Lee Goldman, MD, MPH, executive vice president for health and biomedical sciences and dean of the faculties of health sciences and of medicine, and ICAP Director Wafaa El-Sadr visited ICAP programs in the Kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland this month to meet with government health officials to discuss the role of ICAP programs in the respective countries and explore opportunities for future collaborations.

In Lesotho, Minister of Health Honorable Dr. Pinkie Rosemary Manamolela highlighted ICAP initiatives in her country, including the development of nurse and midwifery institutions and the integration of tuberculosis (TB) and HIV treatment programs. “Through the valued support of ICAP, TB treatment success rate is above 70 percent,” said Dr. Manamolela. “The Nursing Education Partnership Initiative has also tremendously augmented production of nurses to curb the extreme shortage of human resources experienced. There is no doubt that the government values this training as essential contributions by ICAP to the delivery of health services in this country,” she added.

During their visit to Swaziland, Minister of Health Honorable Benedict Xaba highlighted the strong partnership between ICAP and the Swaziland Ministry of Health and noted significant advances in HIV care and treatment. The Minister also acknowledged ICAP’s unique approach to integrated care, which emphasizes both the quality of clinical service delivery as well as health systems strengthening.

ICAP and the Lesotho and Swaziland Ministries of Health will continue to address the greatest needs in the two countries. Through comprehensive programming and continued collaboration with the governments, ICAP aims to continue strengthening health systems and working hand-in-hand with partners to advance the health and well-being of the people of the Kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland.

Learn more about ICAP programs in “Lesotho”:https://icap.columbia.edu/where-we-work/lesotho and “Swaziland”:https://icap.columbia.edu/where-we-work/swaziland.