Abstract
Educational campaigns to prevent HIV/AIDS have shown mixed success in Africa. We hypothesized that women’s lack of agency in decision-making and taking discernible actions reduces the beneficial impact of HIV-related knowledge.
We detected a moderating effect for agency on knowledge-driven behavior. Results on different behaviors and across individual countries are mixed and suggest caution to derive definitive conclusions. Despite limitations, these findings indicate that policies that increase women’s agency may help anti-HIV programs’ success.
