Eight businesses in South Africa have agreed to pilot draft guidelines on the disclosure of corporate policies on HIV/Aids.
The guidelines, which are being produced by the Global Reporting Initiative with financial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (EP4, issue 7) will be piloted for three months by BMW, Daimler-Benz, De Beers, Ford, MetroRail, Port Authority of South Africa, Telkom and Transnet.
Further trials will take place in Brazil, China and India.
In a separate move, the UK-based non-governmental organization Save the Children has produced guidance on how companies can take action on HIV/Aids.
Its Business Benefits report, published jointly with the UK government’s Department for International Development, says companies should concentrate on educating employees and their families about the virus, supporting awareness programmes in schools, and lobbying for national curricula to include details of how HIV is transmitted.
They should also develop workplace policies to minimize the effect on their operations.