08 Jun 2023

The Botswana team, under the coordination of National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAHPA) has raised more than P1.5 billion (US$ 111 808 895) to be used for the HIV/AIDS and Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) response, over a period of two years.

This was said by the Vice President, Mr Slumber Tsogwane in his opening remarks during the NAHPA Council’s first meeting for the 2023/2024 financial year.

In an effort to mobilise resources for the response, Mr Tsogwane said the team started engaging with President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in January 2023 to develop the Country Operational Plan (COP), which was completed during the last week of May 2023.

The P1.5 billion funding, the vice president said consisted of more than P775 million (US$ 57 337 895) for the year 2023/2024 and more than P737 million (US$ 54 471 000) for the year 2024/2025.

He said Botswana had been allocated more than P325 million (US$ 24 023 510) for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and building resilient and sustainable systems for health by the Global Fund for the period January 2025 to December 2027.

“Since Botswana is classified as an upper-middle income country, I am advised that 100 per cent of this Global Fund grant should focus on interventions that maintain or scale-up evidence-based support for key and vulnerable populations.

The funding must therefore include appropriate interventions that respond to human rights and gender-related barriers and vulnerabilities in access to services,” said the vice president.

“It may also introduce some new technologies that represent global best practice and are critical for sustaining the gains already realised from the response, moving towards the control and elimination of the HIV/AIDS pandemic,” he added.

Mr Tsogwane called for careful consideration in ensuring that the investments complemented the country’s response to maximise the needed overall impact, ’and of course reaching the last mile to HIV/AIDS and NCD control.’

The vice president also said that NAHPA, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation, would undertake a STEPwise approach to surveillance in 2023, an internationally comparable, standardised and integrated surveillance tool through which countries could collect, analyse and disseminate core information on NCDs.

The survey, he said, aimed at collecting comprehensive information on the risk factors for NCDs, mental and oral health and would target adult population aged 18 to 69 years, adding that the survey results would guide the country’s programme interventions for NCDs conditions.

For that reason, he emphasised that it was important to increase government ownership and domestic funding, so as to further catalyze a country-led and managed response.

“We all are in the know that in the near future, the country will have to change from international donor support, which warrants for the development of a comprehensive phased roadmap for sustainability. Sustaining funding for the response is critical to preserve the gains made so far, while also finding domestic resources to sustain those interventions that are currently donor funded,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute researchers, who in 2021 conducted and concluded a study on the ‘Treatment of HIV-Associated with infection of tissues covering brain and spinal cord’, also presented their study findings, progress made thus far, and what needed to be done to the council.

Mr Tsogwane commend all stakeholders in the HIV/AIDS and NCD response for the contribution they continued to make towards the fight against the two pandemics, stressing that “this fight can never be won if we do not work together as partners in the response.”

“It is for this reason that government cherishes the partnership that NAHPA has with the cvil society organisations, whose strength rests with their closeness to the communities,” he said. “Other forms of partnerships which Botswana remains thankful for are with the various United Nations family of organisations in our country and some development partners such as the Global Fund and PEPFAR,” 

The meeting was also attended by the Minister of Health, Dr Edwin Dikoloti, Assistant Minister for State President, Mr Dumizweni Mthimkhulu and Ntlo ya Dikgosi chairperson, Kgosi Puso Gaborone, the Zimbabwe National AIDS Council delegation, who are in the country for a bench marking exercise, and a team of consultants from Pharos Global Health Advisors.

The Pharos Global Health Advisors shared with the council some insights on the need for the country to ready itself to transition from donor dependence to self-sustenance to assist the country come up with a general sustainability plan for its HIV/AIDS and NCD response. ends