The 2008 Pan-African Business Coalition Conference

20-22 May 2008

HIV/Aids is possibly the greatest developmental, social, medical and ethical challenge facing our future on the African continent.

In 2005, Standard Bank supported the formation of a Pan African Business Coalition (PABC) – a grouping of sub-Saharan African Business Coalitions [on HIV/Aids, as well as malaria and tuberculosis] created to leverage
members’ experiences as well as potentially coordinate cross-border donor funded projects.

A major gathering of business leaders from across Africa took place recently in Johannesburg, when critical issues around the private sector’s engagement with the HIV/Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis pandemics were addressed.

At the Conference, Africa’s business sector represented by Business Coalitions (BCs) from countries across Africa, formalised the Pan African Business Coalition (PABC) into a legal entity.

The PABC on HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria will now further leverage the private sector’s collective effort in tackling these pandemics at country level, and across borders at a continental level.

Sponsors of the 2008 PABC Conference were Standard Bank, the GTZ, the Global Business Coalition (GBC) and the South African Business Coalition on HIV/Aids (SABCOHA).

Standard Bank is a founder member of SABCOHA and an award-winning member of the Global Business Coalition (GBC). The bank is a member of the Business Coalitions (BCs) in all the countries in which it operates.

In 2006, Standard Bank joined the New York-based Global Business Coalition (GBC) on HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The GBC is an alliance of over 200 companies dedicated to combating the HIV epidemic (as well as malaria and tuberculosis) at local, national and international levels. It functions as a forum for the sharing of information and experience on best-practice workplace programmes, on new medical management approaches and HIV-related business strategies, and on how different nations and regions are addressing these challenges.