NACA Kicks Off National Operational Planning Process and Global Fund Round 10 Applications

It has been a busy week for the PEPFAR Botswana team. The National AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA), has been coordinating the start of the National Operational Planning (NOP) Process, as well as supporting the Country Coordinating Mechanism's (CCM) efforts to develop Botswana's Global Fund Round 10 applications (NACA serves as the CCM Secretariate in Botswana.)

The PEPFAR Botswana team is supporting the NOP effort by participting on five NOP working groups: four Technical Planning Groups tied to the four priority areas identified in the National Strategic Framework II, and the Joint Oversight Committee, which is tasked with leading the development and implementation of the NOP.

Our team is also supporting the Global Fund proposal development effort by offering our technical team's expertise in helping provide input into the Round 10 proposal.

At the recent USG PEPFAR Meeting in Arusha, Ambassador Goosby made it very clear to all PEPFAR country teams that supporting CCMs and national planning efforts was not an option, but rather should be a top priority. PEPFAR in Botswana has gone a step further than simply supporting the GOB efforts. We have also tied the development of our Partnership Framework Implementation Plan directly to the NOP. That means that supporting the NOP is now a requirement for us to meet our planning requirements under PEPFAR II.

The National Coordinator for NACA opened the meeting of the Joint Oversight Committee by explaining that this committee has the opportunity to take ownership of the NOP process so that it is truely a country-led and country-owned plan, with transparent planning, and an implementation plan that is results-based and holds all parties accountable. The PEPFAR Botswana team looks forward to continuing to support NACA and the GOB in this this effort.

U.S. Commitment to Saving Lives in the Developing World

Ambassador Eric Goosby, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, recently wrote a great article about the U.S. commitment to PEPFAR and other U.S. Government-funded health programs around the world.

A few key points I found most interesting were:

• "...the number of people PEPFAR directly supports on ART has continued to increase dramatically each year -- in FY 2009 alone, from approximately 1.6 million to nearly 2.5 million. Without ART, very few of those people would be alive -- that's why lives saved, rather than dollars spent, is most meaningful."
• "Treatment is indispensable, but we need to do more than simply expand access to treatment to change the course of the HIV epidemic. Ending this epidemic also requires reducing the number of those who become HIV-positive. This means access to an array of evidence-based HIV prevention interventions, as well as HIV counseling and testing, and it requires improving the health systems at every level. "
• "Lives saved, diseases prevented and even eradicated, health systems and nations strengthened -- these are the goals by which global health efforts should be measured."

Please visit http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/commitment_saving_lives for the complete post.

Summary of the First PEPFAR Botswana Partners Meeting

Last week's PEPFAR Botswana Partners Meeting brought together 170 people from over 50 different offices and organizations including various Ministries of the Government of Botswana, local and international non-governmental organizations, private sector, and other donor organizations.

The purpose of the meeting was to meet with our Government and non-government partners, as well as other donors and stakeholders, and discuss how PEPFAR will be doing things a bit differently over the next several years.

The meeting was opened by Mr. Richard Matlare, the National Coordinator of NACA, and US Ambassador Stephen Nolan, who challenged us all to take the bold vision and principles laid out in the National Strategic Framework II and the Botswana Partnership Framework, and translate these ideas into action, so that we can begin to make real progress in turning the tide of the HIV and AIDS epidemic.

The morning continued with a panel discussion about the transition from PEPFAR I to PEPFAR II. We discussed the past successes here in Botswana, and how things would be beginning to shift over the next several years. The USG PEPFAR Team challenged the implementing partners to think creatively about how existing programs might be tweaked to do more to engage civil society and the private sector to become more sustainable and cost-effective.

Our colleagues from NACA further discussed the Partnership Framework, and the next steps, including the development of the National Operational Plan.

Finally, we concluded the morning with a look further down the road at future directions the PEPFAR program may take. Special guests from the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator in Washington, DC (the PEPFAR Secretariate) praised the Botswana program, and reiterated the US Government's committment to supporting the Botswana National response.

