the issue of ethnic integration, which means that if you reduce ethnic divisions in Africa, that would reduce the overall rate of HIV in the population.â?

As well, changing cultural practices that reinforce womenâ??s inequality would narrow the gender gap, and, thus, curb those sexual practices fostered by ethnically structured societies that are culpable in the spread of AIDS, says Pongou. In Canada, he notes, with its practices of gender equality, the HIV/AIDS rate is in the range of 0.3 per cent, affecting some 50,000 people.

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