Program Overview:
The CCA HIV/AIDS Initiative was established in September 2003 through a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to assist CCA members in combating a perceived deterrent to trade and investment on the continent: HIV/AIDS. The HIV/AIDS Initiative recieves additional funding from The World Bank, The Ford Foundation and Merck & Co.
Mission
The Corporate Council on Africa works to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa by increasing private sector involvement in prevention, care and treatment programs and by helping businesses mitigate the negative impact of the disease on productivity, competetiveness and the general trade environment.
Program Mechanisms
In order to lessen the negative impact HIV has on business productivity and improve the general wellbeing of workers and their families, CCA advocates the development of a company HIV/AIDS policy and works to ensure that CCA member companies with workforces in Africa access HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment services for their employees, and employee families in Africa.
Specifically, the program brokers partnerships between member companies and CCA Initiative resource partners including funding organizations, enabling partners and technical assistance providers and an online data bank of best practices and state-of-the-art policies for HIV/AIDS prevention and impact mitigation. The program also seeks to engage our member companies in providing synergistic linkages between their workforces and ongoing community-based initiatives across all aspects of HIV/AIDS including access to treatment and care. These linkages allow CCA corporate members to leverage public and private sector dollars for implementing workplace HIV/AIDS policies and programs.
The broader goal of the CCA HIV/AIDS Initiative is to increase private sector leadership in the development and implementation of comprehensive HIV/AIDS programs at the national level in partnership with the public sector and civil society. The development of national private sector business coalitions against HIV/AIDS is central to achieving this goal. There are currently twenty-eight such coalitions as well as a Pan-African body that constitute the core of the private sector response in Africa and are organized to effectively play the role of catalyst and innovator in working with the public sector and national and international NGOs to create a comprehensive response to HIV/AIDS.
Program Objectives:
- Facilitate public-private partnerships using private sector core competencies to enhance the public health response to HIV/AIDS in Africa;
- Support the continuing development and evolution of National Business Coalitions against HIV/AIDS in Africa facilitating private sector leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS;
- Engage corporations in market-driven approaches to the development and improvement of health infrastructure in Africa;
- Assist corporations to define and develop corporate social responsibility portfolios that enhance their brand profile and address critic health requirements on the continent;
- Link the private sector to international and multinational resources to leverage support for the continuing development of healthcare delivery in Africa;
- Enhance the leadership role and profile of the private sector in fight HIV/AIDS and other debilitating diseases in Africa;
- Provide a state-of-the-art on-line database of tools and resources to facilitate private sector engagement and maximize distribution and application of proven strategies and policies to address HIV/AIDS; (All Africa database)
- Convene forums to inform and shape the private sector approach to health in Africa and to provide venues for private sector leadership in addressing HIV/AIDS.
