Stigma, social relationship and HIV testing in the workplace : evidence from South Africa

This paper explores whether a worker's unwillingness to make his/her HIV-positive status or test-taking experience known by colleagues impedes his/her decision to test for HIV. After analyzing the new survey data provided by employees working for a large multinational enterprise in South Africa (2009-2010), this study finds that this unwillingness is negatively associated with test-taking (at the enterprise's on-site clinic) of workers who are extensively networked with close colleagues (i.e., know their phone numbers). It appears that the expected disutility associated with HIV/AIDS-related stigma prohibits test uptake. When introducing HIV counseling and testing programs into a corporate sector, providing all workers with an excuse to test in the workplace and/or inducing them to privately test outside the workplace may be effective in encouraging the uptake.

The impact of a computer based adult literacy program on literacy and numeracy : evidence from India

With over 700 million illiterate adults in the world, many governments have implemented adult literacy programs across the world, although typically with low rates of success partly because the quality of teaching is low. One solution may lie in the standardization of teaching provided by computer-aided instruction. We present the first rigorous evidence of the effectiveness of a computer-based adult literacy program. A randomized control trial study of TARA Akshar Plus, an Indian adult literacy program, was implemented in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. We find large, significant impacts of this computer-aided program on literacy and numeracy outcomes. We compare the improvement in learning to that of other traditional adult literacy programs and conclude that TARA Akshar Plus is effective in increasing literacy and numeracy for illiterate adult women.

Impacts of an HIV counseling and testing initiative -- results from an experimental intervention in a large firm in South Africa

We have run experimental interventions to promote HIV tests in a large firm in South Africa. We combined HIV tests with existing medical check programs to increase the uptake. In the foregoing survey we undertook previously, it was suggested that fears and stigma of HIV/AIDS were the primary reasons given by the employees for not taking the test. To counter these, we implemented randomized interventions. We find substantial heterogeneity in responses by ethnicity. Africans and Colored rejected the tests most often. Supportive information increased the uptake by 6 to 16% points. A tradeoff in targeting resulting in stigmatizing the targeted and a reduction of exclusion error is discussed.