How does HIV affect the Environmental Impact Assessment process? |12 December 2014

This was the main topic of discussion at a recent workshop on ‘Mainstreaming HIV/health and gender-related issues into the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process’.

Organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the workshop was conducted by Bryony Walmsley from the Southern African Institute for Environmental Assessment and Lakew Berhanu, a biodiversity conservation expert.

Seychelles is among eight other countries of Sub-Saharan Africa who showed interest in this project.
The aim and objectives of this meeting, held at the Savoy Resort and Spa, was to introduce the regional project or strengthening the integration of HIV and gender related issues into the EIA process whenever a new project starts.

“This workshop is part of a UNDP regional project that aims at advocating and providing the needed skills and tools in mainstreaming health, HIV and gender into EIAs in Eastern and Southern African region. Studies conducted in the Africa region have shown that health, including HIV/Aids and gender issues are seldom given adequate consideration in EIA. For those countries that gave some attention to these issues, mitigation measures are often weak or not implemented nor monitored. The main objective of this working session is to come up with concrete recommendations for Seychelles on a holistic approach which will ensure that health, HIV and gender issues are given their due consideration in national infrastructure development and the EIA processes,” noted Dr Cornelia Atsyor, World Health Organisation (WHO) liaison officer for Seychelles.

In her opening remarks, Dr Anne Gabriel, chief executive of the National Aids Council, said: “There is growing evidence that links the trend of large infrastructure development with migration of large numbers of male and female sex workers. We agree: we need development, but we also need to take advantage of the current infrastructure boom to invest in the health and HIV needs of migrant workers through a more investigative strategy. The government is concerned about the rising silent epidemic of HIV and hepatitis C as well as rising numbers of people with hypertension, diabetes, cancers and injuries. Although EIAs are conducted for most large projects in Seychelles, issues of health are rarely unpacked in the detail that allows for evidence informed mitigation measures to be implemented and monitored. This could possibly be due to capacity challenges. Any future EIA should have a strong health social impact assessment component and a focus on migrant workers and access to services by key populations. Capacities for reviewing the social components of EIAs (both within the ministry and also with external reviewers) present practical challenges.”

Dr Gabriel further remarked that the Ministry of Labour has already reviewed its HIV workplace policy as well as occupational health and safety policy are under development and will be useful for the EIA project in terms of alignment, implementation and monitoring.

The new national employment policy of Seychelles however includes issues of HIV and health in line with ILO (International Labour Organisation) requirements. The Public Health Authority officers inspect the living quarters of construction workers/hotels routinely, however, and follow up on hygiene and not necessarily those of HIV.

“It is envisaged that the recommendations will complement existing policy and law reviews and more importantly improve developmental policy and planning by addressing the direct linkages between development and its three-fold impact on society, environment and economy,” she said.

Ms Walmsley gave an overview of the UNDP project and its current status.  “We are right now in the first phase of the project and it will help create a shared understanding of the linkages between capital development projects and the spread of communicable diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis and other STIs (sexually transmitted infections). Evidence based studies show linkages between HIV and large capital projects. Results show that there is an increase in HIV with construction projects. The migrants dilemmas are there are barriers to access the health services due to language, cost, and cultural, administrative and irregular status problems. There are additional challenges for small islands due to the small population. As Seychelles is highly reliable on tourism, there is a need to boost the confidence of visitors by providing assurance that HIV is being addressed in all spheres of government.”

To note that in 2012, results showed that there are 4,231 new infections per day in Sub Saharan Africa (24% in South Africa alone) and which causes 3,170 deaths per day.