UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, estimates that 33.2 million people are infected with HIV and that 2.1 million people died of AIDS in 2007 (Report on the global AIDS epidemic 2007). The ILO has estimated that globally as many as 36.5 million persons who are engaged in some form of productive activity are HIV-positive, with long-term consequences for labour supply, productivity, economic growth and the transfer of skills to the next generation (ILO, Global estimates, impact and response 2004). Food security is a particular concern as the overwhelming majority of those affected are in developing countries, many of them in the informal rural economy. FAO estimates that from 1985 to 2000 in the 25 most affected countries in Africa, 7 million agricultural workers died from AIDS and 16 million more are likely to die over the next 20 years. In the twelve most affected African countries, the losses to the agricultural labour force range from 10 to 26 percent. Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique are expected to lose more than 20 percent of this labour force by 2020.

Despite the fact that up to 80 percent of the people in the most affected countries depend on agriculture for their subsistence, the response to the epidemic has been slow to address this sector. It is vital that concerted efforts are made to help the agricultural sector revise the content and delivery of its services, as well as the process of transferring agricultural knowledge, and promote agricultural technologies that are appropriate to the actual skills and ability of the labour force.

FAO and ILO have collaborated to create HIV/AIDS awareness at local and national levels targeting the state, trade unions, employers, agricultural workers and other stakeholders. For example, the Joint UN Team on AIDS in Moldova, in which ILO and FAO are involved, provides support to national AIDS authorities to develop capacity in the identification and solution of problems in the implementation of initiatives, and in linking global-level problem-solving mechanisms and regional technical support facilities. FAO and other UN system agencies draw on the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work to ensure the protection of the rights of workers in all sectors and the promotion of workplace policies and programmes.

In 2005 FAO, ILO and others were partners in a multinational research project in West and East Africa. The project "Impact evaluation of a nutrition intervention within a comprehensive antiretroviral treatment (ART) care package (INIPSA)", aimed at documenting the impact of nutritional interventions as part of HIV treatment, including the ability of people treated to return to work.

Contacts

FAO Focal Point: Gabriel Rugalema, ESWD (gabriel.rugalema@fao.org)