Private sector avoids cost of AIDS

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has not yet affected the profitability and productivity of Swazi businesses, as the burden has been passed onto households and the community, a new report has found. A study commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and the United Nations Country Team said the coping strategies adopted by the private sector had been effective in mitigating the impact of the epidemic on productivity and increase in costs of production. "However, this has been done at the expense of the public sector, households and the community," the study said. The private sector's response to the epidemic had concentrated on HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns and cost avoidance. While some businesses had drafted policies to guide their response, most had not yet adopted a "systematic approach", it noted. Companies had managed to avoid the costs associated with the epidemic by implementing targeted retrenchment of employees living with HIV/AIDS, and providing limited benefits. Households, however, were left to shoulder the burden, especially among subsistence farmers. "We found that during the later stages of the illness, family members had to take time away from working on the farms to look after the sick person," Moses Sithole, one of the study's researchers, told PlusNews. "The burden on families, particularly in the subsistence sector, was more so than on the employer." HIV-related deaths in farming communities had led to a reduction in the quantity of labour and sources of income for the household. There was also an increased number of households headed by women, and increased numbers of orphans. Vulnerability had increased further in the light of the country's current food crisis, the study noted. The impact of the epidemic had also been passed over to the public health sector. According to the study, households were increasingly turning to government health services for care. "This increases the burden on the public health sector and diverts resources that government would have invested in developing its people. Therefore the intervention strategies that the private sector implements have direct implications on the extent of impact of the epidemic," it said. The agriculture ministry's response had so far has been a health-based approach aimed at preventing new infections among its workforce. It did not cover "core areas of agriculture and rural development" which were crucial for food security and the maintenance of quality livelihoods in rural households. The study suggested that the government and private sector recognise that "families and communities are the first line of response to HIV/AIDS". There was also a need to increase the capacity of households and communities to respond to the loss of income and increased expenditure. This could be done through community mobilisation, building economic resources of households and introduction of community safety nets, the study recommended. "There is need for further studies on business response to the epidemic, to identify strategies for cost avoidance that can be implemented by the private sector without transferring the burden of the disease to the households and individuals," the study concluded. More on the report