National AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA) coordinator, Ms Grace Muzila, says the agency is working round the clock to resuscitate some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that closed shop due to loss of donor support when Botswana attained middle income status.
Submitting before Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday (June 2), she said NACA had since devised a strategy to source funds from different organisations, including the private sector, to support NGOs that made a difference in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
She said NACA had made a proposal to the Global Fund for backing to the tune of US$23million for HIV and tuberculosis interventions.
“We are hopeful that we will win because we got a response to clear one, two, three issues, and we are hoping to get feedback in a couple of months,” she said.
Ms Muzila further assured the committee that no NGO will be sidelined for their combative stance, citing the Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and AIDS (BONELA), which she said contributes positively to the national response to HIV/AIDS.
She said this after PAC member, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse, raised fears that BONELA is at the risk of being ostracized by government owing to its militant approach, which has seen it taking government to court on several occasions.
Ms Muzila also informed the PAC that NACA is undertaking an efficiency assessment study of NGOs that received World Bank funding under the Botswana National HIV/AIDS Prevention Support Project (BNAPS), which benefitted 54 NGOs.
She said the efficiency study looks at how best small funds can be used efficiently to eliminate wastage, which she said will help to keep alive some of the civil society organisations. Ends