Community, Employees
January 01 2004
by Briefing StaffDecember 1 was World AIDS Day. A useful peg to hang a moment's reflection on the shocking statistics: 40 million infected with HIV around the world, up five million in just 12 months, with one in four Southern Africans now infected. The numbers become truly terrifying if the disease takes hold in India (population 850 million) and China (1.3 billion). Unlike the other big killers, which tend to attack the very young, the old and the weak, HIV/AIDS goes for the active, productive population. That makes it a big business issue. And in the worst affected countries, truckers driving companies' goods to market are a big vector in transmission.
Arguably too much attention has focused on the drug pricing policies of pharma companies, with little mention that high prices paid by western health care systems have funded one of the fastest and most effective research programmes ever. Belatedly they have moved on developing world pricing, so attention can now focus more on the rickety health care systems which are a harder barrier to overcome in getting help where it's needed.
What about companies outside the pharma sector? The UN survey showing few top100 multinationals have a policy doesn't ring true. Maybe they don't in the EU or US head offices (countries where infection rates are a fraction of a percent). Out in the field, companies like Anglo American, Diageo, ChevronTexaco and Coca-Cola don't just have policies, they also have effective programmes tackling both sides of the issue - prevention (hopefully) and then car - if and when that becomes necessary.
The broader WEF survey shows there is a long tail of smaller firms waiting for 'society' to act (and far too many businesses in Asia saying it's not even a problem). WEF's three part agenda for action is right - get the facts on the business case and act in your own operations; work with your industry associations to carry laggards along by sharing knowledge and costs, especially with firms in the supply chain; and engage more widely with partners in civil society and governments, to help build effective healthcare systems.
Above all, let's learn the lessons from Africa and apply them in Asia before the two billion Chinese and Indians face one-in-four infection rates.
Corporate Citizenship Briefing, issue no: 73 - January, 2004