UNAIDS has revised its internal adoption and paternity leave policy and introduced new rules on surrogacy leave, marking an important step in ensuring a more inclusive working environment.

The revised policy includes the extension of adoption leave from eight to 16–18 weeks, depending on the number of children being adopted, the extension of paternity leave from four to 16 weeks and the introduction of 16 weeks of leave for a single birth by surrogacy and 18 weeks for multiple births by surrogacy.

The new policy is the result of concerted advocacy efforts by the UNAIDS Secretariat Staff Association (USSA), in collaboration with UNAIDS management, and is one of the commitments made in the recently launched UNAIDS Gender Action Plan 2018–2023.

“The revised policy will allow fathers to spend more time with their families at a critical stage in life,” said a staff member who will soon become a father. “Men can and have to play an important role in childcare and actively challenge gender norms that pass most responsibility for childcare onto women,” he said.

Adopting a more equitable policy framework that supports caregiving by both men and women can help in overturning perceptions that women of childbearing age are potentially too expensive or an absentee risk when compared with similarly qualified men.

“The UNAIDS Secretariat Staff Association welcomes this important milestone in our internal policy framework, which will not only bring direct benefits to staff who will become parents, but to all staff, as it challenges pervasive gender norms,” said Pauliina Nykanen-Rettaroli, USSA Chair.

The introduction of specific leave for births by surrogacy reflects UNAIDS’ commitment to diversity. “It doesn´t make a difference if you become a parent by natural birth, adoption or surrogacy; you still become a parent and should be entitled to the same benefits,” said a staff member. “This policy reflects the organization’s commitment to be as inclusive as possible and walk the talk of what it advocates for, which is dignity and respect for all,” she added.

“In our new Gender Action Plan, we committed to adopting a single parental leave policy and I am proud that UNAIDS has now delivered on this. All parents should be supported to spend time with their children. By supporting this, UNAIDS is contributing to shifting the burden of care and advancing gender equality,” said Gunilla Carlsson, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Management and Governance.

As part of the United Nations Secretary-General’s strategy to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse, global leaders have come together to issue a statement reaffirming their personal commitment to eliminate sexual exploitation and abuse across the United Nations system.

In the statement, the leaders recognize the unique responsibility of the United Nations to set the standard for preventing, responding to and eradicating sexual exploitation and abuse within the United Nations system, address its impact effectively and humanely and safeguard and empower survivors.

The leaders are 48 heads of state or government from the Secretary-General’s Circle of Leadership and 22 United Nations entities, including UNAIDS. UNAIDS is firmly committed to zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse anywhere and recently hosted a high-level event with the African Union during the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly to tackle sexual and gender-based violence in humanitarian crises.

In the statement, the leaders recognize the shared responsibility of the United Nations and its Member States to protect survivors and whistle-blowers and take appropriate action against perpetrators. They also express their commitment to working together to implement the United Nations Secretary-General’s strategy, which outlines four main areas of action: putting victims first; ending impunity; engaging civil society and external partners; and improving strategic communications for education and transparency.

Click here to read the full statement.

For the second year in a row, UNAIDS has been recognized for meeting or exceeding all of the performance indicators of the United Nations System-Wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-SWAP). UNAIDS was the first United Nations entity to achieve this and remains the only one to date.

In a letter sent by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women, to Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, she congratulates UNAIDS for achieving gender parity at the professional and higher levels, as well as for having mainstreamed gender equality work objectives and learning objectives into its performance management tools.

Since the inception of UN-SWAP in 2012, UNAIDS has demonstrated continued progress and remains committed to continuing to improve its UN-SWAP scoring. In the UNAIDS Secretariat Gender Action Plan 2018–2023, launched in June of this year, the organization set a series of targets that will help to ensure that UNAIDS sustains and advances its commitment to gender equality and the empowerment of women in the workplace.

The targets include:

• Target 1: 50:50 gender parity across all staff levels and categories.
• Target 2: 100% of staff at all levels set a work and learning objective on gender.
• Target 3: 100% of eligible UNAIDS female staff to participate in the UNAIDS Women’s Leadership Programme and 100% of eligible UNAIDS staff to participate in the Mentoring Programme for Women.
• Target 4: 100% compliance with the UN-SWAP 2.0 framework.

