Many studies, particularly in Africa, have found a strong correlation between the availability of transport and the spread of HIV/AIDS. The mobility of land transport is at the heart of economic development, but it can also promote the spread of HIV. While HIV rates in South-East Asia are still much lower than in Africa, this region risks repeating the African experience. Consequently, the South-East Asian countries have mandated UNDP's South-East Asia HIV and Development Project (UNDP-SEAHIV) to facilitate the development of policies and programmes related to population movement and HIV prevention.
UNDP-SEAHIV seeks to complement, not duplicate, the activities of many other international and national, government and non-government agencies. UNDP-SEAHIV wants to identify and develop synergies between UNDP's traditional role of promoting sustainable socio-economic development and health. To give a simple example: a healthy transport workforce is also a productive one. The employer has a direct economic self-interest in ensuring a healthy workforces; it is also in the interests of the economy at large.

A sectoral approach to HIV policy formulation and strategic planning introduces the concept of HIV vulnerability reduction through a systems approach based on its unique attributes. For the transport sector this requires an understanding of such attributes at both sectoral and sub-sectoral levels. The attributes may have physical, institutional and operational aspects. Hence UNDP's unique input to HIV/AIDS reduction is to utilise the sector's key strengths to create new options for people to improve their livelihood and reduce HIV vulnerability.

Connectivity

The transport sector's overarching attribute is connectivity: it connects people and goods at all levels. The greater the reach of the transport infrastructure in distance and density, the greater its potential connectivity. This also applies to the specific sub-sectors, particularly in relation to the connectivity between the various transport modes and the characteristics of each mode in serving the goods and passengers it carries. Connectivity also has seasonal and industry-specific aspects, some modes of transport being particularly suited (or ill-suited) to particular seasons or forms of economic activity.

Within this broad theoretical framework, UNDP-SEAHIV conducted a mapping assessment to understand the impact of the transport sector on the spread of HIV in the countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS). The main findings were that:

• development stimulates infrastructure construction
• construction moves workers from place to place
• transport systems facilitate the movement of people.

In particular, when roads and bridges are built, they may link low- and high-HIV prevalence areas such as villages and cities, domestically and internationally. To ensure that the potential benefit from the improved infrastructure is maximised, it is vital that HIV vulnerability among the communities served by the new transport routes is reduced. The workers, passengers and operators who run and use the system must also be protected. An example of transport system linking people's movement to HIV vulnerabilities is illustrated by participants to the recent UNDP-SEAHIV preventive policy and strategy workshop for the land transport sector (see figure). This figure illustrates that air links and land transport bring tourists and business people into contact with local communities that have a potential for HIV risks.

On the one hand, poor connectivity can lead to extended waiting times during loading/unloading and at border crossings, as well as extended journeys on substandard infrastructure. This may increase the likelihood of high-risk behaviours by transport crews and lead to a higher risk of HIV infection, which they then carry with them. On the other hand, improved connectivity means increased transport efficiency, greater productivity and profit, and a possibly reduced HIV risk. Improving connectivity and efficiency of transport systems is the key to effective policy and strategy. Some examples illustrate this point:

In an age of globalisation and increased economic co-operation, free trade agreements are being negotiated within Greater Mekong Sub-region and with other regions, offering opportunities to incorporate measures into trade flows that will facilitate the easy movement of goods and people across international borders. Such measures are complex but would contribute strongly to improved transport connectivity, productivity and profit; reduced HIV risk as well as facilitate macro-economic growth.

• Inefficiency at junctions in physical transport infrastructure at international borders, such as rail-gauge breakpoints or domestic inter-modal nodes, also contributes to unnecessary and costly delays. Regulatory interventions specifying either compatible physical infrastructure or appropriate container standards would achieve the same multiple benefits.
• If some portion of transport crews' payment were made at their home base instead of at the point of delivery, not only would the crews' households' income be more secure, but crew susceptibility to high-risk behaviours would also be reduced. Studies have shown that the level of sex worker visits by the mobile population is proportional to their available disposable income when away from home.

 The transport sector could also pay an extremely valuable role in educating its passengers about HIV/AIDS. Millions of people travel by rail, road, boat and air daily, weekly or monthly: their otherwise idle time and attention could be used for HIV/AIDS education.
 In November 1999, UNDP-SEAHIV and partners organised an HIV-prevention policy advocacy workshop in Bangkok for representatives of the South-East Asian Ministries of Transport. Following this workshop, on request of the member states, UNDP-SEAHIV organised the first HIV-prevention policy and strategy formulation workshop for the transport sector in Vientiane, Laos. Similar workshops will soon be held in Cambodia, Guangxi Province (China) and Vietnam.
One Asian minister recently stated: "What is the use of building roads and bridges if we do not prevent HIV? If more of our people die of AIDS, soon there will be no-one left to use them." It is time to involve the transport sector in preventive activities, not only to improve the relevant infrastructure, but also for the benefit of society at large.