Capacity Building of Labour officers on Labour inspections and HIV/AIDS at Four Points Sheraton, Arusha Tanzania

The international labour organization pledge it’s sustained collaboration with government, employers and workers organization as well as other stakeholders in advancing social justice and promoting decent work through different development cooperation projects and program including through UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework and Decent Work Country Programme; UNAIDS UBRAF Country Envelop, Kigoma UN Joint Programme, UN joint program on ending Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC) and through ILO the Global Programme on Skills and Lifelong Learning.

Tanzania’s Ministry of Labour, employment, youth and People with disabilities through its entities the Occupation Safety and Health (OSH) and the Department of Labour (DoL), plays a pivotal role in institutionalizing international labour standards and promoting decent work practices. As stakeholders within the ministry recognize the need for harmonization and digitization, they are working towards enhancing service provision and ensuring effective implementation of labour standards. Let's explore their perspectives on this transformative journey

Harmonizing Roles and Processes:

Labour officers and Labour Inspectors, under the Ministry of Labour, Employment, youth and people with disabilities, focuses on implementing and enforcing policies and laws which protect workers from HIV-related discrimination and labour rights violations, as well as in monitoring their application. This workshop is geared towards empowering the selected labour officers on relevant international labour standards and national legislation as a benchmark for labour inspections, HIV prevention and promotion of gender quality and non-discrimination in the world of work. We expect that labour officers will gain understanding and apply mainstreaming of HIV and gender lens in the inspection practices.

Reflecting on the work still ahead of us to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. The ILO as part of the UN Joint Team on AIDS in Tanzania and member of the Development Partners in the AIDS response, commends the efforts made by the Government of Tanzania towards achieving the UNAIDS 95-95-95 global targets by 2025 which aim at ensuring that 95% of people living with HIV know their status, that 95% of the people who know their HIV positive status are accessing lifesaving antiretroviral therapy, and that 95% of people on treatment have suppressed viral loads.

Tanzania has done a commendable job in rolling out antiretroviral drugs over the years. Out of 1.7 million people living with HIV, 1,526,671 (88%) knew their status, of which 1,477,809 (97%) were using highly active antiretroviral drugs as of Dec 2021 and approximately 97% of those receiving ART had achieved viral load suppression.