UN-SWAP is a United Nations system-wide accountability framework designed to measure, monitor and drive progress towards a common set of standards for the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women.

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For decades, women’s rights leaders and civil society organizations have been actively working to advance gender equality. Civil society have also been critical partners to UNAIDS since its inception in 1996, UNAIDS being the only United Nations organization to include non-governmental organizations as active participants on its board.

The partnership between UNAIDS and civil society continues to be essential and on 18-19 June, UNAIDS and the ATHENA Network co-convened a meeting on addressing sexual harassment. The meeting provided a unique opportunity for dialogue with civil society on concerns and questions around sexual harassment and gender equality, as well as to provide valuable inputs on how to strengthen the work of UNAIDS in this area.

UNAIDS welcomed more than 30 women’s rights leaders and civil society advocates to share good practices, articulate concerns and discuss ways of moving forward to strengthen rights-based responses to sexual harassment and protect survivors and people who come forward to report incidents of harassment.

Participants expressed a wide range of perspectives on actions taken to date and demonstrated a shared commitment to work hand in hand with UNAIDS to ensure that sexual harassment both within and beyond UNAIDS is addressed and prevented.

They agreed that measures to transform organizational culture, ensure perpetrators are held to account and protecting survivors and whistle-blowers were central actions for UNAIDS to take. The importance of not only taking an inward approach but of also prioritizing efforts to  promote gender equality and diversity, and put an end to gender-based violence as part of UNAIDS work to end AIDS globally was emphasized.

UNAIDS Staff Association shared results from a recent UNAIDS staff survey which found that 4% of staff had experienced some kind of sexual harassment within the workplace, yet only one person said they that they had come forward to report the incident. UNAIDS leadership outlined new measures UNAIDS is putting in place, including a confidential 24-hour hotline, training and 360-degree evaluations, to stop harassment of any kind within UNAIDS, ensure that staff are supported in reporting incidents and that any incidents reported are addressed immediately. UNAIDS has also recently launched a Gender Action Plan 2018-2023, which includes a series of measures to strengthen organizational culture.

Active discussions took place with and between civil society representatives who brought their personal experiences, reflections and inputs to strengthen current efforts being undertaken by UNAIDS and other stakeholders. The meeting also provided an opportunity to hold discussions with other Geneva-based United Nations organizations working to eliminate sexual harassment in the workplace.

The meeting builds on a series of discussions taking place around the world on the issue of sexual harassment, including those led by UNAIDS. These have included a dialogue with civil society and women leaders at the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2018, a virtual Town Hall meeting in May 2018–which engaged over 40 civil society leaders, as well as individual meetings held with civil society by UNAIDS senior management in Kenya, South Africa and other parts of the world.

UNAIDS will continue to continue to engage with women’s rights leaders and activists to learn from their experiences and draw on their expertise to develop and implement policies to address harassment in the workplace and to tackle the broader issues of gender inequality, gender-based violence and discrimination as central to efforts to end AIDS.

UNAIDS has taken a number of measures to reinforce its policy of zero-tolerance of sexual harassment. A five-point plan is being implemented to ensure that all forms of harassment and abuse of authority are identified early on, that measures taken are properly documented and that action follows due process and is swift and effective, with appropriate protection both for survivors and for whistle-blowers.

UNAIDS is also making it easier for people to report complaints in a secure and confidential way through an anonymous and confidential Integrity Hotline, which is open 24 hours a day, every day, and provides staff with an alternative way to report complaints.

In addition, UNAIDS has called for its Programme Coordinating Board Bureau to lead an Independent Expert Panel on harassment to provide policy recommendations on how UNAIDS can improve its response to harassment and identify areas where reform is needed. 

UNAIDS has recently launched its Gender Action Plan 2018-2023, to ensure gender equality in the workplace as a human right and critical to the performance and effectiveness of UNAIDS.

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GENEVA, 5 June 2018—UNAIDS has launched its new Gender Action Plan for 2018–2023. The plan builds on the progress achieved under the 2013–2018 plan, which provided a framework to advance gender equality and empower women across the UNAIDS Secretariat.

Some 54% of UNAIDS staff are women and the UNAIDS Secretariat has achieved gender parity among staff at the P4 level (middle management) and above. The highest rise in women in leadership positions has been among UNAIDS country directors—in 2018, women accounted for 48% of UNAIDS country directors, up from 23% in 2013. UNAIDS has also developed a unique Women’s Leadership Programme and a Mentoring Programme for Women.

