29 February, 2008No. 30 - March 2008
ICEM Planning sub-regional Workshops and Assessment Missions
More than three years into the HIV/AIDS project, the ICEM will conduct sub-regional workshops and assessment missions in three African sub-regions: English-speaking West Africa (Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone), French-speaking West Africa (Côte d’Ivoire, DR Congo and Mali) and southern Africa (Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia).
After five regional training courses for national coordinators the impact of their work at national level has to be assessed. Sub-regional workshops will include union leadership to renew their commitment in the fight against the pandemic.
The HIV/AIDS resolution of the 4th World Congress called on the ICEM to continue to treat HIV/AIDS as a priority. Assessment of the current project will also identify national priorities and objectives for an extension of the present project.
Mauritius: ICEM Affiliate Raises Issue of Migrant Workers
The Chemical, Manufacturing and Connected Trades Employees’ Union (CMCTEU) has approached the ICEM for cooperation in dealing with the issue of migrant workers.
In a total workforce of 550,000 there are around 30,000 migrant workers mainly from the Indian sub-continent, China and Madagascar. Some of those workers become commercial sex workers during their free time to supplement their meagre salary.
According to UNAIDS, the prevalence rate in Mauritius is a low 0.6% but it is much higher among injecting drug users and sex workers. In 2004, when tested for HIV, 13% of surveyed sex workers were found to be HIV-positive (only 32% stated that they had consistently used condoms).
CMCTEU also reported on their successful activity on World AIDS Day in which they used ICEM, ILOAIDS and UNAIDS/WAC material made available at the ICEM World Congress.
Chevron Commits USD 30 million to the Global Fund
Chevron Corporation, one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies, has become the Global Fund’s first “Corporate Champion,” donating US$30 million over three years to support programmes financed by the Fund in parts of Asia and Africa.
With the announcement of this donation on 21 January 2008, the Global Fund officially launched its Corporate Champions Program, which the Fund describes as “an innovative way for multinational corporations to significantly invest in the fight against the three diseases.” The plan is that each Corporate Champion will contribute to Global Fund-supported programs in the countries where the company operates.
The launch of the Corporate Champions program and the announcement of the Chevron donation are important developments for the Global Fund, which has had a long-standing goal of increasing investments from the private sector.
A copy of the press release announcing these developments can be downloaded from the Global Fund’s home page at www.theglobalfund.org.
(Source: Global Fund Observer Issue 84, 29 January 2008. GFO is a free service of Aidspan www.aidspan.org. To receive GFO, send an email to [email protected])
PEPFAR Renewal
The US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, expires this year. The five-year, USD 15 billion effort to combat AIDS in 15 mostly sub-Saharan African countries is arguably the most important and popular international programme of the Bush Presidency.
The President wants to double global AIDS money to USD 30 billion over the next five years; Congress wants to increase it to USD 50 billion. Yet its renewal has gotten hung up over ideology and political debate about disease prevention.
Democrats want to remove a provision in the bill that requires one-third of all prevention spending go to abstinence programmes. Another controversial provision forbids grants to groups that provide care to commercial sex workers.
(Source: USA Today, 18 February and AP, 2 February)
Global Fund Guidelines on Representation on CCMs
The revised Global Fund Guidelines for the Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCMs) contain an annex entitled "Guidelines on Types of Civil Society and Private Sector Representation Most Relevant to the Work of CCMs”. The Global Fund says that the Representation Guidelines "are intended to provide guidance for CCMs wishing to strengthen and/or improve" representation from these sectors, particularly in light of the CCMs' roles in proposal development and grant oversight.
The Representation Guidelines contain lists of the types of representation from civil society and the private sector that the Global Fund suggests to be included on CCMs.
The list for civil society representatives includes, among others, vulnerable groups/key populations, women's organisations and religious and faith-based groups. Under private sector representatives large for-profit companies, business associations to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria representatives from exposed industries and charitable foundations established by corporations are mentioned.
(Source: Global Fund Observer Issue 85, 25 February 2008. GFO is a free service of Aidspan www.aidspan.org. To receive GFO, send an email to [email protected].
Comment by the Editor of the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin:
The Global Fund has again failed to recognize the role of organized labour. Nowhere in the detailed annex to the Guidelines are trade unions or workers’ organizations mentioned; neither under civil society nor under the private sector.
Large for-profit companies are credited for having pioneered responses to fight HIV/AIDS totally ignoring the contribution of organised labour. One can only wonder what the South African National Union of Mineworkers would say to a statement that large mining houses in South Africa have “pioneered” the response to HIV/AIDS when they have often only reacted to union pressure.
Out of four sectors specifically mentioned, two – oil/gas and mining – are represented by the ICEM and its affiliates. Again, all that the Global Fund can say about it is that “for-profit companies, business coalitions and/or employers’ associations who represent the exposed industries can offer insight and support….” Not one word about workers’ organisations.
It is time that the Global Fund changes its ways. Global Unions and their national affiliates should pull their weight to question procedures and operations of the Global Fund. It cannot be that business and companies get such exclusive recognition and that workers’ organizations are completely ignored. Global Unions and national trade union centres have lobbied hard that donor countries increase their contribution and make long-term financial commitments to the Global Fund.
(For the full text of the Guidelines go to the website of the Global Fund www.theglobalfund.org)
News from the ILO
To expand and strengthen AIDS responses in the world of work, the ILO Governing Body decided in March 2007 to develop a new labour standard on HIV/AIDS. In preparation, the Office assembled information for an overview 'law and practice' report, including the most comprehensive compilation to date of national laws and policies on HIV/AIDS, covering 170 countries.
The report and its accompanying questionnaire have been sent to the ILO's member states for consultation with its constituents on the form and content of the proposed standard. Governments are to reply to the questionnaire in consultation with employers and workers. The draft standard - an "autonomous Recommendation" - will be discussed at the International Labour Conference in June 2009.
The report is available on the website of ILOAIDS – www.ilo.org/aids.
HIV/AIDS guidelines for the construction sector were published recently. They are also available on the ILOAIDS website.
On 29 January 2008, trade union representatives in Sri Lanka signed the Trade Union Joint Policy on HIV/AIDS. This policy aims to strengthen trade union interventions in HIV prevention and impact management. It was developed in the framework of the draft National Policy on HIV/AIDS and is based on he ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work.
News from the Global Union Programme and Global Unions
In its most recent HIV/AIDS updates (nos. 36 and 37 of 1 and 15 February) the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) www.itfglobal.org reports, among others, on awareness programmes and care work of its affiliates in Thailand where an explosion of the infection rate among injecting drug users and commercial sex workers was successfully contained.
The nautical school in Argentina will include HIV/AIDS in its curriculum to ensure that seafarers have an understanding of HIV/AIDS and will be able to provide education to their peers on ships. It also informs about the alarming situation in Papua New Guinea which by UNAIDS is described as the new frontline of the epidemic in the Asia-Pacific region.
Public-sector union UNISON of Great Britain is expanding its work in southern Africa with a massive new programme covering unions in teaching, nursing and local government.