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According to Economic Populist and based on reliable data from a company that monitors layoffs, 25 American-based companies were responsible for 700,000 jobs lost during the financial crisis. And the statistics reveal that most of the lost US jobs were caused by outsourcing jobs offshore. 
 
The list of 25 includes a few industrial companies, but the most consisting of tech companies, service-oriented forms, and, of course, financial services. 
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The 25 are: General Motors, 107,357 jobs lost due to outsourcing; Citigroup, 73,056 jobs gone; Hewlett-Packard, 47,540 jobs eliminated due to outsourcing; Circuit City Stores, 41,495 (not attributed to outsourcing); Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, 40,650; Verizon Wireless, 39,000; Pfizer, 31,771; Merck and Co., 24,400. 
 
Lehman Brothers, 23,340; Caterpillar, 23,024; JP Morgan Chase, 22,852; Starbucks, 21,316; AT&amp;T, 18,401; Alcoa Aluminium, 17,655 jobs lost to outsourcing; Dow Chemical, 17,530; Dupont, 17,000; Berkshire Hathaway Capital, 16,900 jobs lost due to unknown reasons; 
 
Ford Motor, 15,912; KB Toys, 15,100; US Postal Service, 15,000; DHL Express USA, 14,900; Sprint Nextel, 14,500; Sun Microsystems, 14,000; Boeing Aviation, 13,715; and Chrysler, 13,672. 
 
Many of these companies demanded US taxpayers&rsquo; dollars in the form of stimulus monies, all the while they were loping jobs.

US: 25 Companies, 700,000 Jobs Lost Due to Outsourcing during Financial Collapse

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A draft report on precarious women workers has been presented to the European Parliament by Danish Social Democratic MEP, Britta Thomsen. 
 
The report expresses disappointment that EU employment law and the directives on fixed-term, part-time, and temporary agency work do not adequately address the precarious nature of employment and calls on the Commission and the Member States to take further specific legislative measures, such as introducing binding minimum social standards for employees and granting all employees equal access to social services and benefits, including maternity leave, health care, and pensions, regardless of their employment conditions. 
 
The report underlines the need for unionisation of women in precarious jobs and calls on the Member States to penalise those who create obstacles to trade union participation. 
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Danish Social Democratic MEP, Britta Thomsen
Member States are encouraged to combat undeclared work by means of preventive measures, such as granting immunity from prosecution to employees who report their illegal employment status and taking dissuasive action against employers. The report further calls on the Commission and the Member States to improve data collection and monitor progress in this field. 
 
The Commission and the Member States are called on to enhance their monitoring of minimum health and safety requirements in the workplace, paying particular attention to the specific risks to female workers. 
 
With regard to migrant workers, the report calls on the Commission, in its new gender equality strategy, to strengthen its commitment to promoting gender equality in migration and integration policies, in particular with a view to fully utilising migrant women&rsquo;s employment potential and encourages employers to take specific measures to facilitate the social integration of women migrant workers. 
 
Attention is drawn to the limited amount of research on the subject of precarious work and the report calls on the Commission and Eurofound to initiate targeted research in order to assess the cost of the de-skilling and welfare loss resulting from precarious employment. 
 
The report will be voted on by members of the European Parliament Committee on Women&rsquo;s Rights and Gender Equality on 10 October 2010.

Draft European Parliament Report on Precarious Women Workers

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At a side meeting in Geneva at the 2010 International Labour Conference of the ILO in June 2010, the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, Professor John Ruggie, requested the ILO&rsquo;s expertise in determining the impact of precarious work on human rights. 
 