“The Gender Action Plan goes beyond parity—It’s about empowerment and it’s about rights,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “Staff are the greatest resource of the United Nations and I commit to ensuring the resources, the programmes and the support to empower all UNAIDS staff to improve the lives of people living with and affected by HIV.”

UNAIDS has performed consistently well within the United Nations System-Wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and is recognized as the only United Nations entity to have achieved full compliance with all 15 performance indicators.

The new plan seeks to build on this progress, while establishing new and more ambitious targets. “The UNAIDS Gender Action Plan is a tool for change,” said Gunilla Carlsson, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS. “A tool to help create a workplace that maximizes the positive power of equality and diversity, where women and men are empowered to pursue a fulfilling career, free of discrimination and harassment of any kind. I am proud to launch it as part of the UNAIDS five-point plan to prevent and address all forms of harassment within UNAIDS.”

The UNAIDS Gender Action Plan sets out four targets:

• Target 1: 50:50 gender parity across all staff levels and categories.
• Target 2: 100% of staff at all levels set a work and learning objective on gender.

• Target 3: 100% of eligible UNAIDS female staff to participate in the UNAIDS Women’s Leadership Programme and 100% of eligible UNAIDS staff to participate in the Mentoring Programme for Women.
• Target 4: 100% compliance with the United Nations System-Wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women 2.0 framework.

To reach these targets and achieve an organizational culture that fully upholds gender equality and diversity, the UNAIDS Secretariat will be carrying out regular and transparent reporting to all staff on the progress and challenges, while also reporting to its Programme Coordinating Board.

A Challenge Group will be created, composed of staff from across the organization, which will be tasked with pushing progress forward and holding UNAIDS’ leadership accountable for the successful implementation of the plan.

Through the implementation of the Gender Action Plan 2018–2023, UNAIDS will continue to lead the way in accelerating gender equality and empowering every staff member to live up to their full potential.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

GENEVA, 7 May 2018—The scope and nature of the work of the Independent Expert Panel on prevention of and response to harassment, including sexual harassment, bullying and abuse of power at the UNAIDS Secretariat has been decided upon by the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) Bureau following consultations with the three constituencies of the PCB. The PCB Bureau is composed of the United Kingdom, China, Algeria, the PCB nongovernmental organization delegation and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, representing the UNAIDS Cosponsors. The agreed terms of reference will guide the panel’s work over the coming months.

Under the terms of reference, the panel will:

• Review the current situation in the UNAIDS Secretariat with regard to harassment, including sexual harassment, bullying and abuse of power and retaliation—including by looking back over the past seven years—to assess the organizational culture at headquarters and the regional and country offices.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of existing policies and procedures to prevent and address harassment, including sexual harassment, bullying, retaliation and abuse of power in the UNAIDS Secretariat workplace.
• Recommend a comprehensive set of prioritized measures on organizational culture, policies and fair and due process procedures with respect to harassment, including sexual harassment, and bullying, retaliation and abuse of power in the workplace.

The panel will review all relevant areas. It will look at UNAIDS’ leadership and culture, policies and strategies to prevent harassment and the reasons for the low levels of formal reporting of harassment. In addition, the panel will review the investigation processes applied by the UNAIDS Secretariat and will make recommendations on how to ensure that these are fit for purpose and fair. The panel will also make recommendations to ensure that the UNAIDS Secretariat has sufficiently strong internal systems to identify unacceptable behaviour and take swift action in response to it and will make recommendations to ensure that accountability is visible and ensured at all levels of UNAIDS.

In its work, the panel will draw from lessons learned and best practices from other United Nations organizations and other partners. The panel is independent of UNAIDS’ senior management and in its work will consult with United Nations Member States, PCB nongovernmental organizations, UNAIDS Cosponsors and former and current UNAIDS staff.

“I fully support the panel’s work and how the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board has conceptualized the panel as one composed of independent experts. I will provide whatever is needed to ensure that the Board leadership can continue to run a transparent process. I look forward to the panel’s report and pledge to swiftly implement its recommendations,” said Mr Sidibé.

