12 Nov 2023

 The third National Strategic Framework (NSF III) for HIV/AIDS has been extended to March 2025 to align with the second Transitional National Development Plan.

Speaking at the National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAHPA) meeting on Friday, Vice President, Mr Slumber Tsogwane said the extension prompted the review of the NSF III which would be completed by end of this month.

“This review is timely because it will inform the review of the National Policy on HIV and AIDS (2013) and the development of the NSF IV, which will start in the next financial year,” Mr Tsogwane said.

He thus commended the  Ministry  of Health  for the  revised  Integrated HIV  Clinical Care Guidelines, which were launched in September,  with the aim to  optimise Anti-Retroviral Therapy  (ART) regimes, prevent  and improve  management  of co-morbidities  and decrease mortality  for  people  living with  HIV  regardless  of  age, gender or lifestyle.

The last review was done in 2016 when Botswana started the Treat All Strategy, and the  impact of such changes had resulted in Botswana becoming one of the countries reaching the UNAIDS 95-95-95 global targets in 2022, which included significant reduction in HIV infections in both children and  adults.  

Mr Tsogwane noted that government appreciated the partnership that NAHPA maintained with the civil society organisations in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

He said the fight against HIV/AIDS would not be winnable if all partners did not work together in the response, thus commended all stakeholders in the HIV and Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) response for the sterling contribution towards the fight against the two pandemics.

He indicated that Botswana had taken a step to partner with the global fund, US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), UNAIDS and  the  World  Health  Organisation (WHO) to develop a country-led HIV sustainability roadmap in order to sustain collective gains.

The process, he said, started in April and a draft transition readiness assessment risks was already complete while the local based Pharos Global Health Advisors were ready to present the draft sustainability roadmap.

“I am quite optimistic that the roadmap will give us the opportunity to define how we are to transition from external  to  domestic  funding , as well as what we must do as a  country  to sustain the  gains already  made in the  fight  against  HIV/AIDS,” he added.The Vice President thus urged all the leading agencies, which included the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance, NAHPA as well as civil society organisations to start thinking about how they would implement their individual assignments. ENDS