Visit by the Botswana Gender Affairs Department to MEASURE Evaluation at the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina Staff from the Government of Botswana's (GAD) Gender Affairs Department came to MEASURE Evaluation to continue working on the development and implementation of a pilot referral system for care and support provided to gender-based violence survivors in two areas of the country.

Senior staff members of the Gender Affairs Department (GAD) of the Government of Botswana visited the Carolina Population Center (CPC), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC to work with the MEASURE Evaluation technical team on the further development of the pilot referral system for care and support services provided to gender-based violence survivors.  The goal of the referral system is to improve access to comprehensive, quality services for gender-based-violence survivors and increase case reporting by strengthening stakeholder collaboration. 

During their February working visit to Botswana, the MEASURE Evaluation technical team (Jen Curran M&E Technical Specialist and Shelah Bloom, Senior Technical Advisor for Gender) became aware that Valencia Mogegeh (GAD Director) and Phemelo Maiketso (GAD Chief Gender Officer) had planned a trip to the United States In March, in order to participate in the Committee on the Status of Women meetings at the United Nations. The team made arrangements for them to extend their visit to work for three days at the CPC. The GAD decided to send Kealeboga Dambuza (Principal Gender Officer, Research) to join them just for the working visit to the CPC.

During the visit, plans for the pilot referral system implementation and the referral information system were finalized. The referral information system will be based on SMS technology, which will enhance data quality by minimizing several sources of error, and reduce the labor needed for traditional data systems based on entry of paper forms. The timeline was also finalized during the visit. The pilot is expected to launch in July, 2013.

Enquiries:

Joan LaRosa
Director: PEPFAR
USAID Botswana
Tel: (+267) 367-2431