Joy Phumaphi, the human development activist

GALE NGAKANE
Correspondent | Friday January 22, 2010 00:00

 

She had crossed over to the bank after spending four years at the World Health Organisation where she was Assistant Director General responsible for family and community health.

When rumours started filtering to Botswana that she was leaving the bank, it fuelled speculation in the local media that she was going to take over as vice president of Botswana.

She has however, distanced herself from this speculation saying as an international civil servant she never entertained such ideas.

'It was so bad that people speculated about me becoming a vice president of Botswana before they consulted me. I had people approaching me at the World Bank trying to find out if it was true I was preparing for the vice presidency of Botswana.

'I told them that is what they should expect from our press in Botswana. They sometimes write without first contacting people to find out the truth,' she said.

In the two months since she has been home in Francistown, she has been cobbling together reports about an organisation she is setting up with 22 African Heads of State.

The organisation, African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), of which she is Interim Executive Secretary is chaired by Tanzanian president, Jakaya Kikwete.

She spent a large part of December 2009 travelling around the world to drum up support for the organisation. She went to Geneva, Switzerland   where  she met WHO leaders as well as leaders of the Global Fund. She also met the head of the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) and in Washington she met the head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The organisations promised to make their technical expertise available to ALMA. African heads of state are expected to react to the report, which will be presented to them by Kikwete at the African Union meeting at the end of this month in Tanzania.

The report is in two phases, namely the overall input of the 22 heads of state and an individual report for each of the countries.

Explaining more about the organisation, Phumaphi cited the Abuja Declaration, which came out of the meeting of African leaders, held in 2000 at the Nigerian capital.

She said the leaders dedicated themselves to targeting 2010 as the year malaria infections would be halved.

So far, she feels there is a silver lining as the infant mortality, due to the malaria endemic, has been reduced by 80 percent.

'This only means that the countries have not only reduced the incidences of malaria, but there is going to be a ripple effect which will mean that the countries are within striking distance of attaining all the other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),' she said.

Phumaphi, a human development activist to the core, appeared to have ruffled feathers at the World Bank where she was described as a bottom-up person in her approach to development as opposed to the organisation, which is known for its notoriously top-down approach.

Said The Lancet, the world's leading general medical journal and specialty journals in Oncology, Neurology and Infectious Diseases:

'For someone who currently works at an institution that is one of the most controversial and vilified in global health, Joy Phumaphi, Vice President for Human Development at the World Bank is, well, uncontroversial. And for an executive at an organisation that is notoriously top-down, Phumaphi is bottom-up in her approach to development.'

Phumaphi is quite comfortable with her description by The Lancet saying she has always worked for the development of the human race, and there was no way she can change just because she was not working for the World Bank.

'I have always worked as a public servant. To me what comes first is the public. I have adopted that approach regardless of where I work,' she said.

When I first interviewed Johanna 'Joy' Phumaphi, it was when she was the Minister of Health- at the height of the HIV/AIDS scourge.

That was the time when Batswana were dying in their hundreds like flies in an unventilated room. Every day in every settlement, village, town or city, burial processions were the order of the day.

There were instances where a whole family perished from the disease. In those days, it was not surprising to be sitting with someone one day and the next moment you would hear that they had died. The consequences of careless behaviour were so ghastly; it took the efforts and courage of the former President, Festus Mogae to cry out to the world that his country was facing extinction.

While the world began responding with assistance, Joy Phumaphi was one of those who worked tirelessly to see to it that Batswana received antiretroviral (ARVs) and she oversaw the implementation of measures devised to stop the Human Immuno Virus (HIV) from passing on to the innocent foetus.

There was a vast difference between the Phumaphi I met that day at Government Enclave and the one I encountered in the serene surroundings of her home, sitting on the veranda of the house with a perfectly manicured lawn and a swimming pool behind us.

Back then, just before she left for the World Health Organisation (WHO) job you could see the effects of her struggles to preserve the lives of her compatriots.

There was no longer a spring in her step and tiredness was written all over her face.
But now that appears to be a thing of the past. She is a complete opposite of that time.

And when I make that suggestion she laughs before responding: 'You see that time, I was working very closely with the people and as you know we were dealing with a monster that was devouring our people.

'At the United Nations and World Bank, I worked more with the world. It was a bit more relaxed and enjoyable than here.'

Though she is credited with having crafted a comprehensive HIV/AIDS programme that has helped in reversing the numbers of death caused by the disease, Phumaphi feels the battle against the disease started too late.

'We started too late. But once we started, we put in a lot of effort. But there is still room for improvement. It is going to take some time to turn things around.

'Some of the things that disappointed me then- and they are still a cause of concern-are intergenerational sex and failure to address sexual minorities,' said Phumaphi.

By intergenerational sex, she was referring to the practice of 'sugar mummies' and 'sugar daddies' in which adults engage in sex with teenagers young enough to be their grandchildren.

Elaborating on sexual minorities, who include same-sex relations, she said she was not calling for them to be legalised, but that we have to appreciate that they are humans.

'These people are also affected by HIV/AIDS and need assistance just like heterosexual people. What I appreciate very much is that there seems to be a lot of behavioural change among the youth of this country. It is just that those in the late 30s and above are stubbornly resisting such change,' she said.

Asked what her advice is, Phumaphi said it has got to be understood that health is dynamic and as such needs more than one policy to succeed.

'You have to consistently re-evaluate and consistently amend your strategy. It is the most important lesson,' she said.

While at the United Nations, Phumaphi said she learned that the most important pillars are among others, effective management of the health system, primary health care and access to basic health care, but she said the country made a blunder by leaving the family welfare educators in the community.

'Those people were very important as they worked closely with households. When I was working as an auditor in the Ministry of Local Government, family welfare educators covered the whole country.

'It was such a brilliant idea,' she said.

But whether one likes it or not, presently Francistown accommodates an international luminary in the development of humans.

At her home, though, she is as reserved as any Kalanga woman, requesting for permission from her husband, Judge Mpaphi Phumaphi where we can sit for our interview.

She shares the home with Justice Phumaphi, their last born son and her mother. The other three children have left the nest to establish their own abodes.

And later after the interview, two hours later to be exact, she suddenly remembered she did not give her elderly mother, her supper.

'She is going to be angry with me for not feeding her,' she said, with a twinkle in her eye like a naughty child.

Her down-to-earth courtesy left a lasting impression on none other than Karabo Sename, Mmegi's Northern Bureau photographer.

'Oa itse, despite her international stature Mma-Phumaphi is so down to earth. If it were others, they would have flashed their cell phones, business cards and even boasted about what they do,' said a star-struck Sename.