A meeting yesterday of the Southern African Hospitality Association (SAHA) representing national hospitality associations in Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Botswana highlighted the devastating impact the disease is already having on the hospitality workforce in the region, and concluded the industry must respond. 

�It is now accepted that business in the region not only has a responsibility but also an incentive to tackle Aids in the workplace,� said Willem Fick, executive director of FEDHASA. �It can no longer be regarded as a problem �out there�.  It�s impact on businesses here is a 
reality which cannot be avoided.�  The issue�s move up the industry agenda coincides with the 11th Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmissible Diseases held in Lusaka, Zambia last month, which revealed that the disease is more than a health disaster for Africa, where it 
kills 2 million people a year and infects 4 million others.  It is threatening Africa�s social cohesion, economic development and population equilibrium. 

In the first initiative of its kind within the Southern African hospitality industry, FEDHASA has agreed to widely distribute a recent IH&RA publication, �The Challenge of HIV/Aids in the Workplace: a Guide for the Hospitality Industry�, aimed at informing and educating the 
sector world-wide on the implications of the HIV/Aids epidemic. 

Co-produced this year with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAIDS), the guide was developed specifically to address the needs of the hospitality industry, and provide practical information to enable hotels and restaurants of all sizes to develop HIV/Aids policies and awareness programmes. 

�Given the scale of the impact of HIV/Aids in Africa, we feel it is vital to work with FEDHASA to disseminate this information throughout the region�s hospitality industry,� said IH&RA chief executive Michael Nowlis.  �The guide is generic, although cultural specificity can be taken into account through the addition of annexes, and the IH&RA is foregoing all copyrights on its reproduction.� 

The manual features examples of �best practice� company policies on HIV/Aids and provides answers to common questions about the disease that arise in the hospitality work environment, such as the risks of staff becoming infected in the course of work-related tasks and how to avoid them. It also supplies contact details for international and regional organisations that can offer assistance and information. 

The guide outlines steps that can be taken in three action areas aimed at creating a responsive workplace: 

• Creating an HIV policy for business
• Providing HIV prevention education in the workplace, and
• Putting in place fair employment practices.

The manual was put together from 1997-99 by a working group led by William Black, general manager of The Regent, Bangkok and one of the founders of the Thailand Business Coalition against Aids, which co-sponsored the guide and is actively promoting its distribution in 
Asia-Pacific.  It is hoped it will act as a catalyst to action by similar groups in Southern Africa such as the Zambia-wide Business Coalition on HIV/Aids, launched last month in conjunction with the international conference. 

The guide has been produced as part of the IH&RA�s �Visioning the Future� programme, which helps hospitality professionals identify, analyse and confront the key issues and trends which impact the industry.  An IH&RA Think-Tank on Human Resources, held in South Africa in June this year, drew attention to the escalating impact of AIDS on business, with companies facing rising costs associated with sick leave, health care, the replacement of deceased employees, and absenteeism for funeral leave.