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

Key lesson: Non-governmental organisation partnership with business
* Business description: Alliance for core costs such as those
The International HIV/AIDS Alliance (Alliance) is a non-governmental needed to produce publications as
organisation established in 1993 to support community action on HIV/AIDS in part of its broader programme of
developing countries. The Alliance channels technical, financial and managerial support for HIV organisations.
support to partners it calls 'linking organisations' which are NGO support
programmes situated in 13 different countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Alliance motivation: access to, - 1.,, L L _ _ -I:.I.: -. - * - - - - _ - - - 1 - - - I- i ~ I.,,. I...........

In turn, tnese linking organisations catalyse and support local NGOs and
community responses to HIV/AIDS.

financial resources, and an
opportunity to positively influence
Levi Strauss' other grants.

* Number of employees:
* Contact:
* Tel:
* Fax:
" Email:

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Nicky Davies
International HIV/AIDS Alliance
2 Pentonville Road
London N1 9HF
UK
[phone]
[phone]
[email protected]

1. Motivation for action
Since its inception the Alliance has believed in the
partnership approach, in the value of genuine strategic
alliances and the need to work together to achieve what it
cannot do alone. The corporate sector is viewed as being as
much a part of this multipartite approach as any other
sector, bringing its own particular benefits and challenges.
The Alliance sees the corporate sector as a key element of
society, with access to large numbers of people across the
world through their workforces, useful financial and inkind resources, and as powerful political influencers.
Working with businesses not only helps the Alliance
directly through the provision of resources, but also
provides opportunities to access those decision makers
concerned with allocating resources to other NGOs,
addressing issues of employee welfare in relation to
HIV/AIDS, and impacting on policies at a national level.
2. Partnership Response to HIV/AIDS
Over the last seven years, the Alliance has created a variety
of links with the corporate sector, involving financial
support, in-kind support, policy dialogue, and information
sharing, as illustrated in the following four examples.
i. Levi Strauss: As one of the original supporters of the
Alliance, Levi Strauss provided small financial grants to the

ii. Glaxo Wellcome: Also an early
supporter of the Alliance, Glaxo
Wellcome's Positive Action
programme and the Alliance
launched a three year partnership
programme called "Community
Lessons, Global Learning"(CLGL) in
1997. CLGL aims to share lessons
between NGOs and other sectors in
developing countries, both at a national level and across
continents. The three themes include 'moving beyond
awareness raising', 'care and community support', and
'programme scale up' (coverage, impact and
sustainability).
Alliance motivation: access to financial and in-kind
resources, greater understanding of the pharmaceutical
industry and business sector, access to decision-makers,
and information sharing.
iii. Alliance Linking Organisations: Following the same
approach as the Alliance Secretariat, the Alliance promotes
and assists partnership building at the country level
between its linking organisations and other sectors.
Examples of business partnerships are numerous including
more unusual NGO/business collaborations with garment
factories in Bangladesh and oil companies in Ecuador.
These relationships consist of linking organisations
providing appropriate and crucial services to companies
where they do not currently exist i.e. provision of HIV
prevention and education in the workplace and
appropriate STD services.
Alliance motivation: access to financial resources for the
linking organisations, access to those with powerful

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