Zambian businesses grapple with AIDS

Reality is dawning on companies in Zambia: Unless they initiate effective policies to combat HIV/AIDS, they risk seeing their workforces wiped out. “The devastating effect of HIV/AIDS on the corporation’s human resources is a great concern,” says Ms. Chileshe Kapwepwe, managing director of the National Airports Corporation Limited (NACL), a public enterprise overseeing Zambia’s airports. An increasing number of employees are dying, she notes, including the company’s most “skilled, experienced and productive.” And as a result, the NACL has joined a growing number of in lost labour time, compensation for sick and dying workers and their survivors, and higher training costs for the many new workers who must be hired.