Called for in February 2018 by Mr Sidibé, the panel is one of several measures designed to strengthen the culture of zero tolerance for harassment, abuse and unethical behaviour at UNAIDS. Other measures announced in February include the five-point plan, which aims to ensure that inappropriate behaviour and abuse of authority are identified early on, that measures taken are properly documented and that action to be taken follows due process and is swift and effective. The five-point plan also calls for enhanced protections for plaintiffs and whistle-blowers. The recommendations of the panel are expected to influence the implementation of the five-point plan.

The panel will comprise up to five independent experts. It will deliver its final report with its recommendations to the 43rd meeting of the PCB in December 2018.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

“Partnerships, partnerships, partnerships,” said Inge Tack. “That’s what motivates me every morning.”

Partnerships are also her background. When she joined UNAIDS in 1999, she worked on a new initiative, the International Partnership against AIDS in Africa, which involved getting buy-in from governments, the private sector, the United Nations and communities. She then moved to Uganda as the Technical Adviser helping the national AIDS commission with its various constituencies. Ms Tack then headed to western Africa, to the UNAIDS regional bureau to become the Partnerships Adviser.

“I travelled to many of the 19 countries in that region, where travelling is not easy, but I loved the job,” she said. “Supporting country offices, being the broker and convener at the regional level for governments, regional economic communities, donors and people living with HIV in a challenging environment was definitely a huge learning experience,” Ms Tack said. Gaining everyone’s trust was key, she added. She also relished the role because UNAIDS’ neutrality and expertise, she explained, made it the go-to office for HIV.

In 2012, Ms Tack became UNAIDS Country Director in Gabon, allowing her to zero in on one country. “I was the boss of a very small team, but with an enormous scope to do it all,” she said. The variety thrilled her.

“I never had a dull day in Gabon,” she said describing a typical day, which could take her to the presidential palace in the morning, an HIV workshop in the afternoon and an evening meeting discussing health with investors.

Aside from partnerships, she forged real connections with people.

“At the end, it is all about people, giving them hope and encouraging them to help each other,” Ms Tack said. A lot of young people have limited opportunities, so she became a sort of cheerleader for them.

In one case, a young mother living with HIV came to her office saying she could no longer bear her life. Ms Tack sensed that the young woman could perhaps share her story with other teens. “It blew me away how she recounted her tale and connected to people,” she said. Slowly but surely, the young woman gained confidence. The Gabon office helped launch a network for young people living with HIV to raise awareness about HIV prevention and to guide people on adhering to treatment. “And you know what?” she asked. “That woman now has become a community health worker, paid for by the local mayor’s office,” she said beaming.

Ms Tack’s new job in the Programme Partnerships and Fundraising Department has brought her back to Geneva, Switzerland, closer to her native Belgium. Fundraising has changed so dramatically that she wanted to come back to headquarters and refresh her skills. “I believe it’s important to match funds to real country needs,” she said. She also thinks that UNAIDS needs to innovate more on raising funds. Looking up from her computer, she said, “When I feel like I have gotten a good handle on that, then I can return to the country level and put it into implementation!”

UNAIDS staff work in 79 country offices and six regional offices and at its headquarters in Geneva. It also has liaison offices at the United Nations Headquarters in New York and in Washington, DC, United States of America, and at the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The nearly 700 staff members come from 123 countries and more than 60% of the staff work in the field.

Bilali Camara joined UNAIDS in 2008 in Trinidad and Tobago as a Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Adviser. “I had to establish a strong network at national levels across the Caribbean,” he said. This involved a lot of sharing of lessons and problem-solving, he explained. When he moved to Angola as the Country Director, his networks involved fewer people, but he networked tirelessly. He’s particularly proud of having connected a basketball coach with a radio director to air zero discrimination messages. For the next campaign he asked a famous musician, a transgender singer, to help. As a result, he said, they reached thousands of people with HIV awareness messages.

Mr Camara reiterated this endeavour when he became the Country Director in Nigeria. In this instance, he explained, the real push involved lowering the number of babies becoming infected with HIV. Too few pregnant women knew their HIV status and their babies were being missed by HIV services. “We had to reach people, and the best way to do that was contacting them by phone,” Mr Camara said. UNAIDS Nigeria partnered with a telecom company and millions of people received HIV prevention text messages. “With that momentum, HIV testing became part of the prenatal care package in the country,” he said.

