Mbn hiv/aids evaluation final report Team of consultants

6.4. Implementing the donor guidelines for Workplace policy and looking for local solutions

A very important tool (Guidelines to ‘Support to Partners to Manage HIV/AIDS in the Workplace’) has been developed and was approved in December 2005, to draft and implement workplace policies at counterpart level. However, local capacity (ex. SAFAIDS, Cabungo, etc) to support the counterparts in these processes is limited and needs to be expanded or scaled up in the South. Also workshops and support programmes for internal mainstreaming that have been set up in the past by each CFA separately, or in collaboration with SAN!, require a new round.

The CFAs have to find an answer to following challenges:

• 
  The donor guidelines create certainties for the counterparts and are a helpful instrument for programme officers to become engaged in a genuine dialogue on internal mainstreaming with their counterparts. However these guidelines are only implemented in the two SAN! pilot countries (except by Novib which implements these guidelines in all countries). A discussion on the financial implication is pressed forward regarding the implementation of these guidelines in all countries.
  
• 
  Funding of insurance premiums is certainly one of the bottlenecks in the implementation of workplace policies. These can be covered for the moment in overhead costs, financed through budget support of the CFAs, but it will be a challenge to look for local responses such as the HIVOS initiative to identify with the micro finance sector to what extent local responses can be developed.
  
• 
  It might also be interesting to look for more intensified collaboration with international networks that are also engaged in the support of workplace policies development, like the International coalition of women living with HIV/AIDS, the Ecumenical HIV/AIDS initiative for Africa or the HASAP programme of ACORD.
  
• 
  Follow up of seminars on internal mainstreaming and the implementation of workplace policies should be taken seriously. As local capacity often is lacking, the CFAs have to look for solutions. Collaboration within international networks could be enhanced to that end. SAN! as well as the regional joint programmes or regional offices can play a vital role in this. The increased HIV/AIDS expertise of programme officers will also be a factor.