In preparing to make operational the 2008, &ldquo;Respect, Remedy, Protect&rdquo; framework, Ruggie is consulting with a wide range of actors, including through an online consultation forum. Ruggie&rsquo;s request to the ILO follows online submissions by the Global Union Federations International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Association (IUF) and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), which both highlighted the fact that CAL and other forms of precarious work are being used to undermine the human rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. 
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John Ruggie
In its submission to the consultations, the IMF&rsquo;s statement said, &ldquo;It is our submission that precarious work threatens the very survival of stable employment and collective bargaining,&rdquo; adding, &ldquo;As with other human rights, exercise of the fundamental enabling rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining is severely constrained by fear. That fear comes from the vulnerability that employers are imposing on workers every day, in developed and developing countries alike, with the explosion of precarious work practices.&rdquo; 
 
Ruggie&rsquo;s &ldquo;Respect, Remedy, Protect&rdquo; framework is based on three pillars: it is a state duty to protect human rights abuses by third parties, including businesses; corporate responsibility to respect human rights; and that there must be greater access by victims to effective remedies, judicial and non-judicial.

UN Human Rights Special Representative Ruggie Seeks ILO Help on Precarious Work

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An agreement has been reached at the Labour Ministry of S&atilde;o Paulo, Brazil, state between BASF and the chemical workers of Guaratinguet&aacute;. The agreement aims to regulate the use of Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) and requires the company to pay the same salary and benefits to agency workers as is paid to permanent, directly-employed workers. Failure to implement the agreement will result a fine of 500 Reales per worker/per day. 
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This Guaratinguet&aacute; plant is the largest BASF entity in Latin America and has about one non-regular worker for each directly employed worker.

Brazilian Social Partners Agree on CAL Regulation at BASF

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The Americas Regional Contract and Agency labour (CAL) conference was held in Recife, Brazil, on 27 June 2010. The conference was attended by ICEM affiliates from Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and Uruguay, as well as by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, the ICEM Vice-President for Latin America, Sergio Novais, the ICEM Women&rsquo;s Officer and Latin America Contact Person, Carol Bruce, and Ashling Seely, the Global CAL Project Coordinator. 
 
Affiliates at the conference spoke about how CAL is being used to undermine freedom of association, for example with Sintracarb&oacute;n in Colombia, the ICEM&rsquo;s Mine Workers&rsquo; affiliate. Representatives from that union told how trade union activists are being transferred from permanent positions into what are known as &ldquo;rubbish contracts.&rdquo; 
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CAL Project Coordinator for Latin America - Rosane Sasse
Another ICEM affiliate, Sintravidricol, the Colombian Glass Workers&rsquo; Union, spoke about how workers at Owen-Illinois are being dismissed and replaced by agency workers. Affiliates also spoke about the problems of triangular employment relationships, with CAL workers not being clear on who is ultimately responsible for their working conditions. 
 
Participants exchanged information on the increasing efforts being made to halt the outsourcing of employment and abusive use of short-term contracts. For example, the Union of Rubber Workers of S&atilde;o Paulo, representing 26,000 workers, is attempting to negotiate a collective agreement clause prohibiting outsourcing in the manufacturing sector. 
 
In Brazil&rsquo;s oil sector, more than two thirds of the workforce is outsourced. The Single Federation of Oil Workers (FUP) has held several debates, regional and national meetings in various regions of the country, to raise awareness of the negative impact of CAL. The umbrella federation of oil workers&rsquo; unions at state-owned Petrobras has also worked with its affiliated organisations to encourage them to restructure in order to improve the full involvement of outsourced workers in their unions. 
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ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda
ICEM&rsquo;s Warda concluded the meeting, saying that governments must be made aware that ILO Conventions apply equally to contract and agency workers, and that, where there are obstacles to full rights for CAL workers, these should be tackled with legal actions. Warda also spoke about the need to work against the practices of the World Bank and the IFC, organisations which are still advising governments that they need to create more &ldquo;flexible&rdquo; labour markets. 
 
Affiliates agreed that the day 28 July would become a day of action on outsourcing.

CAL Regional Conference in Latin America Gathers Important Case Studies

Joseph Toe is ICEM's Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) Project Coordinator for the Sub-Saharan Africa Region. He is a native of Togo.
How prevalent is the issue of Contract and Agency Labour and Precarious Work in Africa? 
 
In some cases, the proportion of temporal workers may reach 80% of the permanent workforce. Deregulation of the labour market has accelerated this process. 
 
