The Business Response to HIV/AIDS: Impact and lesson learned

education programmes in the workplace. This kind of approach, that seeks to use core business practices
to encourage other companies to respond, has considerable potential for replication elsewhere in the
insurance and banking sectors.
2. BUSINESS PARTNERS: A MULTIPLE STAKEHOLDER RESPONSE
Given the increasing importance and complexity of the range of stakeholders in the global economy,
businesses need to safeguard their direct business partners against the impact of HIV/AIDS in order to
remain responsive and competitive and to maintain their reputations. These partners include their
supplier and service networks, made up largely of small and medium sized enterprises, and their
customers.
A. Participation of small and medium sized enterprises
Much of the focus and information available on the business response to HIV/AIDS has tended to
emphasise large national and multinational enterprises (LEs). While this is principally a consequence of
the ability of LEs to undertake interventions, as a result of higher capital availability and access to
information, it also reflects their higher levels of public visibility and communication capabilities.
The need for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to respond to HIV/AIDS is particularly
important given that in much of the world, particularly in developing countries, they make up the
majority of business operations and sources of employment. In addition, the changing trends of
global systems of production and trade towards specialisation, contracting and subcontracting have
seen SMEs' significance increase in relation to LEs operations and supply chains. With such changes
in the organisational structures of LEs, business profitability has become increasingly dependent on
the good performance of all other entities within their operations. Therefore, given the impact that
HIV/AIDS has on business costs and productivity, it is essential that SMEs respond and are assisted
in generating the capacity to respond. Despite the difficulties, SMEs have been undertaking
innovative responses to HIV/AIDS, both as independently led actions and in partnership with larger
companies, NGOs and governmental organisations. The mechanisms for such responses are shown in
Figure 8 and described below.
i. Small and medium sized enterprises' action
In principle, the business case and the wider stakeholder reasons for responding to HIV/AIDS identified
earlier apply in the same way to SMEs. For SMEs these reasons become more important where
workforce numbers are low, when the loss of one worker can be catastrophic in comparison to LEs.
Adopting appropriate HIV/AIDS workplace policies should be one of the primary responses for SMEs
given the limited working capital that constrains wider responses. Guidance literature and organisations
are available to assist SMEs, such as the Centre for Disease Control Manager's Kit (see Managers Tool,
page 20).
More innovative responses to HIV/AIDS by SMEs can be seen where they have applied their
comparative advantage, knowledge and skills. For example, in-kind support for education and
prevention campaigns to non-governmental HIV/AIDS organisations, such as designing and printing
education materials. Some SMEs have taken the lead in developing tools for education and prevention
beyond the workplace, for example ALMS, an IT and marketing consultancy company in the Czech
Republic (see Profile 12). ALMS designed and host an internet-server-based information service on
HIV/AIDS, in partnership with HIV/AIDS professionals from non-governmental organisations and
academic institutions. The potentially wide outreach of similar high technology initiatives in
disseminating information is huge. The reputation gains that projects such as this produce are invaluable
to SMEs. In addition, SMEs are often in a good position to be creative and innovative through smallscale, less costly and less cautious projects that allow for higher adaptability and potential replicability,
such as the prevention and education 'truckers booths' of Teddy Exports, India (see Profile 13).

THE BUSINESS RESPONSE TO HIV/AIDS: Impact and lessons learned

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