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About Our Work:
Private-Public Partnerships and Workplace Programs (Last Updated: January 2005) |
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The HIV/AIDS pandemic reduces productivity in the world's hardest hit nations
due to increased absenteeism and shortened working careers. Production costs are
rising to cover the increased costs of medical and social benefits, and also the
cost of training to replace workers who drop out of the workforce due to
HIV/AIDS. In addition, consumer spending is declining as people affected by
HIV/AIDS terminate their employment, and those who remain employed are
redirecting their spending to HIV/AIDS care and treatment.
Working together, government, business, and labor can reduce some of the
economic effects of the pandemic by supporting HIV-infected and -affected
workers in their jobs and augmenting community efforts to prevent new infections
and care for those already infected.
Many organizations have established guidelines and policies for HIV/AIDS
workplace policy. For example, Family Health International's Workplace HIV/AIDS
Programs and CDC's Business Responds to AIDS (BRTA) Manager's Kit and Labor
Responds to AIDS (LRTA) Labor Leader's Kit describe comprehensive programs. In
addition, the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS is compiling documentation
on the best practices of multinational corporations with regards to HIV/AIDS
policies and programs.
A non-discriminatory workplace policy is the cornerstone to a workplace HIV
program. The components of a comprehensive workplace program include:
- workplace policy,
- prevention education messages for managers and employees,
- family education,
- care and treatment,
- community involvement.
The U. S. Government (USG) through the Global AIDS Program (GAP) supports a
variety of HIV prevention, care and treatment, and infrastructure and capacity
building activities. Included in these activities are: prevention of
mother-to-child transmission, voluntary counseling and testing, HIV
surveillance, laboratory support services, and the treatment of opportunistic
infections such as tuberculosis.
In Botswana, the USG... helped develop a toolkit for workplace use,
including information such as sample workplace policies, prevention education
materials, and information regarding local resources (ongoing).
In South Africa, the USG... assisted four labor unions to develop
HIV/AIDS workplace policies.
Workplace programs meet wide range of needs
Countries that have prioritized public-private partnerships
receive support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to
meet their specific needs.
This support includes activities to:
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educate business, labor and government on HIV/AIDS health,
human rights, and economic issues;
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assist in the design of workplace programs;
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support advocacy for workplace HIV/AIDS legislation;
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support the creation of business, labor, and government
councils and business coalitions;
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identify workers' occupational risk for HIV/AIDS and develop
interventions to address these risks;
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help engage the informal work sector;
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encourage the development of workplace community linkages.
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