Martin Luther Oketch
21 March 2006
THE threat of HIV/Aids on the global economy in the next five years is likely to cause severe losses, the World Economic Forum Report 2006 has said.
Business losses are predicted at 46 percent from 2005 compared to 37 percent as at 2004. "Future concern is rising about the expected impact of HIV/Aids on firms' operations over the next five years," reads in part the World Economic Forum (WEF) Report 2006 titled: Business & HIV/AIDS: A Healthier Partnership?
The report provides business leaders, NGOs and policy makers with a tool to benchmark country-level business leader opinions as well as data-driven recommendations to guide future action. It is a global review of business perceptions and response to the epidemic.
The report follows closely on the heels of the 36th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland from January 25 - 29 with the theme: The Creative Imperative.
Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria were key focus areas of the public and private programmes. The WEF report covers the opinions of 10,993 business executives in 117 countries during the first five months of 2005.
It states that only nine percent of firms have conducted a quantitative HIV/Aids risk assessment. The report states that the majority of firms where national HIV prevalence exceeds 1 in 5 have formal HIV/Aids policies (58 percent). "Where prevalence drops below 1 in 5, very few firms have a policy (20 percent) and these are likely to be informal," reads the report.
The report also spells out that policies addressing the issues of discrimination in promotion, pay or benefits based on HIV status are rare (18 percent).
It recommends that countries should unveil new research into the triggers for US-based business involvement to tackle HIV/Aids. In a study on Uganda done on the impact of HIV/Aids on productivity and labour costs in two Ugandan corporations in 2004, indicates companies are losing employees to HIV/Aids.
The study reveals that although the nationwide HIV infection rate, as measured by antenatal survey, has been falling, Uganda employers still incur a significant cost from the disease.
According to the study, the two companies studied are losing 1.6 percent (company A) and 0.6 percent (Company B) of the current work force to Aids-like illness.
"The measured cost associated with loss of worker were Shs8,9974,000 ($4,602) at a Company A and Shs28,805,000 ($14,772) at a company B," reads the report.
The report states that the respondents are more concerned about the future of the disease. 55 percent of the respondents expect it to hit them in next five years, a higher proportion than all world regions except sub-Saharan African and the Caribbean, 17 percent predicted serious impacts.
The report notes that both figures are significantly higher than in 2004.
The report says that 65 percent of firms in Africa report current impacts from HIV/Aids in the next hardest hit region 24 percent report impact, 21 percent said that the disease is having serious effects on their operations only 15 percent of Africa respondent firms have conducted HIV/Aids risk assessment.
The report concludes that businesses need to work with partners to develop increasingly robust HIV/Aids workplace programmes that address discrimination and access to treatment as underlying root problems of the disease.
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