Africa-Press – Botswana. Vice President, Mr Slumber Tsogwane says Botswana must prepare to provide for its people in dealing with health challenges such as HIV and AIDS which are currently addressed through the support of international donors.
Welcoming a team of experts from Pharos Global Health Advisors at Office of the President on Wednesday Mr Tsogwane said the meeting was to get a briefing from consultants guiding the country in ensuring that when support from donors dries up, the country was resilient and able to continue with health programmes on its own.
Mr Tsogwane said such could be case of where donors decides to pull back with the view that the country was in a position to generate its own funds or Botswana ultimately deciding that it was able to stand on its own.
He said the global health advisors engaged by NAHPA and UNAIDS to consult on HIV and AIDS response sustainability plan will guide Botswana to deal with the challenges ahead.
He said as Botswana’s economy transists from middle to high income, the support the country was receiving from donors will diminish and eventually discontinue.
Mr Tsogwane said Botswana was excelling in combating HIV/AIDS.
He said through the Ministry of Health and assistance from donors through funding and education, the country managed to come up with reliable programmes to combat the HIV pandemic, positive strategies that were equally useful when the country was faced with the COVID-19 pandemic.
On issues of readiness and sustainability, he said it was important for Botswana to assess its readiness as it aspires to become a high income economy. He said it was important for the assessment to indicate the extent at which the country will be able to support its HIV and AIDS programmes as well as what was supposed to be done.
National Coordinator for National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAHPA), Mr Ontiretse Letlhare said in a media interview that the courtesy call was to appraise the Acting President on the work of the consultancy engaged to assess the capability of Botswana in fighting HIV and AIDS without the assistance of the current funding from donors.
Since the inception of the HIV and AIDs pandemic, Botswana was heavily reliant on funding from other countries, where funders contributed billions of dollars for the country to be in a position it was today.
He said the country was able to achieve the 95-95-95 status in combating HIV and was now moving towards an era where HIV/AIDS will be contained.
Currently, Mr Letlhare said the NAHPA was getting funding from international donors such as Global Fund and PEPFAR from USA.
He said Global Fund has since January 2022 until December 2023 committed US$23 million, while PEPFAR has for the period of 2023 to 2024 committed US$ 57 million.
He said PEPFAR has for the financial year 2024/2025 funded NAHPA with US$54 million.
Over the years, he said, funding has been declining as the country’s economy was growing therefore, NAHPA and its partners in the fight against HIV and AIDS and non-communicable diseases such as UNAIDS had seen it fit to be in a position to continue with their programmes when the funding was discontinued.
Mr Letlhare said it was wise to plan ahead and ensure that when donations dried up the country was in a position to stand on its own.
The ongoing assessment was led by NAHPA with local consultants and those from the Pharos Global Health Advisors as well as UNAIDS.
He said the consultant was engaged by UNAIDS, covering all the expenses to assist the government through NAHPA to establish the way forward.
He said the consultants from America were working with another team of local consultants.
He said upon completion of the assessment, the consultant will produce a report and hand to government to consider how it will be implemented.
Mr Letlhare said the consultants started their work in April, adding that the American consultants will present their report at the National AIDS and Health Promotion council meeting on June 8.
He said the full report was expected in July/August and be presented to government in September 2023.
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