Africa-Press – Botswana. The Ministry of Health has come up with alternative measures to continue providing care for clientele that accessed care in the community.
Answering a question in Parliament recently, Assistant Minister of Health, Mr Lawrence Ookeditse indicated that his ministry in collaboration with the Ministry for State President, through the National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency formed a task force that categorised the effects and impact on the health system and employment by the US government order and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) withdrawal.
He said the ministry continued to look at more alternatives to ensure that its mandate of health care delivery was extended throughout the nation. Mr Ookeditse said the impact of the US government’s decision to withdraw USAID went beyond the Ministry of Health and was felt by the non-governmental organisations as they received a significant amount of funding. Over 25 civil society organisations that provided health services, he said, had been affected and they employed over 1 200 people on contract basis.
He stated that the US government support in the Ministry of Health and its partners was geared towards technical support and direct service delivery in some areas. Mr Ookeditse added that the areas include HIV testing, key populations programming, HIV antiretroviral based prevention, elimination of mother to child transmission, tuberculosis prevention, and national health laboratory among others.
“Nevertheless, service provision continues in all health care facilities. USAID support was primarily focused in communities through mobilising communities to access health care,” he stated.
Mr Ookeditse emphasised that there was a complete subsequent withdrawal of USAID following the issuing of a stop-work and stop-spending directive on foreign assistance by all US government departments and agencies on January 24, 2025. Moreover, he said, among the programmes affected were the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which encompassed the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the USAID, which had been instrumental in the country’s HIV/AIDS response.
Mr Ookeditse was responding to a questions asked by the MP for Kanye East, Mr Prince Mosanana, who wanted the minister to state the alternative measures being put in place to help curb the vast impact left by the USAID after its withdrawal of its financial assistance, which left thousands of people unemployed.
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