Repositioning Africa to meet the immediate and remote challenges after Covid19.
Even before COVID-19, the world was already under significant threat from rising nationalism forcing governments and businesses to define new constructs and priorities.
The world is under significant threat as governments scramble to reduce their vulnerability to the virus by limiting global trade and flows of people.
With the imposition of border closures and strict migration measures, there have been major disruptions in Africa’s global supply chains with adverse impacts on employment and poverty.
The agricultural sector, which should buffer these shocks, is also being affected by the enforcement of lockdowns which threaten people’s livelihoods and food security.
Whilst governments across Africa hasten to reinforce measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the context of fragile health systems, several pertinent questions arise.
How might African governments successfully combat community transmission of the virus while also providing economic relief to families and businesses affected by physical distancing or ‘lockdown’ strategies?
In addressing the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 on African nations, governments should prioritize social protection programmes to provide people with resources to maintain economic productivity while limiting job losses.
Maintaining cross-border trade and cooperation to continue generating public revenues is necessary.
New strategies for diversifying African economies and limiting their dependence on external funding by promoting trade with a more regional focus as promoted by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, while not without limitations, should be explored.
The importance of a global health focus on what remains the poorest and most resource-constrained region of the world cannot be overstated, just as the capacities and historic strengths of African societies cannot be understated.
How well and how equitably African leaders within their own means respond to the present pandemic, and how well and respectfully they are assisted in doing so by leaders of the world’s wealthier nations, remains the litmus-test of the collective ability to strengthen global health security for all.
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