Glare of the Diamond; Botswana Why AIDS Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives are not successful

Abstract: The research aim in this paper is to outline, detail and come to a deeper understanding as to why AIDS/HIV corporate social responsibility CSR initiatives have not been truly successful in the Central District of Botswana. I will focus on the following aspects in the analysis; history, stigma, gender and traditional values, and the corporate refocus on the blood diamond movement. Botswana is a mineral rich country, and in my scope of research I look to the mining corporations that have mines in the Central district of Botswana. De Beers, Debswana are the two larger mining corporations that I draw up in my paper, but the Tati Nickel Mine and the Soda Ash Botswana mine are also mentioned within this paper due to their location, and their parallel history and social structures to De Beers and Debswana. De Beers, like many other global corporations, has had to stand up and face their involvement with the spread and continual spread of AIDS/HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, in Botswana De Beers face many other issues that limit or side-track them on how much public ‘push’ and power they can do when they initiate corporate social responsibility CSR program(s) at their mines. To understand how Botswana and its’ relationship with De Beers [and other mining corporations] and the development of AIDS/HIV, a historical review is needed, for one has to understand how the social structures of mines, mining communities and out laying towns have been created under this ‘mining’ social structure. The second important issue in understanding CSR and how limited it is, in regards to De Beers, Debswana and other mining corporations, in Botswana is the high level of social issues such as stigmatization, traditional and gender issues/values that AIDS/HIV individuals, and government bodies have to deal with. The third and present issue that limits how De Beers deals with AIDS/HIV and their CSR response to SI (survival international) campaign to end the trade in Blood Diamonds, and with new mining exploration into the Gope area of the Kalaharia desert De Beers has redirected their CSR attention to something they can change and re-solve now.