Just a few months shy of its third birthday, the Guyana Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, (GBCHA) has come to symbolize the acknowledgement of the country’s private sector that corporate board rooms and business houses cannot shut out HIV/AIDS. As the Coalition continues to increase its reach and impact there are encouraging signs of growth.
Long prior to 2008 the state-run health sector had produced at least two national plans mapping out a strategy for responding to the disease. A National AIDS Programme Secre-tariat (NAPS) was established while generous multilateral and bilateral (primarily from the United States) funding saw the emergence of various high-profile non- governmental organizations (NGO’s) operating across the country.
By the time the Coalition was launched on May 30th, 2008, the Guyana private sector had already been presented with more than enough evidence that it could not afford to ignore the disease. Data from studies undertaken in the international business community, notably in African countries including South Africa, Zambia and Uganda had laid bare the disturbing reality of the impact of HIV/AIDS on the business community. In some of the countries studied the findings indicated that the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among employees was raising labour costs by 1-2 per cent. In some companies the findings were even more disturbing. It was found that employees who had ultimately died of HIV/AIDS or suspected AIDS had been on leave or absent from work anywhere from 18 to 50 days more than other employees—the equivalent of roughly 1 to 3 months of lost working time over a one-year period.
In 2005-2006 the World Economic Forum weighed in with its own Global Busi-ness Survey, the findings of which underscored the chilling message sent by the earlier studies. Of the 10,993 business leaders polled globally during the Global Business Survey a staggering 22 per cent reported experiencing the impact of HIV/AIDS. In sub-Saharan Africa, 65 per cent of respondent firms reported some impact and 21 per cent reported serious impact.
The advent of the Guyana Coalition was built upon the foundation laid during the previous three years by the United States-funded Guy-ana HIV/AIDS Reduction and Prevention (GHARP 1) Project. Since 2005, GHARP 1 had been creating alliances among state and non-state organizations and the private sector in order to create a multi-sectoral approach to tackling the malady. At its inception, therefore, the Coalition benefitted considerably from the far more global experience on the nature and impact of HIV/AIDS brought to Guyana by the GHARP project.
On the threshold of its third anniversary the Coalition’s most visible accomplishment has been the recruitment of several key corporate entities and representative groups in what are generally considered to be the vulnerable sectors of the business community to its ranks. In the gold mining, construction and forestry sectors where workers’ protracted stay away from home render them particularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS ‘by misadventure,’ the Coalition’s members include the Guyana Gold & Diamond Miners Association, (GGDMA) the Guyana Forestry Commis-sion and North American Resources Ltd. a foreign investor in the mining sector. Its members in the construction and engineering sector include Gafson’s Industries Ltd. and the Guyana National Engineer-ing Company. These apart, other prominent business enterprises in the banking, agro-processing and services sectors are also members of the GBCHA.
Membership, up until now, is limited to a modest forty-five entities that still exclude much of the urban trading sector which employs hundreds of low-waged and, by extension, vulnerable young women. Additionally, the prevailing high world market price for gold has served to attract growing numbers of both miners and commercial sex workers into Guyana’s interior. Whilst the Coalition’s reach may seem limited the GBCHA insists that partnerships can fill gaps.
Executive Director Suzanne French believes that that the impact of its contribution cannot be measured only by the numbers and geographic spread of its members. Asked whether there is any sense of urgency about expanding its membership French says “we are concerned about the quality of our work not with duplicating things that are being done by partners,” She says their reach is not only measured by the number of members but the programmes and policies of the GBCHA member companies which impact the workplace and community .
French explains that the Coalition engages the local private sector through workplace initiatives that target stigma and discrimination by implementing workplace policies and programmes and facilitating linkages to workplace training, condom distribution and other prevention and awareness activities.
Additionally, by taking advantage of the core competencies of its members the Coalition has utilized their individual strengths, including their products, services, resources and supply chains, thus enhancing the impact of its work well beyond its physical reach.
The Coalition, French says, also seeks to enable the development of leaders in the private sector who will play prominent roles in taking a stand against stigma and discrimination, and promote action on HIV/AIDS in the workplace and community. French says that in order to accomplish these objectives the coalition is constantly “reaching out, seeking out partners in the public and private sectors and among NGO’s” in order to strengthen the collective overall response to HIV/AIDS. That way its effectiveness can be measured in the effectiveness of the partnerships rather than in the actual numbers of its members.
Corporate response to HIV/AIDS in Guyana has been energetic rather than overwhelming. In both the public and private sectors, Chief Executive Officers and state executives have delegated the responsibility for HIV/AIDS workplace largely to lesser functionaries. “We do not often get an opportunity to sit with the CEO’s,” French says. “Therefore we have to find creative ways of meeting with them. They have an important role to play and when we meet we discuss how to involve them strategically in programmes” she says.
French hopes that a possible avenue for engaging more leaders in the business community may be through the umbrella business organizations. “We have already engaged the Private Sector Commission and we are now seeking to engage the Georgetown Chamber,” French says.
Serving Coalition Chairperson Tracey Lewis is the General Manager of the Guyana Lottery Company and an example of the head of a private sector grouping who recognizes the important role which the Coalition must play. She too believes that it is the quality of what the Coalition does that counts………helping to fashion workplace programmes, guidelines that will give momentum to employee initiatives, is, she says, a critical part of the overall responsibility of the Coalition.
French says that the aim of the Coalition is not necessarily to impact directly on workplaces across Guyana. It extends its influence and the benefits of its work by “filling the gaps” in the tapestry of organizations that help fight HIV/AIDS. Some of its own members – like the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company, the Guyana Lottery and Scotia Bank, among others, are pressed into service to use their considerable reach to spread the Coalition’s message.
French and Lewis both say that they are satisfied that the Coalition has raised the awareness of the local business community of the importance of its role as part of the national response to HIV/AIDS. Several of its forty-five members have signed workplace policies addressing stigma and discrimination and articulating the companies’ commitment to playing their part in addressing HIV/AIDS in their workplaces and communities. Through partnerships with local NGO’s member companies have benefitted from various workplace activities that have directly reached thousands of employees. Additionally, a number of member companies have offered in-house voluntary counseling and testing (VCT), through partnership with local NGOs and the state-run National AIDS Programme Secretariat (NAPS). On Each National Day of Testing the Coalition provides testing facilities on sites hosted by its members.
GBCHA members, in collaboration with the private sector continue to make contributions in both cash and kind aimed at supporting orphans and vulnerable children, supporting persons living with HIV.AIDS through the provision of micro-credit and job training. Members also provide sponsorship for the Coalition’s annual Awards for Business Excellence which is designed to recognize noteworthy leadership and best practices among private sector organizations in Guyana,
Internationally, the GBCHA has developed links with regional and international organizations including the Pan Caribbean Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS (PCBC) AND THE Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS.
