IFC is stepping up its fight against HIV/AIDS with plans to more than double the number of company prevention, education and care programs it supports across sub-Saharan Africa – the world’s worst-affected region – from 17 to 39 over the next two years.
A vital plank in IFC’s overall strategy of reducing poverty and improving lives, IFC Against AIDS helps large corporations develop health and support strategies for their employees, accelerating the involvement of the private sector in managing the disease.
Numbers recently released by the United Nations show that some 33.2 million people around the globe are infected with HIV. Africa remains the hardest-hit continent with about 22.5 million infections -- about 68 percent of the global total -- while sub-Saharan Africa alone adds about 1.7 million new cases each year, according to the UN.
AIDS has claimed millions of lives, devastated families and torn apart communities, but it also saps economic growth: the disease has the grim potential to hobble Africa’s long but quickening climb from poverty.
“The health of Africa’s growing economies largely depends on the health of its workforce,” said Bernard Chidzero, general manger of IFC’s Private Enterprise Partnership for Africa. “The important mission of IFC Against AIDS is to protect people and profitability by working with businesses as an HIV/AIDS expert and catalyst for action, where lives and development are threatened. Governments have a vital role to play in fighting the disease, but the private sector also has a part to play by providing prevention, education and treatment solutions to its workforce,” he added.
Support to HIV/AIDS programs are among the advisory services IFC offers its clients. It is active in all parts of sub-Saharan Africa, especially in the HIV hot spots of southern and eastern Africa. IFC contributes up to 50 percent of the costs over the first two years to help businesses establish an effective HIV health and education action plan.
At South Africa’s Hernic Ferrochrome, the world’s fourth largest producer of the ferrochrome alloy, the company’s 700 employees are mostly young men who live and work away from their families -- a particularly high-risk group.
IFC has partnered with Hernic to develop a comprehensive HIV education and training program, beginning with top management and working through the entire company. IFC has helped Hernic train peer educators, who talk with employees about the dangers of HIV and the ways to avoid it. The company, with IFC’s backing, plans to introduce an on-site voluntary counseling and testing service and a medical aid scheme covering HIV/AIDS for staff and their immediate family members.
At an annual event ahead of World Aids Day, hundreds of Hernic employees gathered under a large tent on the company’s grounds to hear speeches and watch humorous skits -- with serious messages -- about the dangers of HIV. Employees also received condoms and HIV/AIDS literature and were encouraged to practice safe sex and regularly test for infection. The company is also working to reduce the stigma surrounding HIV, encouraging those who fear they might be infected to seek help instead of hiding behind shame or fear.
“IFC has entirely changed the way we approach the problem of HIV and AIDS,” said Hernic’s Human Resources Manager, Victor Rannona. “IFC has helped get the entire company involved in tackling the problem, while IFC’s guidelines, training and monitoring programs have been invaluable…Already you can see behavioral changes at Hernic, people are talking about HIV/AIDS in a much more open way and we feel the stigma is being removed,” he added.
In Kenya, IFC Against AIDS supports the health initiatives of Serena Hotels, a chain of 18 hotels and lodges that employs more than 2,600 people.
Since 2006, IFC has played a key role in helping Serena Hotels develop a workplace wellness program and trained 180 peer educators to promote awareness and behavior changes. Since the program was launched, the number of Serena employees who have died from HIV/AIDS has dropped from seven to only two a year – IFC and Serena are determined to bring that number down to zero.
IFC is also reaching into the wider communities surrounding its client partners by hosting informal education seminars and encouraging employees to speak to their family and friends about HIV/AIDS care and prevention.
Many companies like Hernic and Serena want to implement an HIV/AIDS awareness program, but few know where or how to start: instead, some embark on a piecemeal approach that may -- or may not -- benefit employees.
Launched in 2000, the comprehensive IFC Against AIDS approach – which directly touches about 56,000 employees in sub-Saharan Africa and indirectly reaches thousands more in surrounding communities -- is structured around three pillars of action: guidance, training and development and research.
In its guidance role, IFC partners with client companies to help them implement and manage effective HIV/AIDS programs within their workplaces and, in some cases, in the surrounding communities as well.
IFC has also developed a training program targeting small and medium-sized enterprises. The program is designed to help these firms overcome the threat HIV/AIDS poses to both people and profitability by separating HIV fact from myth, understanding the process used to create an AIDS workplace program and by developing action plans for their companies.
Within its development and research function, IFC Against AIDS helps develop workplace models and tools for the private sector to use to educate and protect employees.
A recent report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) underscores the social and economic importance of workplace HIV programs.
The IOM analyzed conditions in Zambia, where 17 percent of adults have HIV and many companies rely on migrant workers, who are particularly vulnerable to disease. The study found that by implementing a range of HIV programs for staff, the benefits far outweigh the costs, both in human and financial terms.
According to the report, the largest surveyed company saved nearly $500,000 in what would have been lost productivity from sick employees. The conclusion: companies can save money and retain staff by offering workers HIV programs.
“IFC recognizes that broad-based development is impossible without addressing the health of individual companies and individual workers,” Chidzero said. “IFC Against AIDS is taking a leading and growing role in the fight against the disease.”
For more informatiion:
Daniel Musiitwa
DMusiitwa@ifc.org
