State of affairs

Consultation workshop May 2009
In May 2009, STOP AIDS NOW! organised a three-day workshop involving SAN! partners and their local partners who have extensive experience in addressing HIV and AIDS in the workplace with the aim of laying a basis for a joint funding proposal for scaling up. Jointly lessons learnt were identified, and working principles, roles and responsibilities, objectives and indicators were formulated. Click here for the detailed workshop report.

Working principles
In this joint upscaling programme, the following working principles, as agreed upon during the May workshop, will be applied:

• The principles of the ILO code of conduct and national frameworks are followed, and partners are stimulated to put them into practice
• STOP AIDS NOW! and partners, and country/regional lead organisations reflect on themselves and do not ask of others what they cannot do themselves
• The programme work is informed by evidence and contributes to it
• Existing capacities are valued and built upon
• In addressing HIV and AIDS in the workplace, a long-term response is carried out
• The responses are context-specific
• The focus will be on a participatory process, in order to create sustainability
• In the programme, PLHIV are involved. On the one hand, there will be learnt from PLHIV, on the other hand the capacity of PLHIV will also be build
• Individuals are approached within their contexts (workplace, families, communities and other support structures)
• Individuals and organisations are supported and respected to make decisions on relevant issues like whether to disclose one’s status or keep it confidential
• The potential lead organisations believe in ensuring management/board commitment in order to make the responses sustainable

Strategies
Six strategies for the programme were defined:

1. Capacity building of organisations in managing/addressing HIV and AIDS in the workplace
2. Building a community of capacity builders in both volume and capacity
3. Linking and learning between the various stakeholders
4. Maximizing leaning by collecting evidence. New evidence collection to inform the practice
5. Lobby and advocacy to create an enabling environment, towards:
   a. Private sector, in order to stimulate them to be more pro-active in addressing HIV and AIDS
   b. Governments (local, national), in order to work towards active access to services
   c. Donors (government, INGOs, private sector, general public), in order to mobilise resources and get them more pro-active in addressing HIV and AIDS
6. Walk the talk: being a role model in managing / addressing HIV and AIDS in the workplace

Central in these strategies are GIPA (Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV) and MIPA (Meaningful Involvement of People Living with HIV). This is a cross-cutting strategy; it underlies all of the other strategies

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