ILO’s contribution to the HIV and AIDS response in Mozambique

The National AIDS Council is leading the implementation of its Strategic Plan III. The Plan considers 7 strategic pillars: Prevention, Advocacy, Treatment, Impact Mitigation, BCC, Research and Communication. With regards to key areas of support in the national response, a great focus has been put in prevention interventions to ensure the reduction of new people being infected by HIV such as counseling and testing, working with youth in behavior change interventions as well as working in migration-affected communities. The members of the Joint team were involved in the elaboration of the current HIV national strategic plan by providing technical support and playing an advocacy role in the inclusion of crucial elements to ensure a more effective response which includes the workplace component. The Strategic Plan considers the world of work as an important path to contribute to the national response due to its role in advocating for prevention and reduction of new infections.

In Mozambique ILO/AIDS is intervening at three levels namely;

1. Support to workplace programmes implementation within enterprises, cooperatives and informal settings.
2. Supporting legal compliance and application of HIV related policies and legislation, by providing technical support to the labour inspectors and by working with the Parliament to revise the HIV and AIDS Law.
3. Support to implementation of the corridor economic empowerment programme.

These interventions have focused on:

• Capacity building of workers and employers organizations to lead the response among their members and affiliates;
• Direct action in selected small and medium enterprises, informal economy associations and cooperatives, to ensure workers’ access to prevention, care and support; and
• Economic empowerment for women, young girls and men along transport corridors in the country to reduce people’s vulnerability to HIV and AIDS.

On the other hand, the VCT@Work initiative is a key component for the prevention of HIV and AIDS and can be seen as a gateway to care, treatment and psychosocial support, as well as behavior change. Meanwhile, the component on income generation is extremely important to create better living conditions and it is used as a tool to reduce the vulnerability of these families infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.

The ILO’s contribution to the HIV response is guided by the Delivering as One principle and all interventions are implemented in the context of the HIV and AIDS UN Joint Programming.

ILO/AIDS is also contributing to the Decent work Agenda implementation and in the promotion of Social Protection Floor by providing support to income generating activities as a tool to reduce vulnerability among households affected and infected by HIV and AIDS.

Result achieved

1. 235 SME’s developed, adopted and are implementing HIV and AIDS workplace programmes and policies in Maputo, Gaza, Sofala, Tete and Nampula provinces. ILO provided capacity building to the tripartite constituents for the development of comprehensive workplace programmes and policies. Additionally, ILO also provided technical assistance for the revision of the workplace policies ensuring they reflect the 10 key principles of the Recommendation 200.
2. On the VCT@work campaign the ILO and its partners promoted the health services to 100.000 workers from 2013 to 2015 that have been voluntarily counselled and tested on HIV and other diseases. ILO Provided support to ECOSIDA, AMODEFA, Associação Avante Mulher and Centro Desenvolvimento Comunitário to organize Voluntary and Counselling Testing for workers from formal and informal sectors. From January/December 2014, 23.000 workers have been tested in Maputo, Gaza, Sofala and Tete provinces. Equally, ILO strengthened peer education activities on VCT by training 75 peer educators that are established in local communities overseeing local referral system/network and support the health authorities in the promotion of VCT.