Which type of industry does your company work in?
Extractive industry Agri-business Infrastructure Other
Extractive industry Agri-business Infrastructure Other
Impact of Malaria on the Extractive Industry
The extractive industry often sees assets located in remote areas where malaria transmission may be high and health services may be particularly weak or absent. This combination of characteristics means that employees, and local communities may be particularly at risk from malaria. Working practices in the extractive industry can also exacerbate the potential for impact from malaria for example:
- Night-shift workers are commonly used at drilling sites. These workers will be at greater risk of being bitten by evening and night biting malaria vectors.
- Employees often work on rotation meaning both local and international employees may go back and forth between home communities and company assets. The differences in malaria context at these locations can complicate the malaria control needs. For example in Papua New Guinea assets may be located in non-malarious areas but the workforce may travel to malarious home communities on rotation. International staff may work at malarious sites but travel to non-malarious ‘home’ locations where the health service may not be expert at dealing with malaria infections.
- Extractive industry activities could make malaria transmission potential worse by creating mosquito breeding sites.
The economic impact of malaria on companies in the extractive industry may therefore be particularly high. There is also a duty of care towards workers for whom the job raises the risk of malaria infection and there may be a strong social responsibility case for intervening to support malaria control in the local communities. The often long-term engagement in an area strengthens the case for getting involved.
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Impact of Malaria on the Agri-Business Industry
Agro-business activities may often bring employees into closer contact with forest, forest-fringe, or rural malaria vectors than they would normally be.Exacerbating factors can include:
- Some workers may be active in rural locations at dusk or dawn, increasing their chances of contracting malaria.
- Irrigation associated with some agri-businesses may increase the number/size of breeding sites. This will have economic implications on the company but will also bring about a duty of care towards employees brought into greater risk of malaria transmission than would otherwise be the case, and towards local communities if malaria transmission potential is raised by company activities.
There may also be a social responsibility to tackle malaria if it is a major health issue in surrounding communities, particularly given the likelihood that the company will be engaged in an area long-term.
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Impact of Malaria on Infrastructure Industry
The infrastructure industry can encompass a wide range of companies and projects.
Infrastructure development activities have the potential to increase or decrease malaria transmission in various settings. Land may, for example, be drained to support construction work reducing the number/size of breeding sites and lowering malaria transmission potential. Certain vectors however favour temporary pools as breeding sites, and for these species the drainage of permanent water bodies could result in increased vector densities and an upsurge in malaria transmission. In other sites construction may see a proliferation of ‘borrow pits’, which can collect rain water and act as breeding sites for particular mosquito species, potentially increasing malaria transmission. Projects that inadvertently prevent drainage can result in long-term increases in the salinity of surface water, which can favour the breeding of certain malaria vectors and result in increased malaria transmission.
Certainly most companies active in this industry will want to put mitigating measures in place to avoid making the malaria situation worse.
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Impact of Malaria on Business
As the World Economic forum states¹ : ‘Malaria is bad for business’! It impacts on company profits through employee absenteeism, reduced productivity and escalating benefit costs. It can also have negative reputational impacts.
In 2006 the World Economic Forum conducted a review of business attitudes and approaches to malaria, detailing businesses’ estimates of the impact of malaria on their operations, including financial impact. This document can be accessed here and its key messages are summarized below.
Attempts have been made to estimate the financial returns on investing in malaria control. Marathon Oil estimates 4:1 returns on its investments in malaria control² , though this is the in the African setting. Firm estimates of the financial impact of malaria on companies in the Asia-Pacific are not available. However it is known that malaria can impact on business in a number of ways:
Directly: through impact on workforces, increased spend on healthcare and corporate reputational effects. Specifically through:
- Absenteeism of employees who fall ill with malaria or take time off to care for family members who fall ill. Around 1 – 5 days can be expected to be lost for each malaria case.
- High healthcare costs for companies that provide health services to their employees.
- Costs of pay-out packages in the case of a death, as well as related recruitment and retraining costs for replacements.
- Poor company morale when cases and/or deaths are high.
- Corporate reputational risks where companies are seen to either make malaria worse or to engage insufficiently in what is seen to be a priority local problem.
Indirectly: through impacting on the economic climate in which the business is operating, for example:
- By damaging children’s educational prospects.
- Weakening labour productivity.
- Influencing decisions on savings and investments.
- Impacting on household solvency and ability to be economically active.
- Altering a countries demographic structure.
¹ http://www.k4health.org/sites/default/files/What%20is%20the%20Economic%20Impact%20of%20Malaria.pdf
² http://www.gbchealth.org/our-work/health_focus_areas/malaria/
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Options to mitigate impact on your company
Reduce malaria cases in your local workforce Reduce malaria cases in short term visitors Ensure patients get the best treatment Invest in social responsibility programmes to reduce malaria and increase social capital
Reduce malaria cases in your local workforce Reduce malaria cases in short term visitors Ensure patients get the best treatment Invest in social responsibility programmes to reduce malaria and increase social capital
Invest in social responsibility programmes to reduce malaria and increase social capital
Find out more? Move on
Find out more? Move on
What would you like to do now
Get guidance on another issue Find out more about malaria Find out where to access more information Find out how to access advice and assistance
Get guidance on another issue Find out more about malaria Find out where to access more information Find out how to access advice and assistance