PEPFAR support to HIV/AIDS workplace project to end by 2015

Nov 01, 2012 News

…stakeholders’ forum channels sustainable discussion

By Sharmain Grainger
Guyana is gearing to fully take up the reins of its International Labour Organisation (ILO)-supported HIV/AIDS Workplace Education Programme, having secured funding from the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for just under a decade. Although the expected transition is not slated to occur until 2015, the project, which is undertaken in collaboration with the United States Department of Labour and currently titled GOG/ILO/USDOL/PEPFAR, has already begun to gain much attention from a number of stakeholders.
A meeting held at Hotel Tower, Main Street, Georgetown, yesterday afforded stakeholders a forum to share their thoughts on the transition plans, which according to Project Coordinator of GOG/ILO/USDOL/PEPFAR, Mr Sean Wilson, will help to revise the workplace component of programme. This move, he said, was designed to put measures in place to ensure that there are activities in place to sustain the workplace HIV/AIDS project, even after the PEPFAR support would have elapsed.
The modestly attended forum saw representation from the Ministry of Labour, the two umbrella trade unions (The Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) and the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC)), the Consultative Association of Guyanese Industry (CAGI), the Guyana Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS and staffers of workplaces that had previously participated in ILO-inspired activities.

A section of the gathering yesterday

The anticipated discussions, according to Wilson, will in fact help to channel specific training needs so that “we can include that in our plan and be able to, over the next two to three years, execute that, so that by the time the project comes to an end, everybody would have their own capacity built.”
Catering to a smooth transition too, Wilson revealed that during the next year “we will need to reassess where we are with regards to the issue of sustainability to see how we are doing, because of course, we can’t wait until the issue of sustainability comes up to see how we are doing. We certainly can’t wait until the project comes to an end then decide that we didn’t do this or we needed to do that….”
According to Wilson, at this point there is “no turning back” since PEPFAR is definitely “transitioning out and we have to ensure that the project and the partners who are working with us do what they are supposed to do.”
As part of the proposed 2015 transition, Wilson revealed that the Ministry of Labour will also be engaging discussions with the Ministry of Finance with a view of having it incorporated in the national budget.
“They need to have a sense of how much money PEPFAR would have contributed to the Ministry of Labour over the past years so that Government will be able to look at what it can take on.”
The GOG/ILO/USDOL/PEPFAR HIV/AIDS workplace education project was introduced here in 2003 with the developmental objectives of contributing to the prevention of HIV/AIDS in the world of work and the enhancing of workplace protection of workers by reducing the adverse effects of HIV/AIDS on social, labour and economic development.
Amplifying the need for the HIV/AIDS project to be sustained, CAGI Consultant/Advisor, Mr Samuel Goolsarran, in brief remarks, pointed to the fact that the pandemic presents major challenges for affected individuals and their families, workplaces and the national communities. He noted that this has the potential to hamper social progress and by extension national development as it affects the productive segments of the labour force and vulnerable groups in the societies.
“It is a critical workplace issue with implications for employment relations and workplace interactions and should be the subject of consideration, even in the collective bargaining process,” Goolsarran asserted.
CAGI represents the private sector on employment and human resource development issues and is the recognised representative for the private sector on national tripartite and bipartite bodies dealing with labour and employment issues.
As such, Goolsarran said that CAGI supports the workplace policy on HIV/AIDS as essential guidelines for its enterprises, even as it is committed to promoting healthy and safe lifestyles through awareness raising, education, non-discrimination and maintaining a healthy working environment. He however emphasised that “we are grateful to donor agencies, but the time has come for this country to take this project on board and the transition should be clearly into the national agencies and the ministries responsible for health and safety of this nation.”
Speaking at yesterday’s forum, too, was General Secretary of FITUG, Mr Kenneth Joseph, who highlighted the notion that “all good things must come to an end” as he stressed his belief that the stakeholders’ meeting “is coming at an appropriate time when the project can be in its completion period and with a possibility to continue without the funding it enjoys.”
He pointed to the period of 2003–2012 as being reasonable for any project to produce its own cadre of leaders and organisers. He added that the nation, through its tripartite committee and relationships, should be preparing to embrace the transition of the project.
Joseph assured too that “we in FITUG are already prepared to accept our responsibility in the furtherance of this much needed and very important activity of sensitising on HIV/AIDS stigmatisation and discrimination.”
Mirroring his colleague trade unionist’s views of the HIV/AIDS workplace project, GTUC President, Mr Norris Witter, said that “I don’t think that there is anyone that has been following this project that would deny the fact that it has been of immense success, and to that extent, I think that we are entitled to congratulate ourselves. But even as we do so, we need to do so with some degree of caution.”
According to Witter, complacency should never be factored into the achievements realised “less we turn back the gains that we have made so far.” He observed that while earnest efforts have been made to arrest the pandemic, there have been other issues that have been equally impacting the society such as maternal deaths, trafficking in persons, and even police killings.
However, he stressed that the Labour Movement is strategically positioned to impact positively on any programmes that have to do with the reduction and eventual elimination of the HIV/AIDS, whether at the workplace or in other arenas. As such, he noted that with the transition plans, Guyana can accept full ownership of the HIV/AIDS project, even as he emphasised that the skills obtained over the years will lend to the political will and otherwise ensure that the momentum gained will continue.
“The GTUC is committed to this process, which is reflected by the fact that over the past six months we have intensified our activities in the area of HIV/AIDS.”
Although scheduled to speak at the forum yesterday, Minister of Labour, Dr Nanda Gopaul, and Deputy Chief of Mission of the United States Embassy, Mr Thomas Pierce, were both unavoidably absent.