A contribution of USD 6.3 million by the Swedish International
Development Cooperation Agency, Sida, will help boost the second
phase of an IOM programme aimed at reducing HIV incidence and
impact on migrant and mobile workers and their families in the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.

The programme, Partnership on HIV and Mobility in Southern
Africa (PHAMSA), works together with different stakeholders in the
region, including civil society, academia, international
organizations, employer associations, trade unions, governments and
the SADC secretariat, to develop projects and policies targeting
mobile and migrant workers.

The new funding covers three years of activity and will address
the HIV vulnerability of labour migrants in particular. In a region
marked by high economic and environmental uncertainty, in addition
to political instability in some areas, livelihoods in Southern
Africa are based increasingly on mobility. The search for income
opportunities in multiple locations and different economic sectors
is a sound risk-management strategy for many. However, poverty and
exploitation, separation from regular partners and socio-cultural
norms prevalent in stable communities, and a lack of access to HIV
prevention and health care programmes and services make labour
migrants and mobile workers vulnerable to HIV and AIDS.

The next three years will build on the achievements of the first
phase of the programme which ran from 2004 to 2006. A major success
during that period was the increased access to condoms  among
migrant workers on commercial farms in northeastern South Africa.
As a result of this project, the number of male condoms distributed
increased from 200 in 2005 to 92,000 in 2006 and female condoms
from zero to 1100 respectively.  In addition, the requests
from farm workers to go for voluntary counselling and HIV testing
(VCT) went up from 360 people in 2005 to 600 in 2006. These types
of activities will be strengthened and expanded during the second
phase of the programme.

PHAMSA works on four fronts – advocacy for policy
development, research, technical cooperation and regional
coordination and implementation of HIV prevention and care projects
in migrant sending and receiving areas in southern Africa.

The programme focuses on sectors characterized by high levels of
population mobility such as the construction, transport, commercial
agriculture, fishing and mining industries. Mobile and migrant
populations living and working around cross border sites will also
be addressed.

For further information, please contact:

Barbara Rijks

IOM Pretoria

Tel +27 12 342 2789

E-mail: brijks@iom.int