ABSTRACT
Recently, statements like these have been circulating within international policy circles. They have been expressed publicly and argued for in authoritative documents such as the UNAIDS annual reports. They denote that we know what works in terms of the best technologies for dealing with HIV/AIDS. These technologies typically involve condoms, voluntary counselling and testing (VCTs), availability of drugs, peer education for sensitisation and information transmission and the associated best practices for implementing these tools. These are taken as the generally accepted content of our knowledge for dealing with the disease and the widely used tools for implementation. Most of these tools target prevention-related activities. However, the evident negative state of affairs in relation to HIV/AIDS around the world (UNAIDS 2006) cautions against such strong knowledge claims. It raises a doubt that perhaps we don’t actually know. It shows that looking at knowledge claims is imperative, since more and more is claimed under the banner of we know, and more and more people are receiving what we know works. Yet despair, misery and poverty are faced by increasing millions in Sub-Saharan Africa. Maybe what we know is not the most important part of what needs to be known for intervening in people’s lives. But why is this knowledge claim important?
