HIV and AIDS workplace prevention: sharing experiences between India and Tajikistan
On April 24 First Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Protection of the Republic of Tajikistan Emin Sanginov met with Director of ILO Decent Work Team for South Asia and Country Office for India Tine Staermose, launching a five-day study mission on HIV and AIDS and the world of the work for the Tajik delegation of tripartite constituents.
The mission’s objective was to strengthen the practical skills of the Tajik delegation through sharing best practices on the HIV and AIDS workplace response that the Indian colleagues had scaled-up, designed and implemented in India since 2001.
The mission empowered Tajik tripartite constituents to learn how to better design and implement the HIV and AIDS workplace programmes at an enterprise level in targeted economic sectors (e.g. transport, agriculture, construction, informal sector.) and how to enhance involvement of the people living with HIV.
Tajik delegates studied how to better involve the private sector’s actors into the national workplace AIDS response with the aim of developing Public-Private Partnerships in Tajikistan on the basis of experience of India’s tripartite partners and PepsiCo and how to collaborate with and involve informal workers and civil society (associations of people living with HIV) in formulating the HIV and AIDS workplace response and to mainstream these actions into national social protection schemes.
During the study tour the Tajik delegation had a number of technical and consultative meetings with Indian constituents (Ministry of Labour and Employment, National Labour Institute, Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) workers’ organizations and All India Organization of Employers). Delegates made field visits to the State AIDS Control Society and Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital and held meetings with representatives of PepsiCo and Delhi Network of HIV Positive People to discuss their more active involvement in the world of work actions.
As a result of the study tour Tajik tripartite constituents (Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population, the Union of Employers and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions) in technical collaboration with the ILO will jointly develop their first national HIV and AIDS sectoral workplace action plan in Tajikistan that will become a part of the Decent Work Country Programme for 2011-2013 and the National Tripartite Strategy on HIV and AIDS and the World of Work that was developed and adopted in Tajikistan in February 2012.
The study tour was funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria within the framework of the joint project among the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population of Tajikistan, ILO and UNDP.