Overview

HIV/AIDS in the Workplace
Business, Labor, and Government: The Benefits of Tripartite Collaboration
Bring the Benefits of SMARTWork to Your Community
Acknowledgments

HIV/AIDS in the Workplace

By the end of 2002, UNAIDS estimated that over 42 million people were living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. In the hardest-hit communities, HIV has infected more than 30 percent of the workforce. Even in places where the disease is less prevalent, the effects of HIV and AIDS ripple throughout the workplace, the community, and beyond.

The epidemic is fueled by social and economic problems that include poverty, inequality, stigma, and misinformation. It is sustained by silence, denial, and discrimination. The economic impact of the disease is undeniable. As the disease spreads, communities, individuals, and businesses suffer from the results of rising absenteeism, increased costs for health care and other benefits, lost skills, and the need to recruit and train new workers. In many communities, the economic losses, weakened workforce, and social instability has been devastating.

The effects of HIV/AIDS have motivated employers and labor leaders to get involved in preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing care for those living with the disease. With funding from the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Academy for Education Development has developed a unique workplace HIV/AIDS intervention: SMARTWork.

Business, Labor, and Government: The Benefits of Tripartite Collaboration

SMARTWork recognizes that health and business communities cannot, by themselves, stop this epidemic. Too often, businesses or unions have been asked to carry the burden of workplace interventions alone. Workplace HIV/AIDS programs are most successful when tripartite collaborations—an equal partnership of businesspeople, labor representatives, and government—work together to address the disease.

SMARTWork helps create tripartite responses that build upon the strengths and commitment of the entire community. We offer HIV/AIDS initiatives that are effective and practical, with a wide range of workplace-focused technical assistance, customized for each community. SMARTWork:

• Analyzes the country's current workplace HIV/AIDS environment, and works with stakeholders to design policies and programs that respond to specific needs.
• Offers workshops, training, and technical assistance to help management and labor staff build their capacity to undertake workplace HIV/AIDS programs, and to implement coordinated responses to HIV/AIDS.
• Creates tools and materials that help business, labor, and governments implement and manage workplace programs and policies. Our materials are used by managers, labor leaders, workers, and community members to educate people and promote behavior change.
• Helps develop sustainable networks and teams that support workplace-based HIV/AIDS programs on the local and national levels and can provide leadership in advocacy efforts to expand programs and policies.

Bring the Benefits of SMARTWork to Your Community

Effective, comprehensive HIV/AIDS programs can stem the tide of the epidemic, reducing the spread of the disease, and softening its social and economic effects. Using the work environment to address HIV infection may be one of the most important opportunities we will ever have—but business, labor, and government must work together to seize this unique opportunity.

SMARTWork can help. Together, we can create an educated and supportive work environment that offers safety and dignity to those living with HIV/AIDS. We can create a community that is sensitive and caring. We can create a future where every person—from the high-level business executive to the day laborer—is empowered to make decisions about HIV prevention and care and support.

SMARTWork currently works in six countries: the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Nigeria, Ukraine, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. If you are an employer, labor leader, government representative, or professional who is interested in learning more about how SMARTWork can help address HIV/AIDS, please contact us.

Acknowledgments

SMARTWork's creator, the Academy for Educational Development (AED), is a leader in efforts to solve critical social problems through education, social marketing, research, training, policy analysis, innovative program design, and management. For over 40 years, AED has applied this expertise to improve people's lives by increasing knowledge, building institutions, integrating disciplines, and making a difference.

SMARTWork is funded by the United States Department of Labor under Cooperative Agreement Number E-9-K-1-0074. In Zimbabwe, funding is also provided under grant number U62/CCU320180-01 from the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The contents of this web site are solely the responsibilities of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the United States Departments of Labor or Health and Human Services. Any mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations does not imply endorsement by the United States Government.