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After UNGASS+5: Workplaces policy on HIV/AIDS coming
2006-07-09 09:28:43
By Simon Kivamwo
Hardly a month after Tanzania has participated in the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) that marked the five-year anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS in New York, 2001, the country has declared that it is sketching a serious workplaces policy that will fight against the spread of the pandemic among the working force. Staff Writer Simon Kivamwo digests on the new development.
This development can be viewed as part of the country’s to heed one among the several political commitments made by the global leaders who attended the 2006 High-Level Meeting on AIDS, also, like the previous one, was held in New York
From May 31st to June 2nd.
Section 21 of the political declaration emphasizes the need to strengthen policy and programme linkages and coordination between HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health, national development plans and strategies, including poverty eradication strategies, and to address, where appropriate, the impact of HIV/AIDS on national development plans and strategies.
Tanzania’s delegation to the session, christened, UNGASS+5 was led by the Prime Minister, Edward Lowassa.
It is probably through this spirit that the Tanzanian government is wasting no time to start strategizing itself.
The Director of Policy and Planning in the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS) Gerald Ngilwa this week announced that workplaces policy on HIV/AIDS was in the offing.
’’The policy is on the draft stage and if all goes well will be out next July,’’ said Ngilwa in an interview with the Sunday Observer.
It is a policy that will cut-cross every Ministry and Department, covering issues such as stigma and discrimination, access to treatment and care, prevention, gender and several others, he said.
According to Ngilwa the policy was being taken care of by the Public Service Management in collaboration with TACAIDS.
On their side, other Ministries and Departments were supposed to form in-house policies as reciprocation to the main policy expected to be out next year.
Apart from the policy, the government, through TACAIDS was reviewing the National Multi-Sectoral Framework 2002-2007, which comes to an end next year.
Ngilwa said the strategy that, among other things aimed at emphasizing every department or working place to make AIDS part and parcel of their daily business, was undergoing review.
A team of experts has been meeting since for sometimes now to review and giving it a new time frame, probably up to 2012, he said.
Sympathizers say some progresses have been made in developing and implementing workplaces HIV/AIDS interventions.
They say some government Ministries or departments have conducted analyses of the situation and impacts of HIV/AIDS in their workplaces.
These include the Parliament, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, the Ministry of Finance and the Vice President’s Office.
The Private sector formed AIDS Business Coalition Tanzania (ABCT) and they have already establishing an office. It is strategically located along Azikiwe street in the city centre.
ABCT members, particularly those in big companies like Tanzania Breweries, Tanzania Cigarette Company, CRDB, Citi Bank, have developed very effective workplace intervention programs.
The informal sectors on the other hand are in the process of forming their coalition. TACAIDS is supporting the process.
Workplaces which have already established HIV/AIDS programmes have also trained Peer Educators and elected Focal Persons.
Gradually, an increasing number of programmes for workplace interventions have been initiated focusing on the protection, care and support for employees and mainstreaming of HIV/AIDS activities in the core business of the implementing institutions.
Some Ministries such as Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, Ministry of Youth, Labour and Sports, Ministry of Community Development, Women and Children, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education and Ministry of Finance have also developed workplace interventions programmes.
A number of Civil Societies Organisations (CSO) have developed outreach programs.
There are volunteers from people in the fight against HIV/AIDS (WAMATA) in Dar es Salaam providing services in the workplaces.
But, critics say many institutions have not developed workplace HIV/AIDS interventions seriously.
They say, the most that has been done is to organize seminars/workshops for staff.
They cite inadequate response of the private and informal sectors. Private companies have not been quite active in terms of developing workplace interventions and mainstreaming HIV/AIDS. They assume HIV/AIDS is not a central concern of theirs.
Poor economic conditions especially those facing the micro-small and medium enterprises are making it difficult for the private sector to put greater attention on HIV/AIDS activities.
The rural areas have shown to be quite unaware of HIV/AIDS. Informal sector activities such as small-scale mining and fishing villages rank very high in HIV/AIDS prevalence.
The role of the informal sector is not sufficiently recognized in as far as containing the spread of HIV/AIDS is concerned.
The unemployed remains a big challenge: There are not readily available statistics on the HIV/AIDS situation of the unemployed population.
From the results of the few situation analyses that have so far been conducted, there is denial on a massive scale when it comes to HIV/AIDS at the workplace.
The situation is facilitated by denial by the top officials of ministries on the existence of PLHAs or AIDS related deaths in their workplaces.
HIV/AIDS is still regarded as a personal problem that does not need attention from a person’s workplace/employer.
The existence of stigma also makes it difficult for infected persons to declare their status even to their employers.
The absence of a comprehensive coverage of HIV/AIDS in the National Health Insurance Fund is yet another obstacle in workplace interventions.
The fund does not cover AIDS related complication and does not include ARVs in its package.
This situation does not motivate the infected staff and his or her family to seek assistance for his/her employer.
Both employers and employees are not quite aware of the rights, duties and responsibilities that affect them in as far as HIV/AIDS is concerned.
For instance, recent situation analyses show that very few staff in the ministries are aware of the existence of the National Policy on HIV/AIDS although it has been effective since 2001.
Many are also not aware of service points for voluntary testing and counseling as well as STI care and treatment.
Workplace condom promotion is still a challenge: services such as promotion and distribution of condoms in the workplace is a challenge in that for some, it is considered a positive step towards protecting an institution’s labour force but for others (for religious and/or personal values), it is considered to be a promotion of sexual contact in the workplace.
Peer Educators not well motivated: poor motivation to peers results into inactive peer educators. Peer Educators have their work daily routines apart from HIV/AIDS work.
Poor motivation results into peer educators dedicating less time for HIV/AIDS work.
Poor access to correct information about HIV/AIDS/STI issues due to lack of formality and lack of organizational mechanisms for reaching the informal sector is another shortfall.
Lack of information equates to lack of power to understand the implications of HIV/AIDS and its impacts on an individual, the family, the community and productivity in general.
Distribution of IEC materials that have so far been developed has not adequately reached the sector.
This is complicated by the sometimes dispersed nature of the activities that fall under this category of employment.
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