This special issue of Field Exchange focuses on the food aid component of HIV related programming and was made possible through additional funding from DFID RSA. How the ENN have gathered field material for this issue marks a significant departure from our usual approach, in that a consultant (Mary Corbett) was taken on as a kind of roving researcher/correspondent. Mary visited five countries over the course of six weeks (Malawi, Zambia, Kenya and Uganda and South Africa) to meet with a wide variety of agency staff implementing HIV programming with a food aid component. Her brief was to describe these programmes and, where possible, identify lessons learnt. She was also asked to identify significant related research initiatives or findings in the countries visited. An account of the experience is captured in her editorial (page 17).
