Health & Safety

One of the fundamental needs of business is a healthy workforce. In order to meet this need, the PIA companies work together to mitigate health risks in the workplace. At the beginning of this century, one of the principal challenges facing business' in Africa was the rising threat of HIV/AIDS. It soon became clear that no single company could effectively deal with the impact of the disease alone.

PIA's Health working group's combined experience in prevention, health support and therapy for HIV/AIDS patients resulted in a common roadmap for management to track the implementation of comprehensive company programmes. The roadmap included defined KPI's, whose progress is carefully monitored by the working group.

HIV/AIDS Roadmap Traffic Light

One of the elements of the roadmap covers external interactions and contributions, in particular to customers and suppliers. The PIA group established a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with GIZ to promote the implementation of HIV/AIDS workplace programmes throughout supply chain companies. The project, which began in 2007, has reached more than 12 000 people with critical disease prevention training.

Building on its experience with best practice sharing on HIV/AIDS policy implementation, the PIA is in the process of developing similar road maps in a number of health related fields, including:

• Infectious diseases: Malaria, TB, Respiratory diseases, Gastro illnesses
• Non-infectious disease
• Safety