Mr Camara said that what keeps him moving forward is people tell him that they appreciate what UNAIDS has done.

Forward and onward he has gone. Mr Camara just became the UNAIDS Country Director in India. What has struck him so far is how involved the key populations are in the AIDS response. “The level of ownership here has truly impressed me,” Mr Camara said. “When it comes to public health, if communities lead the way, then that is a sign of success.”

Success for Andrea Boccardi saw her start out as an obstetrics and gynecology doctor advising Uruguayan Army peacekeeping operations and learning about the HIV policy and programming of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations. She now focuses on gender-based violence and the elimination of discrimination.

“It’s a dream come true,” she said. “I now have the opportunity to implement the UNAIDS vision of zero discrimination in health-care settings.” Standing in her office, her walls decorated with certificates and photos of Uruguay, Panama and Geneva, she explained how privileged she has felt to have moved around the world and departments.

In 2003, UNAIDS hired her as an HIV Adviser on Security and the Humanitarian Response in Latin America, ending her career as a military doctor. She recalls that her past job came in useful when she trained United Nations peacekeeping troops deploying to Haiti and the Congo.

Two years later she transferred to Panama. Ms Boccardi helped open the UNAIDS regional office, working on programming and technical support. “I did a lot of running around trying to make sure that we were on top of human rights, prevention, treatment and universal access to health,” she said, sighing at the thought of what that entailed.

When her rotation came up, Ms Boccardi said she wanted to move beyond policy and work towards the UNAIDS global prevention agenda to bring change on the ground. Her transition to headquarters in Geneva was seamless. She described her daughters having a tougher time with the French homework, but overall loving the independence that the vast Swiss bus and train system gives them.

In the past 10 years, nearly 500 staff have participated in mobility and more than 400 staff have been reassigned to multiple duty stations. In 2018, about 30 staff members will move from their current posts to new posts.

After working on prevention, Ms Boccardi recently joined the Human Rights and Gender Team.

Pointing to the Spanish words engraved at the bottom of a framed pre-Columbian small gold frog by her desk that read, “Leader, guide, friend”, Ms Boccardi said this had become her mantra in life to balance work, family and friends.

More in this series: UNAIDS staff share global experience on AIDS through criss-crossing the world

When Marie-Odile Emond first arrived in Cambodia, she didn’t realize that some of the UNAIDS/International Labour Organization policy on HIV in the workplace she had heard discussed, years back, at the global level would be something she would see implemented.

“It seemed so abstract and yet here I was seeing it in practice,” she said, referring to health and human rights protection for workers, notably sex workers, which involved the Ministry of Labour, the community and the United Nations. “As the Country Director, I facilitated the dialogue and training for that to happen,” Ms Emond said, “and now it serves as an example for other countries.”

She now heads the Viet Nam Country Office, which she said offered another set of challenges and opportunities.

“I have found it really interesting to alternate between global, regional and country offices, because each offers a window to a part of our strategy,” Ms Emond said. Rattling off the many countries she has worked in at UNAIDS, she laughed and said, “Oh, and before UNAIDS, I worked in Armenia, Burundi, Liberia and Rwanda.”

In her opinion, meeting so many committed people from all walks of life and building bridges with them has been enriching. It’s made all the difference, according to her, in the AIDS response. “I play the coordinator, but I also had an active role in making people believe in themselves,” Ms Emond said.

Country Director Vladanka Andreeva said that her moves within UNAIDS were a huge change each time. She has served across two regions in different roles and credits her professional growth to her colleagues and the various communities she has interacted with.

“In every new post there was a challenge to quickly adapt to it, establish relationships with stakeholders and make a contribution,” she said. “You really have to hit the ground running.” Her role as the Treatment and Prevention Adviser in the UNAIDS regional office in Bangkok, Thailand, before going to Cambodia, really stands out for her. Ms Andreeva provided technical advice and assistance to strengthen HIV programmes across the region. This involved facilitating knowledge and sharing best practice, in and between countries, on innovative delivery models to scale up access to evidence-informed services.

She added that, from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to Cambodia, “my family and I explored the cultural heritage of our host countries, tasted some of the most delicious pho, tom yum and amok, and made friends from all over the world.”

