It is an often acknowledged benefit of political will and hands-on leadership that Botswana’s success in its fight against HIV/AIDS is today an envy of many countries. That success today faces the biggest test yet.
Last week we reported that on account of dwindling sponsorships, ACHAP which is perhaps the last remaining foreign financed flagship in the fight against HIV/AIDS faces an uncertain future. Already staff at ACHAP has been briefed on the difficult situation.
It is a scary prospect.
If ACHAP closes shop in Botswana, it will be the latest in a series of many such high profile organizations to leave Botswana. It also will be the end of an era. The reasons for such organizations leaving Botswana are various and manifold. There is talk of general fatigue among donor community. After almost a generation in Botswana, for many such organizations it may well be true. The fact though is that we still need international economic assistance the same way we did say twenty years more. In other instances, notwithstanding economic progress made thus far, it is actually the case that Botswana needs such assistance more than we ever did. Mainly so because the challenges we face today as a country are much more intricate and protracted than was the case in the earlier years.
Some donors say since the country has now been classified as an upper middle income, Botswana is better placed to take care of itself. Development partners like the European Union, United Nations Development Programme and many other NGOs that used to have a big presence in Botswana have scaled down on their activities.
Resources, these organizations point out time and again, are now being shifted to where there is greater need. Botswana, for them is no longer among such areas.
There are fewer more glaring examples where success can turn out to be a curse such as this one. As a country we find ourselves paying a heavy price for our economic success.
To many of our people the feeling is not much different from being told that we should have mismanaged our resources as did many other African countries so that we continued receiving international assistance. It simply does not make sense.
It may be an exaggeration but we feel not much different from a student who all of a sudden finds themselves being demonized for good behavior and hard work.
As a country we have achieved a lot in our fight against HIV/AIDS on account of our economic success.
Speaking almost in tears a few years ago, the then President Festus Mogae said as a nation we were faced with annihilation. The international community was shocked and started to take note. Mogae went all over the world literally begging all who could listen to come and help.
Many listened to his call and descended on our shores.
At first hand we experienced homegrown leadership at its finest.
The upshot of it was that we beat HIV/AIDS by way of rolling back what was until then a march that had catastrophic human costs. We secured treatment drugs at reduced prices which enabled our government to rollout free anti-retroviral treatment nationwide.
It was a story of success that left the world bemused.
But the successes achieved thus far are not irreversible.
Over the last few years we have experienced a flight of many international partners that had arrived as a result of Mogae’s efforts.
And Mogae is himself retired. And that is not all.
The added tragedy of it all is that the flight of international assistances comes at a time when Botswana’s public finances are going through a rough squeeze, making it much more difficult to put up with the fight that we did then.
It’s has a feel of a double-whammy about it. 
While international partners have always been very generous to Botswana, the truth of the matter is that it is Botswana government which has from the beginning always shouldered the burden ÔÇô often in excess of 90 percent of the total cost.
We subscribe to those who have been reminding us that unless the cost of treatment does not change, the HIV/AIDS cost structure is for Botswana ultimately unsustainable. 
The burden gets so much heavier when organizations like ACHAP close down, which leads us to ponder the question of just how far the battle has been won.
Once again we are of the view that the gains made thus far are not irreversible.
