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Here are some articles that have appeared in the international news media highlighting the work IFC Against AIDS is doing with companies around the world. Africa:
This story by Benson Kathuri was published in the East African Standard, Nairobi, Kenya on March 14, 2006. It highlights some of our guidance work and the training (including Monitoring and Evaluation) that we offer our clients. (The East African Standard/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- By 2001, a local hotel chain had lost 35 workers to HIV/Aids in five years. Though the top managers knew what was wrong, they assumed that the problem would go away, as it was health-related and health workers were adequately addressing it. But the company continued to incur huge expenses due to workers’ absenteeism because of illness. General welfare expenses also rose due to high medical bills. When the company management finally decided to take the bull by the horns two years later, it realised that it was very expensive to put even half of the infected workers on life prolonging drugs. The group was shocked further when its health provider declined to offer medical cover to workers infected with HIV. Alarm bells went off when the company paid a hospital bill of over Sh200,000 in one month for one employee. The managers realised then that the company would go under if they continued spending such huge amounts of money on health expenses. It dawned on them that Aids was not only a health issue but also a business one, posing enormous economic challenges. But the situation has changed drastically over the last one year, with more health service providers willing to meet the special needs of workers living with the virus. Gillette Conner Fighting Aids at the workplace The hotel company’s earlier experience has forced it to act decisively and face the problem head-on, and it has not been disappointed. The chain was proud to announce recently that it had lost only five employees to Aids in the last three years, and those infected were being provided with drugs that enabled them to remain productive. The firm owes this success to intensive Aids awareness campaigns, which did not beat around the bush, but gave the workers the hard facts on the deadly disease. Aids has caused local companies losses running into billions of shillings and no single company can boast of succeeding in keeping the pandemic at bay though some are more affected than others. With human labour having overtaken other factors of production like capital and land as the key to profitability, companies have invested billions of shillings to develop human capital but are now watching helplessly as the pandemic takes its toll on the same workers. "The disease leads to increased costs in medical cover and other benefits, and recruitment and training. It also causes lower productivity due to absenteeism, labour turnover and loss of experienced personnel," says Ms Gillette Conner, the programme officer of an International Finance Corporation (IFC) program, IFC Against Aids. Conner says: "The epidemic affects consumer bases, savings, investments, education, and the cost of doing business." It is with this realisation that, IFC, the private lending arm of the World Bank, developed the special programme to help companies fight Aids at the workplace. Pre-employment HIV screening Conner says corporate organisations cannot keep the virus away by screening workers before offering them jobs. "It is easy to get a HIV-negative employee, but how do you keep them safe after employment?" she poses. Though pre-employment HIV screening is still widespread in the country, Conner says it is doomed to fail and only serves to create "psychological comfort" in the management. IFC Against Aids, started in 2000, aims at helping companies fight and develop interventions that would reduce the impact of HIV/Aids on their operations. Conner says although most companies are strong supporters of HIV/Aids programmes in their countries, they have not adequately addressed the issue in their boardrooms. "The private sector, including IFC clients, is still not meaningfully involved in counteracting this disease that affects workers, managers and markets," she says. IFC, which lends money to large and medium-sized companies in the developing world, is particularly concerned over the impact of the disease in companies within sub-Saharan Africa, which has the highest infection rate in Africa. The corporation supports several local companies including Serena Hotels, Magadi Soda, K-Rep Bank, I&M Bank and Development Finance Company of Uganda. It has started a joint pilot project with the corporates to develop a strategy for other firms to sustain in-house Aids campaigns. Corporate Aids action plan During training on Monitoring and Evaluation of HIV/AIDS programs conducted by IFC Against Aids in Nairobi last week, managers from various companies said they had launched Aids committees in their establishments. But they lamented that it was difficult to sustain the same because they were run by volunteer workers. "We have realised that this is a marathon and not a sprint; those called upon to champion the cause can run out of steam," says Conner. Some companies are also reluctant to commit more money to the awareness campaigns because they are not sure that they are working. "It is too much to ask workers to volunteer and keep the awareness campaigns alive, while they have targets to meet at their workplaces," said Ms Conner. IFC has resolved to work with client companies to establish a corporate Aids action plan tailored to the specific needs and resources of each firm, she said. To help sustain the campaign, the corporation has also identified health organisations which companies can approach for material support and services. "The NGOS would provide the services that the committees have been struggling to provide," said Conner. The organisations are African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref), National Organisation of Peer Educators (NOPE) and HOPE Worldwide. Targeting young professionals The service providers have been trained on various issues including the expectations of the companies that will engage their services. The providers will develop programmes targeting young professionals aged below 30, said to be the most evasive during Aids awareness campaigns. Company managers lament that though the age group is easy prey to the killer virus, it has been difficult to get the members to volunteer and concentrate on any programmes developed by the Aids committee in their companies. Conner says no company can afford to ignore the group since it will eventually provide top managers. The three NGOs are expected to work closely with the companies to develop programmes which meet the needs of all employees, she says. "Individual companies will choose between the providers and IFC to monitor their working relationship and progress," says Conner. She says companies seeking the services will meet the costs but there are "other small issues" that the corporation will provide. IFC Against Aids has prepared a manual to help the company committees monitor and evaluate the impact of the programme. | SITE TOOLS   |