What factors have impacted on the use of CAL? 
 
Structural adjustments imposed by the Bretton Woods institutions adversely affecting the institutional employment context at two levels: 
 
&bull; The de-regulation of the labour market and the fact cry that use of labour must become more flexible; and 
&bull; The reduction of trade union participation and the inability of civil society to effectively make its voice heard over anti-social measures advocated by lending institutions. 
The arrival of Asian investors has also disrupted the labour market in Africa and jeopardises previous social gains. 
 
What is the Sub-Saharan African ICEM CAL Project? 
 
The Sub-Saharan African ICEM CAL Project started at the end of February 2009 and covers 8 countries, Guinea, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and South Africa. The selected targeted countries were all identified as nations where the issue of contract and agency labour is wide spread, but also where there are relatively strong trade unions. This means that there are possibilities of carrying out actions to achieve reasonable progress on this issue. 
 
What are the Project Objectives? 
 
The project aims to develop trade union strategies and seek best practices to address contract and agency labour related problems in Sub-Saharan Africa; it seeks to create a coherent regional coordination to address the problem; it advocates for governments to take the relevant initiatives and policies to halt the use of temporal contracts and to regulate private employment agencies; it seeks to carry out high level and specialised regional research; to have trained union negotiators on the issue of rights for contract and agency workers; to build the organisational capacities of the leadership in CAL campaigns; and to create a network for information- and experience-sharing of ICEM affiliates on the issue across the region. 
 
The training is based on a number of simple and practical tools designed from examples taken from around the world. At the end of each session, a plan of action is developed on the future actions to be carried out at the national level in synergy with other GUFs&rsquo; affiliates, and guidelines are defined to be included in the ICEM Global Campaign on CAL. In order to implement the national plan, a monitoring mechanism, which is part of the plan of action is defined, and the officers in charge of its implementation are appointed. 
 
Trade union action is indispensable to neutralising the development of outsourcing and temporal employment, particularly as it is crosscuts and affects all trade and industrial sectors. Sub-Saharan African countries are seriously affected by this problem and are reacting in order to stem and/or reduce the adverse effects. The Sub-Saharan African ICEM CAL Project also encourages and assists unions in: 
 
&bull; Building trade union organising and negotiating capacity; 
 
&bull; Institutionalising sector-based negotiations and reinforcing trade union unity of action, which is necessary to combat outsourcing, labour brokering, and contract agencies. It fights for the regulation of employment agencies and recourse to outsource, and to be involved in that redress process; 
 
&bull; Reinforcing solidarity between temporary and permanent workers; 
 
&bull; Training those who organise temporary workers; 
 
&bull; Negotiating collective agreements which include clauses on the systematic recourse to outsource and use casual labour with regard to the improvement of the working conditions and the reduction of the consequences of casual labour; 
 
&bull; Campaigns for the transformation of casual labour into permanent employment; 
 
&bull; Develops strategies for CAL workers, with the emphasis on decent work and inclusion of gender and race in those strategies; 
 
&bull; Organising campaigns and lobbying at national and international levels against casual labour, and developing plans of action aimed at ridding this phenomenon in the Export Processing Zones (EPZ); 
 
&bull; Carrying out studies on the consequences of outsourcing and contract labour agencies within the context of worsening disparities and inequalities of the social strata. This means addressing the Millennium Development Goals 2015, the 2007&ndash;2015 Decent Work Agenda in Africa; the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), Sustainable Human Development Programme, and the Tripartite and Social Dialogue Principles which serve as the basis of ILO. 
 
Casual employment affects positive labour values, which develop, distinguish, and socialise the human being.

Interview: Joseph Toe, CAL Project Coordinator, Sub-Saharan Africa Region

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The International Trade Union Congress (ITUC) today launched the third and final stage of a new Youth Campaign. The campaign video was released 18 March, and that can be seen <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWvuOqCEU9U">here</a>. 
 
