Addis Abeba — The Ethiopian Business Coalition Against HIV/AIDS (EBCA) and DKT Ethiopia (DKT) have launched a poster campaign focusing on workplace HIV/AIDS issues.

The campaign is a collaborative effort to produce creative and practical communications materials following the signing of an MOU between DKT and EBCA in July 2008, they said in a statement.

Accordingly a total of four designs have been launched with two separate themes.

"The posters feature companies' leadership commitment to and policies about HIV/AIDS. The posters focus on the importance of leadership commitment for HIV/AIDS interventions, and HIV/AIDS company policies that can protect employees." Following consultations with Ethiopian companies in 2007 which informed EBCA's framework for business action on HIV/AIDS, these two aspects of HIV/AIDS workplace interventions were seen as essential to ensuring the success of HIV/AIDS mainstreaming in the workplace, the statement added.

The posters will be delivered to Ethiopian companies during the week of World AIDS Day 2008 and the companies will be encouraged to display them in prominent places throughout their workplaces, it was learnt.

EBCA is a membership body which now helps to coordinate and mobilize the business response on HIV/AIDS and other social responsibility issues in Ethiopia.

DKT International has been promoting family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention through social marketing in the developing world since 1989. The organization operates programs in 12 countries and DKT-Ethiopia is the oldest program.