11 June 2002

The General Secretary attended the IAAG meeting in Rome, and invited the local staff associations and union to participate. FAO/WFP-FSA sent Kathryn Scanlan who has had significant experience in dealing with HIV in various field duty stations.

Discussion focused on the matter of HIV/AIDS in the UN workplace. IAAG members were requested to consider:

• The need for UN agencies to have effective workplace policy on HIV/AIDS based on common principles and guidelines.
• Joint missions to identify the needs of UN staff and dependents in relation to HIV/AIDS, which would serve as a basis for the development and implementation of demonstration projects.
• A training module on HIV/AIDS for all UN staff.
• Provision of human and financial resources.

Progress was reported on the four focal areas identified at the 17^th meeting of IAAG: promotion of the UN Personnel Policy on HIV/AIDS and monitoring its implementation; harmonizing medical insurance schemes; promoting action at the country level; and awareness raising and training to emphasize prevention.

It was reported that ten countries having a large UN personnel and dependents with high prevalence rates of HIV and available access to care programmes have been identified to participate in demonstration projects: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, India/Cambodia, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The projects have an acronym – ACTION – which stands for Access, Care, Treatment and Inter-Organizational Needs.

The following tasks will be undertaken by the ACTION missions in each selected country:

• Research on facilities of local service providers
• Training of health and management personnel
• Improvement of inter-agency cooperation and coordination based on common policy and best practice
• Addressing confidentiality issues
• Working in partnership with staff regarding their rights and entitlements, with particular reference to insurance coverage.

FICSA welcomes the new action-orientation to HIV/AIDS issues in the UN workplace. The Federation proposed a resolution related to health insurance coverage for short-term staff affected by HIV and this was accepted.

IAAG also discussed the broad spectrum of issues related to HIV/AIDS and security, including the vulnerability of girls/women, gender inequality, sexual violence, insecurity related to poverty, mobility, food insecurity, shelter, economic crisis, social turmoil, armed conflict and natural disasters. The need for further work to define the relationships between these issues and HIV/AIDS and to delineate specific action was noted.

The Task Force on HIV/AIDS in the UN Workplace will meet in videoconference on 17 June. This will give FICSA an opportunity to follow up on the recommendations made at the IAAG session.