Kenya: Employer’s Body to Launch Inaugural HIV/AIDS Awards
By Nicholas Tago
NAIROBI---The Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) will next week award companies that have developed innovative and effective HIV/AIDS programmes. The awards will be the culmination of a two-day symposium whose objective is to enhance learning among private sector players for improved HIV/AIDS programming and recognize the best practices from the private sector.
FKE Board chairman Dr Cleopa Mailu told a media briefing at Nairobi’s Intercontinental Hotel (which will also be the venue of the symposium) that the private sector, through its workforce, its ability to advocate at the highest levels of government, and its economic ties to both donor countries and those hardest hit by the pandemic has the unparalleled opportunity to change the course of the pandemic for individuals, families, communities and even nations.
“In order to minimize the negative impact HIV/AIDS has inflicted on business productivity and to improve the general wellbeing of workers and their families, FKE with support from UNDP and other development partners has been building the capacity of its members and advocating the development of HIV/AIDS company policies”, said Dr Mailu. “To that effect, a number of private players have registered great success in implementing workplace policies and programmes, while some are still experiencing challenges. This calls for the need to organize forums to share lessons and enhance networking and referrals. It is against this backdrop that FKE and other private sector partners plan to convene an annual symposium to highlight company and sector specific best practices, tools and guidelines for engaging the private sector around issues of HIV/AIDS.”
The November 23-24 symposium—which has been organized in collaboration with UNDP, the National Aids Control Council (NACC), the UN joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), ILO, USAID APHIA II, among others—will include sharing of best practices across all sectors of the economy to enable Kenya sustain its well developed human resource base which is facing a stinging threat from the pandemic on the labour force. The symposium will be held under the theme: Acclaiming Private Sector Response to the impact of HIV/AIDS in Kenya: Sharing our story.
The inaugural private sector HIV/AIDS achievement awards will be presented at a high level gala lunch as the highlight of the symposium and in recognition of the various and innovative efforts and initiatives various organizations have developed in the fight against HIV/AIDS at the workplace. Awards will be given in three categories namely A, B and C. In Category A, recognition is given to a comprehensive workplace programme entailing interventions that are targeted at staff, spouses and dependants. Category B is for community engagement and will be awarded to organizations that can demonstrate that they have expanded their interventions beyond the workplace to reach out to the community. The category C award will be for networking, partnership and mentorship. Prospective awardees should demonstrate how they utilize their skill, competence and capacity to mentor their peers and catalyse the roll-out of like-minded interventions.
Evaluation of applications will be done by a panel of independent judges drawn from government, development partners and HIV programmers with understanding of workplace HIV/AIDS programmes.
FKE has championed the fight against HIV/AIDS since 1988 when it issued the first guideline on HIV/AIDS at the workplace. In June 2009, the Federation, in partnership with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Central Organisation of Trade Unions, COTU, the Kenyan workers’ umbrella body, launched the first “National Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS in the workplace.”