Zimbabwe Business Council on Aids (ZBCA) executive director David Mutambara last week said the policies and programmes were in response to the devastating effects of the HIV/Aids pandemic on both businesses and workers.
Businesses face financial losses if their workers are not productive or are absent from work due to illness. “Company employees are key assets to business operations and HIV has become a significant and dominant threat to employees’ wellness. Business response has to be strategic in order to achieve the required result,” said Mutambara.
“The key aspect of workplace programmes response strategy is to avoid a generic response which has little meaning to the employees targeted by the programme activities.”
Mutambara said male and female workers faced different social and biological vulnerabilities to HIV and Aids. He said the workplace environment could exacerbate workers’ risks if companies did not take measures to mitigate them.
“Addressing the gender dimensions of HIV and Aids is important in the effort to halt the spread of infection. Gender mainstreaming will create a positive environment that significantly reduces the vulnerability of employees,” said Mutambara.
The country is experiencing one of the world’s worst HIV and Aids epidemics, with more than 1,3 million people living with HIV today, including 120 000 children. Although infection rates have done down, it is estimated that 3 000 people die every week as a result of HIV and Aids.
Zimbabwe has ratified the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Protocol on Gender and Development that requires that by 2015 state parties shall develop gender sensitive strategies to prevent new infections from occurring, taking into account the unequal status of women and men.
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Results of survey carried out, recommendations
A baseline survey by ZBCA in partnership with Development Data and supported by Zimbabwe Aids Network recently identified areas in some companies where the workplace encourages high-risk behaviour and made recommendations on how these can be addressed.
Companies that were involved include Hippo Valley estates, OK Zimbabwe, Colcom Foods and British American Tobacco. The survey also explored the views of staff members regarding sexuality, HIV and Aids in the workplace as well as identifying the efforts made by the companies in mainstreaming gender in their programmes.
After the study, the three organisations came up with a booklet, Guidelines for Mainstreaming Gender in HIV/Aids Workplace Wellness Programmes for Private Sector Companies in Zimbabwe, which contextualises gender mainstreaming and providing a background situational analysis to the companies’ HIV and Aids workplace programmes.
The booklet, which will be launched next week, provides company wellness coordinators, peer educators and managers with guidelines and tools for mainstreaming gender in HIV/Aids workplace wellness programmes.
