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

The Joint United Nations
Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
The joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS) was established in January 1996. UNAIDS brings
together the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United
Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the
World Bank. It is the first programme of its kind in the
UN system: a small initiative with a large outreach
capacity and the potential to leverage significant
resources and action through the creation of strategic
partnerships.
The co-sponsors of UNAIDS provide complementary
mandates and multisectoral expertise, ranging from
education and socioeconomic development to women's
reproductive health. They are committed to joint
planning and action, giving UNAIDS a "cooperative
advantage" that translates into greater synergy and
efficiency. Benefits include more effective advocacy, more
efficient use of UN system resources through the sharing
of costs, and greater coherence in UN support for
national and transnational AIDS programmes.
The UNAIDS mission states: "As the main advocate for
global action on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS will lead, strengthen
and support an expanded response aimed at preventing
the transmission of HIV, providing care and support,
reducing the vulnerability of individuals and
communities to HIV/AIDS, and alleviating the impact of
the epidemic."
To achieve its mission, UNAIDS supports the principles of:
* A long-term response. HIV/AIDS requires a long-term
sustainable response, including providing a coping
capacity on the part of individuals and communities.
UNAIDS helps to strengthen national capacity for
action, ranging from prevention and care to impact
alleviation.
* Participation and partnership. A multisectoral
response to HIV/AIDS can best be achieved through
partnership that includes the private sector, and civil
society organisations.
* Complementarity. Rather than undertaking what can
be or is already being done by others, UNAIDS
attempts to facilitate those efforts and to fill gaps in
action and research.
In the context of these principles, promoting the
involvement of private companies in fighting the spread
of HIV/AIDS is a major priority for UNAIDS. Companies
and business organisations at all levels have their own
interests in confronting the epidemic. They have unique
resources and talents to be deployed in partnership with
the public and non-profit sectors. Their contribution will
greatly strengthen the global response to HIV/AIDS.
Information Centre
UNAIDS
20, Avenue Appia, CH-1211, Geneva 27,
Switzerland
Tel: [phone]

Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.unaids.org

The Global Business Council
on HIV & AIDS
The Global Business Council (GBC) was
founded to promote an enlarged and
enhanced business response to the challenges
of HIV and AIDS. Recognising that no one
sector is able to tackle this task in isolation, a
group of business leaders already active in
this field came together in 1997 to advocate
corporate action, complementing and
combining with the efforts of governmental
and non-governmental organisations where
possible.
The Council's members represent a range of
business responses to HIV and AIDS, in the
work place, their immediate communities and
beyond. Through the Council they hope to
add a strong voice encouraging others to
follow their lead and to provide a focus for
shared experience, models of good practice
and high-level debate.
Through its partners and other agencies,
including UNAIDS, the Council engages with
the epidemic's latest challenges, for example
through its involvement in the International
Programme on AIDS in Africa.
The Council's award scheme has already
uncovered many new examples of corporate
action from around the world, demonstrating
that there is no real limit to the commitment
and the ingenuity that can be brought to bear
on this epidemic. As well as individual
company responses the Council advocates:
* Partnerships with ASOs, NGOs and
government agencies equipped to tackle
HIV
* Mobilising business on regional and
national levels through HIV & AIDS
councils and coalitions
* Sharing approaches to HIV with corporate
clients, suppliers and others in their
sector
The Council seeks opportunities for member
companies to encourage these activities,
through speaking engagements, media
coverage and their own meetings and events.
Member companies include: Bristol-Myers
Squibb, Calvin Klein Inc, Casa Decor Decorar,
Edelman PR Worldwide, Eskom, Glaxo
Wellcome, Godrej & Boyce, Industries Villares,
Levi Strauss, Merck & Co, MTV Networks
International, Polaroid, SSL International,
Standard Chartered Bank, Telepar / Tele
Centro Sul, The Body Shop International, and
The Tata Iron & Steel Company.
Secretariat
Global Business Council on HIV&AIDS
New City Cloisters, 196 Old Street
London
EC1V 9FR
Tel: [phone]

Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.gbcaids.com

The Prince of Wales
Business Leaders Forum
(PWBLF)
The Prince of Wales Business Leaders
Forum (PWBLF) is an international charity
which was founded in 1990 to promote
socially responsible business practices that
benefit business and society and which help
to achieve socially, economically and
environmentally sustainable development.
The Forum works with over 50 of the world's
leading multinational companies, and is
active in some 30 emerging and transition
economies.
The PWBLF works strategically around the
world with leaders in business, civil society
and the public sector to:
* encourage continuous improvement in
socially responsible business practices in
all aspects of a company's operations;
* develop geographic or issue based crosssector partnerships to take effective
action on social, economic and
environmental issues;
* help create an enabling environment
which provides the right conditions for
socially responsible business practices
and cross-sector partnerships to flourish.
Over a number of years now the PWBLF has
been engaged in efforts to promote the
business response to HIV/AIDS in partnership
with the private sector and governmental,
inter-governmental and non-governmental
organisations. The PWBLF's work has
included, in association with UNAIDS, a
series of national and regional business
workshops to engage corporate leaders in
exploring and developing partnership
responses to HIV/AIDS. Workshops have been
held in India, Bangladesh, South Africa, and
Brazil (Mecosur region).
The PWBLF has been involved with the
Global Business Council on HIV&AIDS since it
was established in 1997, playing an active
role in the Planning Group and its associated
activities. The GBC is an influential and
important advocate for the greater
involvement of the private sector in the
business response to HIV/AIDS. The PWBLF
will continue to support and advise the
Global Business Council on HIV&AIDS in this
leadership role.
Information Officer
The Prince of Wales Business
Leaders Forum
15-16 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
United Kingdom
Tel: [phone]

Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.pwblf.org