She thanked her husband and daughter for being fantastic partners in the journey, since moving every four to five years is no small task. UNAIDS staff move routinely from one duty station to another, criss-crossing the world throughout their careers. 

Her real pride is seeing her 17-year-old daughter, who was six when they started living abroad, become a truly global citizen, with such respect for diversity.

Gang Sun echoed many of Ms Andreeva’s points. “Because we interact with so many stakeholders, from the private sector to government to civil society, I have learned to always show respect and always listen,” he said.

For him, the journey started in the field in China, India and Thailand, followed by Myanmar and Botswana, before starting his new job at UNAIDS headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2017. He described that adapting to different cultures has kept him on his toes. “Overall, in my career I have seen every challenge as an opportunity and I have gained in confidence,” he said.

What fascinated him the most was the differences between working in high HIV prevalence countries and in countries where the epidemic was concentrated among key populations. In his new role at headquarters, he now taps into his expertise gained along the way as well as that of so many colleagues within UNAIDS and the World Health Organization.

“Despite all my experience, I still have more learning to do,” Mr Sun said.

The Côte d’Ivoire Country Director, Brigitte Quenum, jumped at the opportunity to go to the field after more than five years in Geneva. As the Partnerships Officer with francophone countries at UNAIDS headquarters, she said she learned a lot about how the UNAIDS Joint Programme functioned. That has helped her in her current role working hand in hand with Cosponsors, financial partners and civil society.

Before working in Geneva, she worked in the western and central Africa regional UNAIDS office in Dakar, Senegal. “I have gone full circle, and that has been very rewarding, because I know how the entire organization functions,” Ms Quenum said. Reflecting on the recent change in her life, aside from adjusting to the muggy coastal weather and the sheer population size of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire—the city has as many people as all of Switzerland—she said, “Being on the ground gives one’s job more of a sense of urgency, but I think it’s because we have daily contact with the multiple communities we’re serving.”

More in this series: It’s about the people we serve: UNAIDS staff connecting the world

A new report published by the International Labour Organization (ILO), VCT@WORK: voluntary confidential counselling and HIV testing for workers, shows that the VCT@WORK campaign has reached more than 6 million workers with HIV information, tested more than 4 million and referred more than 100 000 to HIV treatment. Launched in 2013, VCT@WORK is an initiative of ILO, UNAIDS and partners to scale up HIV testing, specifically in the workplace.

The VCT@WORK initiative has had particular success in reaching men, a group that is hard to reach with HIV services, with men accounting for more than 60% of people tested for HIV and 80% of people referred to treatment through the initiative in 2016.

The campaign reached 18 countries in 2016, and focuses on populations at higher risk of HIV infection, including workers in the mining, transport, construction, health and tourism sectors. Mobile and migrant workers are also often the focus of VCT@WORK HIV testing programmes, and in concentrated epidemics the focus is on key populations.

Workers in Kenya are among the people to have been reached by the campaign. A partnership between ILO, the Central Organization of Trade Unions in Kenya and other partners has enabled trucker drivers to access HIV testing and counselling services along the Mombasa to Busia transport corridor. Truck drivers face challenges in accessing health services, owing to their mobility and irregular schedules, so being able to test for HIV while at work will allow many more to find out their HIV status in order to start life-saving treatment or to access HIV prevention services to keep them HIV-free.

Hair and beauty salon workers in Kenya and workers in the informal economy are among the 74 000 people who have taken HIV tests through the VCT@WORK initiative in the country, with more than 1000 people who found out their HIV-positive status being linked to treatment.

Coal India Limited is the largest public sector coal company in India, with around 314 000 employees plus a large number of contractual workers. A long-standing partner of ILO’s HIV workplace programme, it is now a lead company in the VCT@WORK initiative in the country. Its HIV strategy, developed as part of VCT@WORK, includes training master trainers and peer educators to promote voluntary HIV testing, engaging unions to mobilize workers to seek HIV information and testing and covering contractual workers and their families in the strategy. More than 36 000 workers, dependents and contractual workers have accessed HIV counselling and testing services under the initiative.

These and other VCT@WORK programmes around the world are helping build momentum towards meeting the 90–90–90 targets, whereby, by 2020, 90% of people living with HIV know their HIV status, 90% of people who know their HIV-positive status are accessing treatment and 90% of people on treatment have suppressed viral loads.

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