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.)