Botswana

Botswana Sexual and Reproductive Health Initiative (BSRHI)

The Botswana Sexual and Reproductive Health Initiative is a collaboration between University of Botswana (UB), Botswana-Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership (BHP) and US universities including UCSF, UCSD, UCLA, USC, UPenn and Harvard, hosted by the Botswana Sexual and Reproductive Health Initiative (BSRHI). The site offers research and training opportunities focused on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) including contraception, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), maternal health, women’s cancers, HIV (including advanced HIV and opportunistic infections) and tuberculosis.

BSRHI is a partnership run through BHP and in collaboration with UB, the Botswana Ministry of Health and Wellness (MoHW), local NGOs and international collaborators. They are committed to interdisciplinary research, teaching and training, and policy advancement to address issues relevant to improving people’s health in Southern Africa by strengthening local capacity, contributing to international scientific advancements, presenting on the world stage, and inspiring junior investigators to pursue global health careers.

BHP was established in 1996 as a research and training initiative, focusing on HIV/AIDS and has since expanded into many other areas of health research. BHP hosts numerous large-scale grants funded by organizations such as the NIH, CDC, MRC, Wellcome Trust and EDCTP. The main BHP facilities are based in Gaborone at Princess Marina Hospital, Botswana’s main referral/teaching hospital. BHP has state-of-the-art facilities with excellent clinical research capacity, infrastructure for the administration of word-class clinical and translational research programs, laboratory facilities, including the Botswana-Harvard HIV reference laboratory, research office space and research clinics in Gaborone and across the country. BHP has in-country health informatics and data-management capacity. BHP benefits from its partnership with UB, the main tertiary academic institution in Botswana, and its strong links to the Botswana MoHW and local NGOs. The Botswana GloCal site has eight full-time in-country clinical/academic faculty members who can serve as GloCal mentors, offering hands-on, in-depth mentorship in a range of disciplines and research methodologies (e.g., clinical medicine, public health, implementation science, epidemiology, laboratory science, social science, health economics) and who have significant mentoring and research experience.

Site contact: Dr. Chelsea Morroni