USAID/GHARP Private Sector Partnership impacting on HIV/AIDS workplace awareness
Project now working with forty-three local partners
Stabroek News
May 18, 2007
The Private Sector Partnership Programme developed under the USAID/Guyana HIV/ AIDS Reduction and Prevention (GHARP) Project has evolved into a robust collection of private sector organizations that are actively engaged in helping USAID/GHARP reach its goals of preventing and reducing HIV/AIDS in Guyana, according to the Project's Private Sector Partnership Manager Derrick Cummings.
Forty-three local private sector companies and public sector agencies are currently collaborating with the USAID/GHARP Public/ Private Sector Partnership Programme in pursuit of the implementation of strong and workable HIV/AIDS workplace policies and programmes in Guyana and, according to a USAID/GHARP official, the partnerships are indicative of a growing awareness in the local private sector of the relationship between HIV/AIDS programmes and policies designed to protect the workforce against HIV/AIDS and the viability of private enterprise in Guyana.
Cummings told Stabroek Business earlier this week that the collaborative activities involving the United States-funded project and the local private sector went beyond "a mere formality" and involved practical initiatives designed to impact directly on the workers at those entities involved in the USAID/GHARP collaboration.
Cummings said that one of the signal successes of the project was the fact that it had been able to get the attention of the decision - makers in those private sector entities. He added that where HIV/AIDS workplace policies and programmes secured the support of workplace decision-makers those programmes had a better chance of impacting on workers.
Private and public sector USAID/GHARP partners include local commercial banks, insurance companies, mining companies, manufacturers and other major business enterprises. The Guyana Revenue Authority is among the public sector agencies involved in the initiative.
Cummings noted that USAID/GHARP had been instrumental in developing the Citizens' Bank/Ministry of Health HIV/AIDS partnership, as well as the Scotia Bank HIV/AIDS Recognition Initiative. The collaborative work involving USAID/ GHARP and the various public and private sector agencies had reached various levels of maturity including the implementation of workplace plans and programmes. USAID/ GHARP officials have also completed peer education and other forms of training.
Accoring to a document released to Stabroek Business up to 90 per cent of employees in workplaces currently collaborating with USAID/GHARP have benefited from sensitization exercises provided under the programme. Smaller groups of employees at some workplaces have also participated in training that will equip them to contribute to the creation of their workplace programmes.