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.