HIV/AIDS should be a priority for human resources, rather than a function of corporate social responsibility
Rodney Irwin
Long-distance truck drivers have long-been identified as the primary dispersers of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa. Truck drivers lead difficult lives with frequent overnight stays away from home, fewer social controls and excessive waiting periods in ports and border crossings, where the availability of commercial sex increases their vulnerability to infectious diseases and other health problems.
Multinational companies predominately outsource their transport supplier to international or local operators as part of their Sub-Saharan supply chain to save cost. Yet, according to a 2006 baseline report on business and HIV/AIDS by GBCHealth, the transport industry ranked last in their efforts to protect their employees against HIV and other infectious diseases.
Now, an investigation of organisational awareness of the risks of HIV transmission within the transport supply chains of Dutch multinational enterprises has resulted in a series of recommendations to help combat the spread of HIV/AIDS. These include companies providing more, and better, HIV/AIDS education, and them seeing HIV/AIDS as an HR priority.
Dr Rodney Irwin, who carried out the research as part of the Master of Studies in Sustainability Leadership at the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership, said: “There is no cure for HIV but it has become a manageable illness with the global incidence of AIDS declining but they are still major issues for the transport sector. The Millennium Development Goals have made significant progress at a macro level but this vulnerable group remain primary victims and vectors of the virus. This research aspires to spur action in Dutch businesses to step up to the issue in their supply chains and offer as much intervention as is possible.”
Irwin’s study focused on 11 Dutch multinational companies that conducted business in southern Africa. Although Dutch multinationals are three times more likely now to advocate a global HIV policy for their supply chain and associates, many of the findings speak of a decrease in the multinationals’ efforts to stem the transmission of this disease. Despite 80% of the Dutch companies having identified HIV/AIDS as an issue, the study found little improvement in the management of HIV/AIDS since the 2006 GBCHealth global survey.
Image Credit: Gideon Mendel
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge