Provider love in an informal settlement: Men’s relationships with providing women and implications for HIV in Kampala, Uganda

This study reports on data from an ethnography (2016–2019) with low-income men in urban Uganda. This study uses gender and power theory to describe how men’s relationships with female sex workers in an informal settlement in urban Kampala, Uganda are characterized by female providers (“provider love”) and male dependents. These intersections of gender, economic struggle, power, and intimacy reconfigure men’s HIV vulnerability in this setting. Public health programming on HIV/AIDS for men should consider different patterns of masculinity, power, and economic struggle and how they impact HIV outcomes.