Islands Business - Business: PRIVATE SECTOR TAKES ON THE HIV/AIDS FIGHT

Shifting focus from reactive to proactive

Baeau Tai
Leading business companies in Papua New Guinea are putting their weight and force behind the fight against HIV/AIDS in the country.

Thank you... Rod Mitchell (second from right) shaking hands with Wally Haydock, Managing Director of Ela Motors. Ian Tarutia (second from left) holds the K50,000 dummy cheque from Ela Motors and next to him is an officer from Toyota Japan.

Ela Motors Toyota has contributed K150,000 to the PNG Business Coalition on HIV and AIDS (BAHA) which will be spread over three years. The first commitment of K50,000 was paid recently. ANZ Bank has also contributed K150,000 which will also be spread over three years. These contributions add to previous commitments by other companies including Rimbunan Hijau, Ok Tedi Mining Limited, PNG Sustainable Development Fund and Steamships Trading Co. which raised a total of K4.5 million over three years.

Nasfund’s chief executive, Rod Mitchell, who is at the forefront with a business approach to addressing HIV/AIDS in the workplace said, “it’s going very well”.

“Common to most businesses is the view that HIV/AIDS is a secondary issue—will deal with it when it comes approach. We are going to shift business attitudes from a reactive position to a proactive approach where business will see that it’s in their interest to take HIV head on to the front gate so to speak.

“Clearly, with sensible and consistently applied workplace policies, company support and access to anti-retroviral drugs, encouragement of condom usage and condom vending machines in the work environment and ongoing workplace education, we can make substantial inroads as a private sector.”

The PNG business coalition which officially opened its doors on April 1 has already kicked off some major goals with a comprehensive website (www.baha.com.pg) focusing on employee and employer issues from a PNG perspective.

While the Internet usage among the population is small, most employers have access to Internet and most employees in medium to large enterprises have access to intranet with which the BAHA website can be accessed.

Mitchell said “the website’s greatest strength is that for the first time, we have in PNG an online database of over 400 PNG agencies, church groups, NGOs, healthcare clinics and government organisations involved in HIV/AIDS—broken down in provinces. This is a great resource for employers and employees needing assistance on HIV”.

The other major strength is as a resource in developing workplace policies and as a storage site of workplace policies of employers committed to international best practice.

The background to the formation of the PNG Business Coalition on HIV and AIDS began in 2006, when the Asia Pacific Business Coalition was launched by Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and former US President Bill Clinton specifically to coordinate a more pro-active business response to the growing HIV problem in the Asia Pacific region.

The Asia Pacific Business Coalition is on a mission to roll out to over seven business coalitions throughout the Asia Pacific region within the next few years. The launch of the PNG chapter was the first and its ability to galvanise business support and funding has already been touted as a model for the Pacific region.

In late 2006, Mitchell was approached by the Asia Pacific Business Coalition to work with them in developing a PNG model for a private sector response in tackling HIV.

The outcome was the PNG chapter and in a short time the organisation has welded together the major business groupings in the country under a single banner to provide consistent approaches to dealing with HIV and AIDS in the workplace.

The major aims of the BAHA are:
• To develop a reliable and efficient client service arm to deal with HIV/AIDS queries from private sector workers and their employers and act as a referral agency;
• Develop a business case for HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness from an employers perspective to bridge the current lack of coordinated response by employers; and
• Work with employers to develop a workplace policy with emphasis on ensuring a consistent approach within the private sector in dealing with employees who are living with HIV/AIDS, developing and coordinating HIV/AIDS awareness and behavior change programmes for private sector workers and ensuring private sector employees access to HIV treatment and support services.

With HIV and AIDS now finally on the government’s radar after a long hiatus (this year the PNG Government more than tripled the budget for HIV and AIDS from K5 million to over K17 million) and with the recently announced AusAID commitment of over K200 million under the SANAP WANTAIM programme for the next five years, the opportunity to turn the tide against the epidemic has never looked better. The key to success beyond resourcing and funding however rests on using these resources through effective messaging to change attitudes, especially about women and their role in society.

“If we cannot elevate the status of women, guarantee their safety and educate and protect children, then the battle to contain HIV becomes all the more difficult, albeit lost.

“The scale of the challenge demands this, not only because of the potential to disrupt PNG’s traditional social structures, but because of the potential economic cost to the country if an HIV epidemic is left unchecked,” Mitchell said.