Impact evaluation of 35 year NORAD support to the Botswana health sector

NORAD held a meeting on January 10th 2012 to discuss the findings of the Botswana Review and, to use this to promote a discussion about NORAD's future aid programmes. The Botswana review was carried out by HERA and covered a period of 35 years of continuous support by NORAD to the health sector in Botswana. The purpose of the review was to a) document the outcomes and impacts of Norwegian health sector assistance both for the users of health services and for the health care system at large in Botswana; and b) outline relevant lessons for design and implementation of future result-oriented health sector programs keeping in view the changing environment for health sector assistance programs in partner countries. 

In the first part of the meeting, the Botswana team leader made a short presentation of the key findings to around 50 participants invited by the Evaluation Department of NORAD. A number of the participants were from NORAD itself but most were people who had worked for NORAD in the Botswana health sector in some capacity or other over the last 35 years and were now continuing their careers in the Norwegian health services or academia. Following a discussion about the key findings of the review, the meeting moved on to discuss how lessons from Botswana might be applied in the very different circumstances of the international development environment today. Thoughts from this meeting are to be part of an input for informing the debate about the future of Norwegian international assistance.

The evaluation reports are now published on the Norad website.