On 19 March, the campaign blog and brochure were released, so visit the blog <a href="http://youth.ituc-csi.org/ITUC-launches-Youth-Campaign-STEP,224 ">here</a> and view the brochure <a href="http://youth.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/Youth_EN_Final.pdf">here</a>. 
 
The Youth Blog has been redesigned and modernised, with new functionalities such as Facebook and Twitter. The brochure is a best practice guide on organising young people, informing young people about trade union work at the global, as well as national level. 

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The ITUC calls on supporters to redistribute the materials of its Youth Campaign, and to share the video and become involved via online social networking platforms. For hard copies of the brochure, contact the ITUC here <a href="mailto:youth@ituc-csi.org">youth@ituc-csi.org</a>. 
 
The various tools made available through this campaign are of valuable use for trade unions throughout the world in order to complement their existing organising work for new young members. The tools will especially assist unions in illustrating the international side of their work. 
 
Today, the new Youth Campaign website will be made available online. Visit the page <a href="http://www.changetheworld-now.com/ ">here</a>.

ITUC Launches Youth Campaign

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The International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) is calling on the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers&rsquo; and Exporters&rsquo; Association (BGMEA), as well as sourcing companies that use the Garib &amp; Garib knitwear factory in Gazipur, Bangladesh, to better compensate the families of 22 workers killed and 50 others injured in a factory fire on 25 February. 
 
The ITGLWF is demanding that the BGMEA and multinational sourcing companies join the Global Union Federation in setting up a relief scheme that fully meets the needs of families of the deceased, as well as those injured at Garib &amp; Garib in Gazipur, some 30 kilometres outside of Dhaka. 
 
To date, the BGMEA has stepped forward with payment of 200,000 taka (&euro;2,085) to each family, while owners of the Garib &amp; Garib have given a mere pittance to families to cover funeral expenses &ndash; 2,085 taka (&euro;150). 

<img src="" width="132" height="174" alt="" />
Left, ITGLWF General Secretary, Patrick Itschert
Said ITGLWF General Secretary Patrick Itschert, &ldquo;The establishment of a multi-stakeholder team to determine the needs of those affected, on the basis of field research into the demographics of the victims&rdquo; is essential for fairness. &ldquo;Involving the (BGMEA) in this exercise in particular is an important means of making them aware of the level of compensation necessary to assist families in such circumstances,&rdquo; he added. 
 
The ITGLWF is offering to hold a round-table meeting in Dhaka with the employers&rsquo; association and the brand names to implement the compensation scheme. The union federation said that in 2005, following the collapse of the nine-story Spectrum garment factory that killed 64 and seriously injured 84 others in Savar, Bangladesh, ITGLWF and Spanish retailer Inditex established a compensation protocol that could serve as the model for victims and workers of Garib &amp; Garib. 
 
To date, only H&amp;M of Sweden and Teddy SpA (Terranova) of Italy have confirmed they source from Garib &amp; Garib, but neither company has yet to announce its compensation to victims. 
 
In the evening of 25 February, an electric short-circuit on the second floor of the factory caused a fire, trapping workers because stairwells were blocked by goods and production materials. Many of the workers retreated up several flights of stairs, where they were consumed by rising black smoke and heat. Reportedly, security guards on duty did not know how to operate fire extinguishers and water hydrants. Of the 22 victims, 15 were women. 
 
Only seven months before, in August 2009, another fire at the Garib &amp; Garib factory in Gazipur killed a firefighter and injured seven workers.

ITGLWF Demands Proper Pay Protocol in Aftermath of Deadly Bangladesh Apparel Fire

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The latest in a series of Caspian Sea Oil &amp; Gas Workers&rsquo; Network meetings took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 22-23 February, again with support fro the German Friedrich-Ebert Foundation (FES). FES&rsquo;s local representative in Baku, Rashad Huseynli, actively participating in the event. 
 
Lars Myhre, chair of ICEM&rsquo;s Energy Industries Section and a founder of Norwegian affiliate Industri Energi (IE), again headed this year&rsquo;s discussions. IE has played a strong role in the network since its inception and has carried out extensive bilateral programmes and exchanges with the host union, the Oil and Gas Workers Union of Azerbaijan. 

