8 January, 2008No. 28, January 2008
Global Union/World Bank Consultations
The ITUC and four Global Union Federations (EI, ICEM, ITF and PSI) were invited to consultations on HIV/AIDS with the World Bank on 10 and 11 December.
The objectives of the consultations were to identify complementarities between worker organisations and World Bank involvement in HIV/AIDS in Africa and to draft sector-specific action plans.
The World Bank Group consists of the IBRD (middle-income countries loan facility), IDA (soft loan and grant facility for low-income countries) and IFC (commercial loan window, which has its own AIDS programme – IFC Against AIDS, Protecting People and Profitability and which published the HIV/AIDS Guide for the Mining Sector).
Since 1986, and with the operation of the Africa Multi-Country AIDS Program (MAP) from 2000, about USD 2.6 billion have been committed. MAP alone committed some 1.5 billion since 2000 in 30 countries and five sub-regional projects. World Bank funds are usually channelled through the national HIV/AIDS coordinating body.
50% of MAP funds were earmarked for NGOs. According to the MAP 2000-2006 publication The Africa Multi-Country AIDS Program 2000-2006, available at www.worldbank.org, 41,000 organisations in 25 countries benefited. More than 2.2 million workers were reached with workplace programmes.
The World Bank continues its commitment to fight HIV/AIDS and has developed a new Agenda for Action 2007-2011. One of the objectives is to scale-up targeted multi-sectoral responses. Thus, the sector-specific meetings focused on mainstreaming HIV/AIDS in key sectors which include mining and energy – also ICEM key sectors. The ICEM will continue its work with the World Bank and include capacity building and knowledge sharing and generation for unions in infrastructure projects financed by the World Bank.
VCT Counsellors’ Training for ICEM Affiliates
The low uptake of voluntary counselling and testing was a reason for the ICEM to focus on the training of counsellors from its own affiliates. With a grant from a major pharmaceutical company, training courses were held in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania with participants from all ICEM affiliates in these countries.
In cooperation with professional service providers 40 VCT counsellors were trained in the course of 2007. The ICEM will monitor their deployment and work in 2008 in order to assess the impact of unionists in the up-scaling of VCT.
Global Fund Round 8 Proposals
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is scheduled to issue its call for proposals for Round 8 on 1 March 2008. From that date, applicants will have 120 days to prepare and submit their proposals.
Although this seems a fair amount of time, the demanding proposal form and complicated procedures may require more time. There is no reason to start the process now. For unions that means getting membership on Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCM) to make sure that workplace projects are included in proposals to the Global Fund.
(Source: Global Fund Observer Issue 82, 7 December 2007. GFO is a free service of Aidspan www.aidspan.org. To receive GFO, send an email to [email protected])
Zambia: Women and AIDS
Domestic violence and poverty are preventing many Zambian women from accessing AIDS drugs, thus undermining the government’s ambitious treatment programme.
About 16% of adults in Zambia are HIV-positive and, in urban areas, the prevalence rate exceeds 20%, with infection rates higher among women. The government provides antiretroviral drugs free of charge.
A report by New York-based Human Rights Watch attributes the inadequate treatment of women to fear of violence from husbands which prevents women from getting tested. In other cases, women are left without financial means for transportation and a proper diet after divorce or death of their husbands leaves them destitute as property is seized by the husband’s family.
(Source: Associated Press, 18 December 2007)
Nigerian Ministry Develops HIV/AIDS Workplace Policy
The Nigerian Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development recently developed a policy that provides a framework for addressing HIV/AIDS in the workplace. The policy seeks to protect the rights of HIV-positive workers, as well as to foster a safe and healthy work environment for employees with a zero tolerance to psychological abuse, stigma and discrimination.
HIV/AIDS should be treated as any other chronic illness in the workplace in terms of employee benefits, including health and life insurance, disability benefits and leave of absence.
(Source: Daily Trust, 17 December 2007)
Bono’s Brand
In January 2006, Bono, the Irish rock star, launched Product Red, to raise money for HIV/AIDS work in Africa. So far Red, which licenses its logo to brands including Apple, Motorola, Armani, Gap, Converse and American Express, has donated USD 50 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
While this is more than a lot of countries have contributed to the Global Fund, growth of Red has slowed down as few new companies have signed up and as the products are only available in a limited number of countries.
(Source: Financial Times, 1-2 December 2007)
News from the Global Union Programme and Global Unions
In its most recent HIV/AIDS updates (nos. 34 and 35 of 1 and 15 December) the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) www.itfglobal.org reports, among others, on its Latin American regional HIV/AIDS workshop, which focused on developing a prevention culture to control the epidemic; on the implementation of a workplace HIV/AIDS programme by the Namibia Transport and Allied Workers’ Union and on programmes in India.