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Botswana
In June 2022, Botswana joined Phase II of the South-South Learning Network through technical support from the Joint Team. As part of the initiative, coordinators of the national HIV response in Botswana and Zimbabwe shared their experience in developing HIV prevention cascades for implementers to use when assessing the effectiveness of HIV prevention programmes (UNFPA, UNAIDS Secretariat).
The revised national integrated HIV and tuberculosis guidelines included expansion of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) services for pregnant and breastfeeding women, men who have sex with men and female sex workers; adequate forecasting and supply chain and improved laboratory mechanisms (WHO, UNAIDS Secretariat).
For the first time, the Condomize campaign tailored its services to scale up access to condoms among young people with disabilities and 57 pharmacists and senior officials from the Ministry of health were also trained on supply change management and Last Mile (UNFPA). In addition, 600 Healthcare workers received training on integrated adolescent- and youth-friendly services, including counselling and disclosure, HIV treatment and common clinical conditions, mental health, sexual and reproductive health as well as young adult transition and ethical and legal matters, 35 healthcare facilities now offer integrated youth-friendly services across the country (UNICEF, UNFPA).
The MTV station reached 495 000 young people with information on HIV and referral services via three seasons of its Shuga Radio programme with interactive voice response platform and face-to-face education in four districts with high HIV burden. The Shuga Wanji game further reinforced HIV-related information among 75 567 young people while peer educators sensitized 6000 young people and referred them to services when needed (UNICEF).