in Uganda

TRANSCRIPT:

My name is Mr. Dr. Peter Cowley and I work with the Business PART Project in Kampala/Uganda where I have lived for over 10 years. We are a United States Government funded project through the PEPFAR program (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) and our main aim is to encourage Ugandan businesses to be more active against HIV/AIDS. In particular to develop policies and programs for employees, dependants and those community members surrounding places of work. The Global Fund has been critical because, the Global Fund through the Ministry of Health provides the Antiretrovirals and in some cases, other items such as HIV Lab tests kits.

We work with over 50 companies and at 8 facilities approximately 5000 people from communities surrounding places of work have been tested for HIV and 400 to 500 people are being monitored due to their HIV + status. Many companies in Uganda have AIDS treatment programs for communities and in certain cases they actually drive to remote villages to offer AIDS treatment, paid for by their company, and 150 people are receiving antiretrovirals. We’ve trained almost 100 clinicians, nurses as well as lab assistants in providing modern and up to date AIDS treatment.

How do you convince profit motivated companies to take up these services?

One of the ways in which we do this is: we explain to the company how much that they would lose financially due to an HIV infected employee during the last years of their life. On average I would say that in the last year of their life, if the HIV- infected employee is in the formal sector, at a minimum it will cost the company US $3000 -$4000 due to funeral costs, lost productivity as well as retraining and supervision costs on the new trainee, and also increased medical care cost and absenteeism to the HIV infected employee. Often the company begins to realize that it does have a responsibility, but often does not understand the financial magnitude of losing that employee to HIV/AIDS. Perhaps more importantly is to explain and show the company, where it can get assistance and how much it does cost to do something against HIV/AIDS. In business, dithering and delays are not well accepted.

Many people have tried to convince businesses around the world; what have you done that others have not done, leading to this success?

We bring many different actors to the table. Some of our partners include the International Labor Organization, the DED (German Development Services), the ministry of health, the Global Fund as well as the companies themselves. Companies will respond as you respond. If you are bringing more actors and resources to the table, the company realizes that everyone is much more serious and it too will bring more resources to the table. We believe the way forward is to approach a company in unison with other important actors in the HIV/AIDS and workplace field. That includes the International Labor Organization as well as a Global Fund and respective local governments. Most often, communities and political leaders welcome the initiative from companies to do more for HIV/AIDS.