AIDS control at the workplace: enterprises and business associations have great potential

Since 2000, GTZ has been fighting HIV/AIDS together with private companies. This cooperation is based on the concept of public-private partnerships (PPP). By now, all active partnerships have been incorporated into the ACCA regional project. The project is coordinated from Eschborn in Germany, supported by local advisers in Namibia, Tanzania and Zambia. In Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa as well as Ivory Cost and Madagascar ACCA closely collaborates with other GTZ projects and programmes.

The concept of HIV/AIDS workplace programmes was initially developed in pilot projects in South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. First successes like increased awareness of HIV/AIDS and decreasing mortality rates became apparent. ACCA took the concept further and applied it to medium-sized companies in a variety of economic sectors.

Since April 2004, ACCA cooperates with business associations in order to sensitise their members and to convince them of the need to introduce HIV/AIDS workplace programmes. With the support of ACCA they aim at offering services to facilitate the introduction of HIV/AIDS activities.

ACCA provides support in the following areas:

- Advocacy: ACCA provides business associations with arguments and tools to sensitise their members and to introduce a more general overview of the impact and consequences of HIV/AIDS on the national economic setting.

- Service delivery: A broad range of services is offered by business associations: consultations, development of information and education materials, training of peer educators, human resource managers, reaching out to small and medium enterprises, negotiations of a common AIDS fund, etc.

- Application for international funds: The private sector is not yet sufficiently represented in national groupings eligible for international funding. Technical assistance from ACCA will aim at opening access for business interest groups to these national groupings.

- Monitoring and Evaluation: With its technical expertise, the ACCA project can facilitate baseline studies that are significant for the design of a tailored service structure and a well-targeted advocacy campaign. Costing analyses, which will indicate the impact of HIV/AIDS on the business sector in general or on certain industrial sectors, are of great interest to business associations.

Detailed country information can be accessed on the sub pages:

• Central Africa
• East Africa
• Southern Africa
• West Africa