IOM has launched a US$2 million, three-year initiative to foster a regional partnership on HIV and AIDS in mobile populations in Southern Africa (PHAMSA).

The project, funded by the European Union, through the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), aims to increase access to services and programmes for mobile populations such as migrant workers.

The initiative will include assessments and research across the region, which has some of the highest HIV infection rates in the world, as well as raising public awareness of the vulnerability and needs of groups on the move.

Working with governments, employers, unions and NGO’s, the scheme will advocate improved access for migrants and mobile populations, irrespective of their status, to prevention and care programmes in the SADC region*.

PHAMSA was partly conceived from two research reports produced by IOM Pretoria in 2003. These suggested that large migrant and mobile populations in the SADC region may be more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS than static populations.

Mobile groups can be subject to discrimination, xenophobia, exploitation and harassment, and often enjoy scant legal or social protection in host communities.

They may also have very little access to HIV information, health services or means of AIDS prevention, such as condoms or treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), because of their status or mobility. Mobile populations can also acquire HIV while on the move, and return home carrying the virus, often unwittingly.

*The 14 SADC countries are: Angola, Botswana, DRC, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

For further information, please contact
Barbara Rijks.
Tel. +27.123422789.
Email: [email protected]