<img alt="" src="" width="280" height="174" />
Some of the participants at the Caspian Workers&rsquo; Network 
Delegates attending came from the Russia Oil &amp; Gas Workers&rsquo; Union (ROGWU), led by President Lev Mironov, and included representatives from the trade union structures of both Gazprom and Rosneft. The host union delegation, led by President Jahangir Aliev, included a representative from the Lukoil trade union in Azerbaijan, as well as the newly-elected chairman of the trade union branch at the Caspian Shipyard Company. 
 
Workers here had seen the success of oil workers&rsquo; organising at various contract company operations and began organising themselves. The union is the latest branch structure to affiliate to the Oil and Gas Workers&rsquo; Union of Azerbaijan, which has successfully organised over 400 of the 650 workers at the shipyard. Apologies for absence were received from ICEM affiliates Petrol-Iş of Turkey and the Oil Workers of Kazakhstan, active members of the network. Both unions were unable to attend because of important meetings in their respective countries. 
 
After an opening session and delegate introductions, updates were given on ICEM activities in Eastern Europe/Central Asia by ICEM Regional Coordinator Anatoly Surin. Jim Catterson, ICEM&rsquo;s Energy Industries Officer, gave an overview of the oil and gas sectors globally. Delegates then shared detailed information on the latest situations in their country&rsquo;s energy sectors, covering such issues as organising, terms and conditions of employment, and recent investments by various multinational companies. 

<img alt="" src="" width="290" height="194" />
Front, from left: Oil and Gas Workers&rsquo; Union of Azerbaijan Leader Jahangir Aliyev, ICEM&rsquo;s Anatoly Surin, and Lev Mironov, President of ROGWU 
Lars Myhre gave a detailed presentation on the various agreements that IE has covering Statoil in Norway. 
 
The previous meeting of the Network had formulated a declaration of common social standards to aim for in national negotiations, and this meeting focused on the potential for engaging the multinational companies operating in the Caspian region in a regional social dialog forum. Detailed presentations covering their operations in the Caspian were given by management representatives of both Statoil of Norway and SOCAR, the state-owned company of Azerbaijan that is in the process of expanding regionally, having recently purchased a refinery in Turkey. Both presentations led to lively question and answer sessions. 
 
After a general presentation by Jim Catterson on ICEM activities regarding Social Dialog including Global Framework Agreements (GFAs), presentations were made by Myhre and Lev Mironov on the GFAs that ICEM has with Statoil and Lukoil. 
 
In conclusion, delegates emphasized that the meeting had been extremely useful and had led to a considerable exchange of valuable information. It was time, however, to make the work of the Network more comprehensive and to ensure an effective information exchange occurs between network meetings. 
 
With this in mind, ICEM was asked to create a section of the ICEM website which would initially include the background material and presentations made at the meeting, as well as a report on the discussions. ICEM would also circulate a questionnaire asking all network members to detail the companies that operate in their section of the Caspian and give information on workforce numbers, trade union organization, and terms and conditions of employment. 
 
The results of the questionnaire would also be published. The study would also give a basis as to which companies to approach in order to establish routine social dialog at this regional level. Since ROGWU is considering introducing a system of video-conferencing for routine communication with regions across the Russian Federation, ICEM will also explore the use of this technology for more frequent exchanges. 
 
The work of the Caspian Sea Oil &amp; Gas Workers&rsquo; Network will also form part of the agenda of the forthcoming ICEM World Conference for the Energy Industries, to be held in Stavanger, Norway, from 6-8 September.

Energy Workers’ Network of Caspian Meets in Baku

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In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we inform about the union action for universal access in the run-up to the G8/G20 summits in Canada and give an overview of the activities planned in sub-Saharan Africa in 2010. 
 
