Referencing scholarly debates on humanitarianism and specifically
HIV interventions, this article analyses the commodification of
health in Botswana’s political arena throughout the HIV pandemic and
beyond, contributing to a re-evaluation of the distribution of public
wealth and international support in welfare states in Africa. The starting
point of the analysis is a project to build a private hospital – a move to
create a centre of excellence exclusive of international HIV/AIDS donations
– and the staging of political responsibilities around it. Public investment
into private health is an attempt to reform infrastructures built
with HIV/AIDS money and to develop a market of high-paying jobs
within the country. This process transforms the inalienable and indivisible
condition of health and survival into a political commodity.