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| The "Saving lives, protecting jobs" report which will be launched in Barbados along with a companion film entitled "Creating change" that will make its world premiere on May 20, said that new programmes designed to step up action against HIV/AIDS in the workplace were becoming increasingly common in the Caribbean. (File photo) | |
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, May 16, 2008 - A new report issued by the International Labour Office (ILO) has commended a number of Caribbean countries for rising to the challenge of dealing with HIV and AIDS in the work place.
The "Saving lives, protecting jobs" report which will be launched in Barbados along with a companion film entitled "Creating change" that will make its world premiere on May 20, said that new programmes designed to step up action against HIV/AIDS in the workplace were becoming increasingly common in the Caribbean.
It made specific reference to the progress made in the pilot countries in the ILO's Strategic HIV/AIDS Responses in Enterprises (SHARE) project which began in 2003.
"The report found a marked improvement in six pilot countries - Belize, Benin, Cambodia, Ghana, Guyana and Togo - over the last four years in attitudes of workers towards people living with HIV/AIDS," the ILO said in a statement.
"The proportion of workers who reported supportive behaviour towards co-workers living with HIV rose from 49 per cent to 63 per cent on average during the life of the SHARE programme. In addition, the percentage of workers who reported using condoms with non-regular partners rose from 74 per cent to 84 per cent."
"In Belize, the proportion of workers who reported a positive attitude towards condom use increased from 52.7 per cent to 72 per cent," the statement added.
The ILO said that the recorded changes in behaviour could be attributed in part to increased access to HIV services in enterprises in all six countries.
At the start of SHARE, only 14 per cent of the participating enterprises in the six pilot countries had written HIV policies. When the impact survey was conducted, 76 per cent of the participating enterprises had written HIV policies in place.
The report also cited recent developments in Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago which have worked with the SHARE project to put in place policies and programmes addressing discrimination and behaviour change in the workplace.
It pointed out that in Barbados, several large corporations have pledged US$150,000 in cash and kind to the AIDS Foundation for the next three years to build the capacity of this business coalition responsible for coordinating the private sector response to HIV/AIDS in the country and to support companies in HIV workplace initiatives.
In Belize, the Ministry of Labour, Local Government and Rural Development is now playing a leading role in coordinating the workplace response as a result of the SHARE project, the report added.
"Working hand in hand with national partners, the project paved the way for the development of a national tripartite workplace policy on HIV and helped formulate the workplace components of the Belize National Policy on HIV/AIDS," the ILO release indicated.
It also noted that the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), along with 17 other enterprises collaborating with the project in Guyana, had adopted an HIV/AIDS workplace policy and offered HIV services to workers and managers.
"A key output of the project in Jamaica has been the successful transition from donor-funded activities to a national programme," the ILO release added.
In Trinidad and Tobago, it noted, the government recently adopted a National Workplace Policy on HIV and AIDS.
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