Companies failing to address AIDS impact - survey

Kenya's 2005 Human Resources Survey blames the top management of local companies for failing to champion HIV/AIDS policies in their workplace, a local newspaper, The Nation, has reported.

The survey found that four years after AIDS was declared a national disaster, only a few company directors played an important role in addressing its impact on their businesses or the economy.

"The pandemic is the single most serious health and development challenge that Kenya has faced in its post-independence history. It has reversed significant gains made in life expectancy in the last 30 years," the survey noted.

Less than one percent of organisations responded to a question on the directors' roles, and of these only 35 percent said they had clearly identified board-level responsibility by designating a director to take charge of anti-AIDS programmes.