IFC Against AIDS conducts three types of training: SME training, portfolio training, and skills training.
SME Training
In Africa where the small and medium sized (SME) sector accounts for most of a country’s private sector, IFC Against AIDS has developed a training program targeting SMEs in order to build their capacity to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on their businesses. The training program has the same risk management objectives as the guidance work, but it focuses on SMEs (training being a better delivery model with this group). Initiated in 2004 as a pilot in four countries: Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa, the program is now being expanded through a 3 year pan-African PEP Africa project: “Managing HIV/AIDS in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises”, to be implemented in East Africa, Portuguese-speaking Africa (Mozambique and Angola), and Southern Africa.
The goal of the PEP Africa–IFC Against AIDS program is to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on SMEs’ operations and on their employees, families, and communities.
The program has two objectives:
1. To increase the capacity of SMEs to implement and sustain an effective HIV/AIDS workplace program.
2. To develop a replicable approach to HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation for SMEs that other organizations can adopt.
The program will aim at making the business case for action and developing the HIV/AIDS mitigation skills of SMEs, leading to an appropriate role and response of those enterprises in the face of the epidemic with two focus areas: 1) proactive management of HIV/AIDS as an operational risk, and 2) prevention and care for the employees and communities of those enterprises.
This training can also be offered to other SMEs and portfolio companies that have not been exposed to IFC Against AIDS. See a brief presentation on our SME training.
The initial one day training is designed to achieve the following objectives among the participants:
- To learn the facts about HIV/AIDS and discredit myths about the disease.
- To raise awareness about the impact of HIV/AIDS on their businesses, their employees, and their communities by making the business case for action.
- To develop an understanding of the process used to create an HIV/AIDS program in the workplace.
- To develop a preliminary action plan for their company and become aware of the resources available for implementation.
Over a period of one year, the training facilitator evaluates the progress made by the participants in implementing their plans, and provides further guidance through three follow-up sessions held at four month intervals following the initial one-day training, with the final session 12 months after the start of the program.
In addition under the training banner, we include the training of NGOs and service providers, the AIDS committees of our clients, and the facilitators that will become involved in the PEP Africa project. Our training programs are defined by their target audiences.
Portfolio Training
Skills Training
We also offer training on Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) to our client companies