The ICEM Calls on its Affiliates to Contribute to this e-bulletin 
 
ICEM affiliates are engaged in a wide range of HIV/AIDS activities. To spread the information on new agreements, awareness, and prevention campaigns, and educational activities, affiliates and project coordinators are invited to send news and information to <a href="mailto:hiv.aids@icem.org">hiv.aids@icem.org</a>. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome. 
<img alt="" src="" width="40" height="40" />
G8/G20: Union Action for Universal Access to HIV/AIDS Services 
 
Trade unions in Africa and all over the world have joined forces to lobby the G8 and G20 for the provision of universal access to HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support. The lobbying is spearheaded by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and the Africa Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). 
 
National trade union centres in Africa and elsewhere have delivered messages to the Canadian embassies in their country calling on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to play a leading role in convincing his fellow leaders to take quick and decisive action on HIV and AIDS. As the host country, Canada will preside over the G8 Summit in June and will co-host with South Korea the G20 Summit. 
 
The Global Union AIDS Programme has called on its membership to participate in this global campaign. The ICEM has delivered a letter to the Canadian mission in Geneva strongly urging that the G8 put forward an action plan to achieve its promises regarding universal access and calling on the Summits to support the ILO Decent Work Agenda and its Global Jobs Pact. 
 
It may be recalled that 2010 is the target year for the G8 commitment to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support made at the 2005 Summit in Gleneagles. The failure to achieve this is evident; not even half of the ten million people who need treatment are actually on it. 

<img alt="" src="" width="40" height="40" />
ICEM HIV/AIDS Project in Sub-Saharan Africa 
 
Planning was completed last month for the HIV/AIDS project in Sub-Saharan Africa with the sponsorship of SASK Finland and FNV Mondiaal of the Netherlands. 
 
Activities in 2010 will include two sub-regional workshops to strengthen the workplace response to HIV and AIDS in Anglophone and Francophone West Africa and in Southern Africa in September and October. A further workshop in May will be exclusively for women from the Southern African sub-region. 
 
At the national level, countries have submitted programmes which put emphasis on campaigns for voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) and include further training of peer educators and counselors. In Guinea (Conakry) and C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire, training will be completed in new target companies and HIV/AIDS workplace policies are expected to be concluded. VCT campaigns will be initiated in Guinea and continue in C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire. 
 
Ghana has drawn lessons from the regional workshop in November 2009 and included a VCT campaign and a workshop on collective bargaining in its programme. As a new project country, Mauritius will concentrate its efforts on widespread awareness campaigns at the workplace and address the issue of migrant workers and local and foreign sex workers. 
 
The well-established programme in Nigeria will expand its scope to training women as peer educators. Sierra Leone will draw on trained workers and its collaboration with the National AIDS Secretariat to run VCT campaigns in mining areas. 
 
A well-designed programme in Zambia will deal with peer education, VCT campaigns and collective bargaining issues. Uganda will undertake, among others, a revision of existing collective bargaining agreements to include HIV/AIDS clauses. In Tanzania, workshops will prepare a VCT campaign sponsored by the Women&rsquo;s Department of the German IGBCE. 

<img alt="" src="" width="40" height="40" />
AIDS a Key Cause of Female Death 
 
HIV and AIDS have become the leading causes of disease and death among women of reproductive age worldwide, UNAIDS said at the launch of a five-year action plan addressing the gender issues which put women at risk. 
 
Nearly 30 years from the beginning of the epidemic, HIV services still do not respond to the specific needs of women and girls. Up to 70% of women worldwide encounter violence. Experiencing violence hampers their ability to negotiate safe sex. 
 
UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidib&eacute; pointed out that &ldquo;by robbing women of their dignity we are losing the opportunity to tap half the potential of mankind to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Women and girls are not victims; they are the driving force that brings about social transformation.&rdquo; 
 
Of the 33.4 million people living with HIV worldwide, 15.7 million &ndash; or almost half &ndash; are women. The proportion of women infected with HIV has risen in many regions; in Sub-Saharan Africa, it has reached 60%. In Southern Africa, HIV prevalence among young women aged 15 to 24 years is almost three times higher than among men of the same age group. 
 
