President Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi of the southern African nation of Botswana and Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway met in New York on September 22. The aim of the meeting, which included Botswana’s top government officials and many Rutgers leaders, was to discuss the partnership between Botswana and Rutgers while President Masisi was in the city for the UN General Assembly. This was the first in-person meeting between the two presidents, with President Holloway having assumed his position at Rutgers in July 2020, near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Botswana-Rutgers partnership began with a focus on health care in 2018, and in 2019, it expanded to other areas, including information technology, higher education and research, entrepreneurship and innovation, and leadership. When the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a pause in some of these plans, the partnership continued its efforts in improving cancer care and prevention in Botswana and supported the country’s COVID-19 pandemic response, addressing key health information technology gaps in the process. To read the full story.