HIV/AIDS Prevention in the Workplace in Ethiopia

Health

adjustEthiopia

Demonstrating that private companies can make a difference in the battle against HIV/AIDS.

The Challenge

The RE!NSTITUTE team entered the 100-Day Challenge with a focus on increasing the capacity of the private sector to have a sustainable impact on HIV/Aids prevention in the workplace and beyond.

The Outcome

With RE!NSTITUTE’S help, the Ethiopian Business Coalition Against HIV/AIDS (EBCA) launched 30 100-Day Challenges and became the first local non-profit organization to complete the RE!NSTITUTE capacity transfer program. Over twenty companies participated and achieved extraordinary results in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.

Education

15,000

people received condom education services

Testing

90 %

Staff tested across 100 Days in one participating company

Participation

900

staff members tested in 100 days tested in another participating company

The Project Detail

In March and April 2008, 180 staff from twelve companies were trained to implement the 100-Day Challenge methodology to combat HIV/AIDS in their workplaces. This led to an enthusiastic and widespread adoption of the approach across 22 companies over the project's lifespan.

Half of the participating companies were able to extend voluntary testing and counseling services to 75-95% of their staff in less than 100 days. A quarter achieved coverage above 50% — levels far higher than similar efforts, many of which took twice as long to complete.

One company, Prefabricated Construction Supply Company (PCSC), tested 90% of their 1,000 staff members in 120 days. This included the construction of an HIV testing clinic on company grounds, which has since been opened to employees of surrounding companies. For more details, read an article written by the Head of Planning, Market Research and Development at the Company: Commitment is Key.

At Crown Can and Cork Company, which already had a well-developed program, their 100-Day Challenge team developed creative ways to ensure adequate food support to HIV positive employees despite a frozen budget for such work and 20% monthly inflation rates. To do this, the team started a small chicken breeding operation on unused company land, created bulk purchase agreements with food vendors, and sold non-hazardous production waste to recyclers.

In addition to supporting the achievement of short-term results and new ways of working, the approach helped break down companies’ challenging long-term HIV/AIDS projects into a series of smaller, more manageable initiatives driven by their own workers and inspiring belief and hope that broad success is possible.

UNAIDS is very happy to support the Rapid Results Initiative in Ethiopia. This approach of formulating an action plan with a sharpened focus on producing early results can be a great model for the private sector and can help engage them better in the AIDS response.

Regina Castillo Chief Private Sector Partnerships, UNAIDS

Further Reading

For more details on the results achieved, here’s a link to the press release on the topic, courtesy of the Ethiopian AIDS Resource Center: Ethiopian companies achieve remarkable VCT results within their workplace (coming soon). The work was also featured as a best practice on the UNAIDS website – Translating intent into action in Ethiopia.

Read Tina Rosenberg’s New York Times article about our work

Partners