HIV/AIDS Specialist in the International Labour Organization (ILO) Sub-regional Office for the Caribbean in Trinidad, Madhuri Supersad, was on Anguilla during the past week conducting a workshop on Formulating and Implementing an HIV/AIDS Workplace Policy.

Workshop participants

In an exclusive interview with The Anguillian, Supersad disclosed that the meeting was to assist the necessary persons in Anguilla to develop a National Policy and an implementation plan to accompany that policy. She said the global experience was that several countries and many workplaces had policies that Human Resources Departments possibly developed, but these policies were not inclusive and were not implemented. She opined that the reason for this was that the workers and other stakeholders had not been a part of the documents’ development process.

Ms. Supersad commented that after all the hard work, “nothing else is done; it never moves forward.” She added that even when stakeholders were included, the policy “still sits on the shelf because nobody has taken the time to develop a plan of action, or an implementation plan, and allocate resources to implement that policy.”
To combat the issue of the non-implementation of an HIV/AIDS Workplace Policy, the ILO technocrat developed a Skills-Building Workshop for developing a policy that includes all the major stakeholders.

Supersad stated that the local stakeholders would work, with ILO guidance, to develop a National Policy and a Plan of Action to accompany the policy. She admitted that the Plan of Action was usually only unsuccessful if a responsible person to oversee its implementation, and finances, were not available. She said experience had taught that it was not wise to develop “an ambitious Plan of Action,” but work on a one-year Plan that was realistic given the human and financial resources at hand as well as the level of interest and commitment.

The two-day ILO-run workshop began on Tuesday August 25 with an Opening Ceremony chaired by Gillian Wallace. It included remarks by Labour Commissioner Russel Reid, Madhuri Supersad and Permanent Secretary Social Development Bonnie Richardson-Lake. The workshop involved a wide cross-section of persons from Government, NGOs and the private sector. Ms. Supersad expected that the gathering would develop the attendees’ capacity to develop and finalize an HIV/AIDS National Policy and Action Plan so that every workplace could use the same approach and methodology to develop other policies on HIV and AIDS as they relate to work.

Ms. Supersad

At the end of the sessions, participants received a learning contract indicating ILO's commitment to provide, over the next three months, technical support for the policy development process. Supersad said the contract only required the group to undertake three activities over the next three months. She promised that her organization would follow up and provide assistance.

This was the HIV/AIDS Specialist’s first visit to Anguilla. The ILO Sub-regional Office serves the Dutch and English-speaking Caribbean countries and Overseas Territories.

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