Group combats AIDS in the workplace

Low productivity and loss of profit, combined with increases in health bills and funeral expenses, had hit some of the big companies hard, causing the near collapse of some organisations following the death of key personnel. The chief executives had seen the impact of AIDS in their companies and the potential for destruction the disease posed to the national economy.

That meeting gave birth to an organisation in Zambia that would provide care and support to the affected and infected at workplaces. The idea evolved from Asia, where the Thailand Business Coalition on AIDS (TBCA) was established about six years ago. Supported by the United Nations AIDS Programme (UNAIDS), a delegation from Zambia went to Thailand in 1999 to study the strategies of TBCA, which involved the private sector in HIV/AIDS prevention control programmes.

With the assistance of the UN Country Team (UNCT), the Zambia Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS was established in the following year to urge businesses to support responses aimed at preventing and controlling the disease. Some of the organisation's objectives include: to provide care and support to the affected and infected; reduce the vulnerability of individual workers to HIV infection; and alleviate the impact of the epidemic at workplaces.

"As an umbrella body, ZBCA is mandated to spearhead HIV/AIDS-related activities among businesses and business houses and harness their efforts, capacity, and potential towards HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and mitigation," said Grace Mumba, Assistant Field Co-ordinator of ZBCA.

Mumba said the effects of HIV/AIDS manifest themselves in many ways in the workplace. "Frequent absenteeism from work due to illness, time off to attend funerals, or caring for someone sick," affected productivity, she said. And, "high health care costs and death benefits were increasingly being felt." Also decreasing productivity were an increase in training and recruitment costs and high labour turnover.

Prior to her coming to Zambia in November 1998, Olubanke-King Akerele, the UN Resident Co-ordinator, had visited Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia. She was impressed by the success of the Thailand Business Coalition on AIDS and shared her experience with the UN Country Team in Zambia.

Being strong believers in South-South co-operation, the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) was convinced that African countries would benefit from such experiences, and supported the idea for a similar programme in Zambia. The team responded positively to the UN Resident Co-ordinator's proposals for arrangements of professional attachment to Thailand.

As part of the 1999 work plan of the Theme Group on HIV/AIDS, then chaired by UNICEF, arrangements were made for representatives of the business community, youth, the UNAIDS Country Programme Advisor, and the UNDPHIV/AIDS specialist to visit the Thailand Business Coalition on AIDS as part of the UNDP - Africa Regional Programme for Innovative Co-operation among the South (PICAS), based in Zambia.

The main objective of the April 1999 mission to Thailand was to explore practical strategies of how the council there gets its business community to implement HIV/AIDS activities. Members of the Zambian mission aimed to learn best practices so that they could implement these when they returned to Zambia and Swaziland. ZBCA was launched in April 2000, with a contribution of US$73,000 as seed money for the secretariat.

Mumba said the organisation is working towards increasing and strengthening its membership. "ZBCA exists to provide information, education, counselling, and related services to the business community at the workplace, to improve workers' health, and to increase productivity, " she said.

"We promote non discrimination and encourage openness about HIV/AIDS through sensitisation of staff at all levels and deal humanely and appropriately with persons with HIV/AIDS by establishing conducive workplace environment and policies," said Mumba. She said ZBCA as an alliance of businesses recognises and builds upon the existing information, programmes, and activities in collaboration with government, NGOs, and the National Aids Council.

According to Mumba, the organisation has formulated policy guidelines from which member companies choose what is best for them. "The organisation has trained peer educators from different companies, even those that are not our members; we have trained their personnel," she said.

Her organisation advocates for the availability of anti-retroviral drugs in Zambia. "We feel it is very important for the drugs to be cheap in Zambia and we also feel there is need to promote the use of immune boasters or the use of natural remedies where these drugs are not available," she said.

The organisation, which has been working hand-in-hand with people living positively with the disease, has in the past invited international NGOs such as Action Aid from the United Kingdom to talk to members on HIV/AIDS issues.