چکیده (انگلیسی):

Background: The purpose of the study was to determine institutional support mechanisms of workplace HIV and AIDS Information, Education and Communication (IEC) programmes of hospitality facilities in Botswana. Effective implementation of the programme required that organisations support their programmes with HIV and AIDS IEC policy, develop internal and external support mechanisms as well as training support for the programmes. Methods: This study adopted the explanatory sequential mixed methods research design. Data was captured using structured questionnaires and fact-to-face interview guide. Quantitative sample comprised 50 hospitality facilities represented by the heads of HIV and AIDS programmes while qualitative sample was 25, determined through saturation. A mixed data analysis method was used for this study. Descriptive statistics was used to capture the distribution of categories of hospitality facilities while informants’ responses were captured in both the frequency and percentages. Inferential statistics was used to make meaningful conclusions based on the responses. Pie chart was used to capture the distribution of HIV/AIDS Coordinators by age whereas qualitative analysis adopted the deductive design approach. Results: Sixty two percent (62%, 31/50) of hospitality facilities supported their HIV and AIDS programmes, 64% (32/50) did not have annual budgetary allocations for their programmes, 94% (47/50) did not receive support from either the government or its agencies, and 92% (46/50) of facilities did not receive supports from NGOs, the private sector and other hospitality facilities. Most (57%, 29/50) hospitality facilities organised their HIV and AIDS IEC training at real-time, 62% (31/50) conducted training at full financial cost to their organisations while 52% (26/50) encouraged all levels of staff to attend trainings at least twice a year. Conclusion: Hospitality facilities need to re-engineer their institutional support mechanisms through the development of planned and systematic assistance mechanism with their internal and external environments as well as collaborate with research based institutions as part of the external support mechanism for their HIV and AIDS IEC programmes. The recommendations to the hospitality facilities are that the present practice of full-time and real-time cost IEC training should be sustained and enhanced, develop external support mechanisms for their programmes, and liaise with appropriate government organs to develop necessary workplace HIV and AIDS policies for the sector.