Millions (of private sector employees) at a time

In theory, now that I’m not working at AFFORD any more, I’m supposed to be sitting full-time at HCP, supporting HCP, Stop Malaria, and HIPS out of one office with one laptop and one reliable email address. But, theories are just theories until proven otherwise, and this one has been proven otherwise. Flexibility is the name of the game in the development world.

The Communication Advisor for HIPS recently moved to Tanzania, so I’ve been filling in for her the last few weeks while we recruit her replacement, spending two days/week at the HIPS office overseeing the training team and trying for dear life to keep things running smoothly without anyone noticing that I haven’t the slightest idea what I’m doing. This is only partially true. I think I’ve managed to strike a balance between lost puppy dog and managerial competence, however unfounded the latter. Current and future employers, kindly strike that statement from the record.

HIPS, or Health Initiatives for the Private Sector, works in collaboration with some of the biggest Ugandan companies, such as Finlays tea plantations, Nile Breweries, Tullow Oil, and others to design and implement comprehensive workplace programs in the areas of HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, family planning, and orphans and vulnerable children. A public-private partnership project, if you will. HIPS is usually able to get close to a 1:1 match between what the project puts in and what the company contributes…any funder’s dream.

We have a number of activities that companies can choose to roll out with their employees, employees' dependents, and the surrounding community, including but not limited to developing HIV/AIDS and TB policies for the workplace, training peer educators, or conducting lunch time outreach sessions, health fairs, and community videos. HIPS also works to expand the number of qualified and accredited private sector health centers providers, and extend their service delivery network not just to employees, but the larger community.

One of the things I love most about HIPS is their no-nonsense commitment to leverage what’s already been done. Rather than reinventing the wheel, they adapt already existing materials and communication approaches to the private sector workplace context. Everything moves a lot faster. And most of the materials are things I’ve helped develop through other projects, so it’s encouraging to see them disseminated more widely.

There’s always a capacity building piece to these projects, so that they’re sustainable after the life of the project, and HIPS is no exception. They work closely with the Federation of Ugandan Employers (FUE) and Uganda Manufacturers Association (UMA) to strengthen their ability to roll out workplace health programs.

Got to give credit where credit’s due…partners on HIPS include the Emerging Markets Group (EMG), CCP, Mildmay Centre and O’Brien and Associates International, Straight Talk Foundation, and the ever popular Uganda Health Marketing Group.

My relatively intense role on the project these days involves trying to accomplish in 2 days what one is supposed to have 5 to do. Lots of liaising with subcontractors and meetings and phone calls and negotiations and budgets and emails and management-y as opposed to technical things. Once we get someone with actual management experience on board, I’ll resume my technical assistance role from the comforts of my one office with my one laptop and my one reliable email address. In the meantime? I’ll keep faking it ;-)