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.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
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.)
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.)
Monday, April 12, 2010
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.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, March 29, 2010
US Ambassador & USAID Delegation Visit Partner Sites
On Friday, I tagged along with a delegation led by our Ambassador, Stephen Nolan, to visit two partners working in Tlokweng. The delegation included several people from our USAID Southern African regional office, who were in town reviewing the USAID Botswana portfolio.
BORNUS
The first site was BORNUS, the Botswana Retired Nurses Society. This organization is led by several dynamic women, who have managed to pull together resources to bring services to people living with HIV and AIDS, their families and the children in their community.
I think our favorite stop at the BORNUS center, was the wonderful children's day-care center that they have. The children were playing with puzzles when we arrived, and we all got to help them with the pieces.
BORNUS is an NPI Grantee, which means they receive direct US Government funding. This is a huge challenge, as it means they are required to comply with numerous, complex US Government rules and regulations. They do so with the support of a Technical Assistance provider, and the women who run the organization are clearly up to the task.
By the way, the BORNUS ladies would not let me leave without promising to promote their "Buy a Brick" fundraising drive. For just 3 pula per brick (less than $.50), you can help them build a new building for their day care facility. Visit their website, and contact them for more information.
Nkaikela Youth Group
Our second site in Tlokweng was also very moving. Nkaikela is an organization that reaches out to high risk women sex workers. The visit began with several young peer educators who told their stories of wanting a way out of sex work, finding the Nkaikela organization, and ultimately volunteering to help reach out to try to help other women. These amazing peer volunteers try to help support women who want to leave sex work, but also provide condoms, and condom negotiating skills to women who are active in sex work.
Nkaikela is a setswana word meaning "I can go myself." One of the challenges they told us about was the fact that there are women who want to exit sex work, but have difficulties finding alternative livelihoods. This is a complex challenge, made more difficult because of stigma, the lack of education that some of the women have, and simply the limited number of available job opportunities. However, the group is working to overcome all these challenges, and try to create opportunities to these vulnerable women in Tlokweng.
Nkaikela's work is supported by the USAID-funded program managed by RTI, which helps provide prevention services to most-at-risk populations.
Both BORNUS and Nkaikela are excellent examples of the types of organizations that PEPFAR Botswana hopes to reach. They were built by concerned members of the community who wanted to help their friends and neighbors, and have worked hard to find financial and technical resources to make this happen. The Ambassador and the USAID Southern African delegation all left with a better sense of the needs of these small organization and how we can continue to support their efforts.
(Photo courtesy of Thuy Pham.)
BORNUS
The first site was BORNUS, the Botswana Retired Nurses Society. This organization is led by several dynamic women, who have managed to pull together resources to bring services to people living with HIV and AIDS, their families and the children in their community.
I think our favorite stop at the BORNUS center, was the wonderful children's day-care center that they have. The children were playing with puzzles when we arrived, and we all got to help them with the pieces.
BORNUS is an NPI Grantee, which means they receive direct US Government funding. This is a huge challenge, as it means they are required to comply with numerous, complex US Government rules and regulations. They do so with the support of a Technical Assistance provider, and the women who run the organization are clearly up to the task.
By the way, the BORNUS ladies would not let me leave without promising to promote their "Buy a Brick" fundraising drive. For just 3 pula per brick (less than $.50), you can help them build a new building for their day care facility. Visit their website, and contact them for more information.
Nkaikela Youth Group
Our second site in Tlokweng was also very moving. Nkaikela is an organization that reaches out to high risk women sex workers. The visit began with several young peer educators who told their stories of wanting a way out of sex work, finding the Nkaikela organization, and ultimately volunteering to help reach out to try to help other women. These amazing peer volunteers try to help support women who want to leave sex work, but also provide condoms, and condom negotiating skills to women who are active in sex work.
Nkaikela is a setswana word meaning "I can go myself." One of the challenges they told us about was the fact that there are women who want to exit sex work, but have difficulties finding alternative livelihoods. This is a complex challenge, made more difficult because of stigma, the lack of education that some of the women have, and simply the limited number of available job opportunities. However, the group is working to overcome all these challenges, and try to create opportunities to these vulnerable women in Tlokweng.
Nkaikela's work is supported by the USAID-funded program managed by RTI, which helps provide prevention services to most-at-risk populations.
Both BORNUS and Nkaikela are excellent examples of the types of organizations that PEPFAR Botswana hopes to reach. They were built by concerned members of the community who wanted to help their friends and neighbors, and have worked hard to find financial and technical resources to make this happen. The Ambassador and the USAID Southern African delegation all left with a better sense of the needs of these small organization and how we can continue to support their efforts.
(Photo courtesy of Thuy Pham.)
Thursday, March 25, 2010
PEPFAR Botswana Team Discusses New Indicators & Reporting Requirements with Treatment and Care Partners
Today several of our PEPFAR Botswana team members opened a two-day workshop with our Treatment and Care partners to review the next generation indicators, semi-annual performance reporting templates, and to conduct some data quality assessment practicals.
Our acting Strategic Information Team Lead, Phenyo Lekone, gave a great presentation on the new indicators, and summarizing some of the stragegies that we'll be using to better describe the how PEPFAR-funded programs are supporting the Government of Botswana's national response.
I think the team has come up with a great strategy that will improve our semi-annual performance report, and allow it to be a tool that can be used to better communicate the positive impact our programs are having -- not only to OGAC and the US Congress, but also to the Government of Botswana, our partners, other donors, and civil society. We hope that biannual reporting process can be a time to engage all stakeholders in a discussion about the direction of the PEPFAR Botswana program.
Sometime in the next 6-8 weeks we'll start to share the results of this process on this site, so stay tuned!
Our acting Strategic Information Team Lead, Phenyo Lekone, gave a great presentation on the new indicators, and summarizing some of the stragegies that we'll be using to better describe the how PEPFAR-funded programs are supporting the Government of Botswana's national response.
I think the team has come up with a great strategy that will improve our semi-annual performance report, and allow it to be a tool that can be used to better communicate the positive impact our programs are having -- not only to OGAC and the US Congress, but also to the Government of Botswana, our partners, other donors, and civil society. We hope that biannual reporting process can be a time to engage all stakeholders in a discussion about the direction of the PEPFAR Botswana program.
Sometime in the next 6-8 weeks we'll start to share the results of this process on this site, so stay tuned!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Welcome to the PEPFAR Botswana Blog!
Hi! I'm Chris O'Connell, the PEPFAR Botswana Country Coordinator.
Just about every day since I've been in Botswana I hear something new and exciting about our program, or see the excellent work our partners are doing, or read an interesting technical article worth sharing. In addition, we often have information about our program that we're eager to share with our partners and colleagues, as well as with others who may be interested in learning more about PEPFAR.
So, what better way to share this information than through a blog? (Okay, I admit, I was inspired by my wife's recently launched Regional Environmental blog!)
So, stay tuned for program announcements, technical updates, success stories and hopefully some interesting discussions about the US Government's PEPFAR program in Botswana!
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