While we were up a bit in the clouds during the morning, discussing strategies and high-level plans, during the lunch, special guest speakers helped shift the focus back to actions on the ground. Joan LaRosa, our USAID Director in Botswana, highlighted four examples of how PEPFAR is supporting local health workers and organizations to strengthen and build capacity for more sustainable HIV and AIDS service provision.

Mma Phindela’s from the Ministry of Health began by discussing the needs of Botswana's many health care workers, and the efforts of MOH's Workplace Wellness Program to support them as they deliver the critical services to others. She was followed by a presentation by Tebelopele, which is the largest non-Governmental, local organization which receives money from PEPFAR in Botswana. Finally, we heard from two community-based programs -- the Young Women's Friendly Center, and Holy Cross Hospice's Journey of Life program. These dynamic speakers talked about their programs, and dramatically reminded us how all of these plans and strategies really do have powerful impacts in people's lives.

Finally, we ended the day with an informal networking event we called the "PEPFAR Open House." It was a sort of mini-fair with displays and information about GOB, NGO-partner and USG programs that are supported by PEPFAR funding. Other donors, GOB, partners, sub-partners, USG PEPFAR staff, the press and interested members of the public were invited to find out more about what all our various organizations are doing in Botswana. This was a chance for all of us to take the ideas from the morning and lunch sessions, and begin to immediately talk to our colleagues about how we can best take advantage of the opportunities to better support the priorities for a sustainable and cost-effective national response in Botswana.

There were many resquests for presentations as well as questions from the participants. I will be adding these to the site in the next several days.

Thanks again to Mr. Matlare and Ambassador Nolan, as well as to our other presentors. And thanks also to our participants from GOB, partner organizations, and other donor organizations. It means a lot that you all took a day from your busy lives to support the PEPFAR program in Botswana.

And a big thanks to all those who supported this fantastic event, including our volunteers from our different PEPFAR agencies who helped with planning, set-up, clean-up, registration, communications, development of the program, and materials for the day... I was amazed at how much work they put in, and the results truly reflect their efforts. Specifically, I want to mention the help from Lebo Nako, Kgomotso Masike, Rebecca Radikoro, Percy Kokoro, Malebogo Kababope, Lucinda DuPlooy, Rhoda Ohito, Sheikh Sajid, and Cornet Goodwill. I also wanted to thank Sechele Sechele and Thuy Pham for helping with communications. I also wanted to thank Dan Saint-Rossy of the US Embassy whose Public Affairs section provided funding for the entire event, and who personally organized the press during the event. And most importantly, the woman who ran everything from behind the scenes, without whom this program wouldn't have been possible - Jacquelyne Conley!

(Photo Courtesy of Thuy Pham.)

Draft Partnership Framework Available for Viewing

For several months now -- nearly a year, almost -- the PEPFAR Botswana Team has been engaging the Government of Botswana, civil society, and other donors and stakeholders in the development of the Botswana Partnership Framework. This document encapsulates how the US Government-funded HIV and AIDS programs will support the Botswana National Response over the next several years.

After many consultative meetings, the document is in the final stages of review by the stakeholders. While the document is still a "draft," the joint Government of Botswana and US Government Partnership Framework Management and Communications Team has agreed upon a final draft that is being circulated to all donors and stakeholders.

You can download a copy of this draft here: Draft Botswana Partnership Framework (pdf).

This draft will be reviewed sometime in the next couple months by the Partnership Framework National Steering Committee, a key step in the final approval process.

It has been an very exciting process, and I believe just working on this document alone has strenthened the relationship between PEPFAR and the GOB. But this document is just the beginning. The Partnership Framework lays a foundation for how PEPFAR will work to support the NSF II and other national strategies into the future.

PEPFAR Botswana Partners Meeting, May 6, 2010

On May 6th at the GICC Conference Center in Gaborone, we'll be hosting a PEPFAR Botswana Partners Meeting.

The purpose of this meeting is to bring together our prime partners, as well as our partners in the Government of Botswana to discuss some exciting new changes we'll be implementing in Botswana over the next couple years.

