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

Key lesson: Continual monitoring and adaptation of programmes
* Business description:
Anglo Coal, a division of Anglo American plc, operates nine collieries most of which are located in the Witbank area in the
Mpumalanga province of South Africa. Anglo Coal produced over 30 million tonnes of coal in 1999, selling about a third of
its output abroad, supplying coal for power generation to Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent,
the Far East and South America.

" Number of employees:
" Contact:

10,500
Alan Martin
Senior Vice President: Human Resources
Anglo Coal
PO Box 61587
Marshalltown 2107
South Africa
[phone]
[phone]
[email protected]

" Tel:
* Fax:
" Email:

1. Motivation for action
In early 1990s, Anglo Coal sent a group of mine managers
to visit Zimbabwe on a fact-finding mission. They returned
motivated by their experience to establish a company wide
strategic programme on HIV/AIDS. They sought to devise a
programme to prevent HIV/AIDS and to address the root
causes of the epidemic, with the principal objective being
to minimise the impact of HIV/AIDS on company employees
and operations and the local communities.
2. Business response to HIV/AIDS
Anglo Coal first developed an HIV/AIDS strategy in 1993,
beginning with the drafting of a policy on life-threatening
diseases and establishing a joint forum to investigate future
strategies. This broad approach is particularly useful given
the increased prevalence of opportunistic diseases such as
tuberculosis associated with HIV/AIDS, especially within
developing countries where vulnerability to disease is
higher. Moreover, the importance of this approach is that it
involved the participation of all stakeholders, with each
colliery setting up AIDS committees which included
representatives of management, employees, trade unions
and community interest groups.
The overall management of the strategy was undertaken by
a multi-disciplinary AIDS committee based at the company's
head office. They developed a central model on prevention

and management of HIV/AIDS to provide guidance to each
of the nine collieries' AIDS Committees, who then were able
to develop prevention strategies that addressed local needs
and requirements. The guidance provided included:
1. Monitoring statistical indicators, such as absenteeism,
opportunistic infection and condom distribution;
2. Treatment of opportunistic infections, condom
distribution and counselling for employees and partners;
3. Awareness and education programmes undertaken by
employee and community representatives trained as
peer educators for employees, spouses/sexual partners,
local community and school children. These involved
seminars, videos, information campaigns, community
training, drama productions and high school
programmes.
4. Monitoring of education campaigns through surveys to
assess the level of HIV/AIDS awareness.
Significantly, these programmes are assessed on a continual
basis, building on successful initiatives. As a result, the
initial campaigns highlighted the need to broaden the
education programmes to include life skills development,
leading to the development of small business initiatives,

O
CD

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

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