HIV/AIDS, TB, AND MALARIA ARE BUSINESS ISSUES
Business is doing a fraction of what it can do to address HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria. And yet it makes strong business sense for companies to respond to the epidemic. Increased costs, loss of productivity and overall threats to the foundations of the economies in which they operate threaten the bottom line. The workforce is placed at increasing risk, with the epidemic disproportionately affecting people during their most productive years.
GBC's strategy to increase business action in the workplace involves both advocacy with business leaders to convince them to act, and the identification of workplace "best practices" to help them implement proven initiatives.
HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria are critical issues for every company in the world today. The disease has no boundaries. It penetrates borders and threatens the world's emerging economies. Global business leaders have a critical question to answer: is it worth the investment of their companies to engage in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria?
BUSINESS CAN RESPOND
Led by 200 international companies, GBC believes that business can respond to the AIDS, TB, and malaria epidemics in a variety of ways; such as, taking action in the workplace and extending programs into communities, by using products, innovation, skills and services creatively and by advocating for greater action by all sectors of society.
Companies have made significant headway in their response to HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria by developing comprehensive approaches that link their strategies to the communities where they operate. Leveraging their existing infrastructure and in-country relationships, manufacturers in countries most affected by HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria can provide mechanisms for service delivery and can influence outcomes in the communities where they function by providing comprehensive non-discrimination, prevention, testing, and treatment programs to workers and members of the broader community.
Business leadership and action on AIDS, TB, and malaria is crucial, but alone, it cannot not solve the emergency. It can never replace the leadership needed by governments and political leaders. Rather, the business community can support and pressure governments to act, through examples of good practice, demonstrating that prevention, testing and treatment services can be provided effectively. We must hope that the growing mobilization of governments, businesses and communities groups can be harnessed as rapidly and effectively as possible to avert the dire predictions of 100 million cases of HIV by the year 2010.