ACHAP spreads into broader Africa

Keikantse Lesemela | Tuesday August 19, 2014 15:06

Speaking during the awards ceremony on Friday, Jerome Mafeni, ACHAP chief executive said the organisation is introducing new strategy in which it will have multiple funders as the main funders are revising their funding priorities.

He said ACHAP is confronting a time of many significant global changes in the financial, health and development arenas. “This is also a time when our main funders are reviewing and revising their funding priorities leading to cut-backs or total cessation of funding,” said Mafeni.

He said new strategy will develop the portfolio to diversify from implementing HIV services in one market supported by two donors to servicing multiple fields of health, in several markets supported by many financiers.

“The new business strategy to position as a cutting edge catalytic and innovative organisation supporting countries in the African region to optimise their responses to HIV/AIDS and other challenges,” said Mafeni.

He said through ACHAP the government of Botswana was able to access funds from international organisations including the World Bank.

“From 2000 to 2014 the world has only known that Africa is Botswana so we want to change this perspective and spread our operations to other nations. ACHAP intends to leverage knowledge generation and management generated in Botswana to improve health outcomes elsewhere on the continent,” said Mafeni. He added that ACHAP will no longer brand itself narrowly as only a program catalyst organisation whose relevance is constrained in Botswana.

The organisation will identify partners in Southern African countries such as Lesotho, Swaziland and Zambia.

“It is our intention that we will operate two franchises by the end of 2015, one in Botswana and another in other markets,” said Mafeni.

In the second phase, from 2016 onwards, Mafeni said they would focus on Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique.

However he said HIV would remain at the core of ACHAP portfolio of services and entering new markets is planned through these core services.

For his part, former President Festus Mogae said it is with the help of ACHAP that the government was able to provide the Anti Retro-Viral (ARV) treatment and care programmes for the sick.

From 1998 to 2008, Mogae made the AIDS response one of the top priorities of his administration and Botswana became the first African country to embark on a programme of rolling out free ARVs to all Batswana and in 2007 the country was able to deliver HIV treatment to more than 90 percent of the patients.

“I declared the war against HIV/AIDS and a few months later, the Gates Foundation and Merck agreed to collaborate to launch the plan and they set out to identify an African country that would give the project a good chance to succeed. Botswana was a natural choice,” said Mogae.

He added that the organisation would continue to build on and leverage on its core competencies in the field of HIV/AIDS and related health conditions.