On 6 May, UN Secretary-General BAN Ki-Moon, staff at UN headquarters in New York, and representatives of UN agencies in New York officially launched UN Cares, the UN system-wide workplace programme on HIV. The Secretary-General has made UN Cares a priority, stating his determination "to make the UN a model of how the workplace should respond to HIV". Director of the ILO Office in New York, Djankou Ndjonkou, participated in this event.
UN CARES puts policy into practice and increases programme effectiveness by "delivering as one".
Since 1991, the UN has had a system-wide HIV workplace policy stating that all staff and their dependents have access to prevention education, voluntary counseling and testing services, and a workplace free of stigma and discrimination. Since the policy was enacted, some agencies have implemented workplace programmes. This includes Caring for Us, We Care, and Agents for Change, among others. Despite many successes, agency-specific programmes were creating duplication of effort and confusion among staff.
UN Cares has been developed to solve that problem by unifying HIV workplace programmes across the UN system, and "Delivering as One" a comprehensive range of HIV services to all UN personnel and their families. These benefits - known as the UN Cares 10 Minimum Standards - include information and education, voluntary counseling and testing, access to male and female condoms, and emergency prevention measures in case of accidental exposure, among others. The Standards also call for increased measures to stop stigma and discrimination.
UN Cares builds on the UN Learning Strategy on HIV/AIDS, which will continue to enhance staff capacity to address these issues personally and professionally, and UN Plus, which serves as an invaluable advocacy and support network for UN system personnel living with HIV.
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