(Source: UNAIDS website and BBC News, 3 March) 

<img alt="" src="" width="40" height="40" />
South Africa: Launches Massive HIV Testing Campaign 
 
From 15 April, everyone attending a clinic or hospital in South Africa will be offered an HIV test, regardless of whether they have symptoms of the disease or not. Patients have the option to refuse the test. 
 
Dubbed the HIV Counselling and Testing Campaign, or HCT, this is the most ambitious HIV testing campaign in the world, according to the SA National AIDS Council (SANAC). The target is to have 15 million South Africans tested for HIV by June 2011. 
 
The campaign has four objectives: to increase health-seeking behaviour; to encourage people to know their status; to equip those who test HIV-negative with ways to ensuring that they do not get infected; and to create an entry point to accessing wellness and treatment services for those who test HIV-positive. 
 
(Source: <a href="http://www.health-e.org.za">www.health-e.org.za</a>, 18 March) 
<img alt="" src="" width="40" height="40" />
Malawi: Ambitious Plan to Prolong Life 
 
Malawi&rsquo;s government announced plans to more than double the number of people receiving antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to half a million by the end of 2010. 
 
The country recently adopted new World Health Organisation guidelines that raise the threshold for starting ARV therapy from a CD4 count (a measure of the immune system strength) of less than 200 to a CD4 count of 350, regardless of whether the patient is displaying symptoms. 
 
Although implementing the changes will be expensive, some experts argue that starting patients on ARVs earlier could actually save money in the long term by reducing the need to treat them for opportunistic infections such as tuberculosis. 
 
Malawi successfully utilised its Global Fund Round 1 grant and was awarded a grant under the rolling continuation channel, which extends funding for six years and which can be used for the expansion of treatment. 
 
(Source: IRIN plusnews, 19 March) 

<img alt="" src="" width="40" height="40" />
Global Funds Seeks $17-20 Billion from Donors for 2011-2013 
 
Mother-to-child HIV transmission may be eliminated by 2015; malaria may be eliminated as a public health problem within a decade; TB prevalence could be halved by 2015. However, these health targets can only be achieved if current rates of scaling up expenditure on the three diseases are maintained and, ideally, further accelerated. And that, in turn, requires donors to give the Global Fund between $17 billion and $20 billion during 2011-2013. 
 
This is what the Global Fund announced in a news release and in several documents released in preparation for upcoming &quot;replenishment&quot; meetings with donors. The Global Fund says that demand for donor support has more than doubled since the last replenishment in 2007 (which raised $10 billion for the period 2008-2010). 
 
An initial replenishment meeting was held on 24-25 March at The Hague, Netherlands. This meeting provided an opportunity for donors to discuss the Fund's financial needs for 2011-2013 and the results achieved by the Global Fund to date. The meeting laid the foundation for the pledging conference that will take place at the UN Headquarters in New York on 4-5 October 2010. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 117 of 18 March. GFO is a free service of Aidspan, <a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>; to receive GFO send an email to 
<a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>) 
<img alt="" src="" width="40" height="40" />
News from Global Union AIDS Programme 
 
At the meeting of the Steering Committee of the Global Union AIDS Programme (GUAP) in Brussels on 17 March, Jan Eastman was appointed Chair of the Programme. Jan is the Deputy General Secretary of Education International (EI), a Global Union Federation. She took over from Alan Leather who had been the Chair since the inception of the Programme. 
 
The Steering Committee reviewed its activities, received reports from Global Unions, and charted its input for major campaigns and events in 2010, such as ILO&rsquo;s International Labour Conference in June, with the second discussion of a new instrument on HIV/AIDS and the world of work, and the International AIDS Conference in Vienna in July. 
<img alt="" src="" width="40" height="40" />
This ICEM HIV-AIDS Newsletter &ndash; How to Subscribe 
 
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, send an email to <a href="mailto:press@icem.org">press@icem.org</a>. Please put &ldquo;subscribe ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin&rdquo; in the subject line.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 55, April 2010

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