We know there has been a lot of talk about the draft Botswana Partnership Framework, but as it nears completion, we want to talk about how this will affect our existing programs on the ground, as well as how we do business with our partners and the Government going forward.

In addition, in the afternoon from 2-5 p.m., we'll have a "PEPFAR Open House/Exhibition," open to all our Government partners, as well as our NGO implmenting partners (including sub-partners), as well as the press and any other interested parties. The primary purpose of this event is to give our partners, sub-partner and Government counterparts an opportunity to network and interact with each other as well as the PEPFAR staff. We hope this unique approach will help bring all of our teams together for a few hours and lead to new and stregnthened relationships.

The PEPFAR team in Botswana is proud of our history of supporting the national response, and we look forward to this new chapter in our support to the people of Botswana. We look forward to seeing you all on May 6th!

(Please note invitations for the morning session have been sent to our prime and Government partners. If you have not seen your invitation yet, contact your Program Officer.)

PEPFAR Coordinator's Meeting

This week, I'm in Washington, DC to meet with other PEPFAR Coordinators from around the world. This will be the first time I've meet with and exchanged experiences with other coordinators in other countries. The coordinators will also be meeting with the staff from the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC), which is the PEPFAR secretariat.

The purpose is to allow coordinators to exchange ideas about how best to support the PEPFAR programs in each country. We’ll be talking about how to improve communications, reporting, the annual Country Operational Planning process (COP). It’s always a delicate balance -- we want to plan, monitor and report accurately on programs supported with PEPFAR funds, without it being too much of a burden. One thing I’ve been spending a lot of time on since arriving in Botswana is trying to improve our processes in these areas -- to make our planning more strategic and better aligned with the Government of Botswana’s national plans; to have our project monitoring be more effective at spotting and removing barriers to implementation; and to have our reporting be an opportunity to evaluate our programs with partners and government, to make sure we’re all on the right path.

This week I look forward to hearing how other countries have tackled these challenges. As our budgets get tighter, unfortunately the challenges of HIV and AIDS remain in Botswana. By improve our planning, monitoring and reporting processes, it will help us be more effective -- both in terms of cost, and also in terms of impact on addressing the HIV epidemic, in support of the Botswana national strategies.

As I hear things this week, I’ll post them here to share with you all. I’ll also look forward to sharing these experiences in person, when I get back next week.

Tebelopele and the Zebras4Life Program

Yesterday I had another opportunity to get to know one of our partners a little better. Tebelopele is a local organization that provides free voluntary HIV counseling and testing services all over Botswana. They have been tremendously successful reaching well over half of the entire adult population of Botswana with their services over the past several years!

One point that I find particularly interesting about Tebelopele is the fact that this partner is not just supported by one PEPFAR agency, but it is really supported by all of the different US Government agencies in Botswana in different ways.

• The US Embassy in Gaborone supports Tebelopele's Zebras4Life and Test4Life campaigns, which engage the Zebra's national football team to help encourage youth and men to test. Their new Heros program builds on this program to use networks of other sports clubs to reach even further into hard-to-reach communities.
• Department of Defense has use humanitarian assistance funds to build 16 Tebelopele VCT centers around Botswana. Combined, these centers are within 50km of 90% of the population of Botswana.
• A little known fact about Tebelopele's history is that it originated as a CDC/BOTUSA project. All the original employees were actually CDC staff. As the project began to grow, CDC worked to "spin off" Tebelopele to stand on it's own as a completely independent local organization. CDC continues to support Tebelopele's activities, and as a result, Tebelopele is one of the largest local organizations to receive direct PEPFAR funding in Botswana.
• Another little known fact is that the Zebras4Life campaign originated as an idea from a Peace Corps volunteer. Across Botswana, Peace Corps volunteers continue to work with communities to generate awareness and encourage people to test using the Tebelopele services.

New projects are also coming along soon that aim to build upon the excellent work already being done by Tebelopele to reach even further into hard to reach communities. As we look back at the success of this program, the entire PEPFAR Botswana team can look to Tebelopele as a great example of what we hope to accomplish as an interagency team to build local capacity that makes a strong impact in Botswana.