Collective Action How the AU plans to combat the coronavirus pandemic on the continent
At the turn of the new decade months ago, the world looked forward to a new year with hope and optimism. That sentiment was soon shattered, however, as the dark cloud of the novel coronavirus pandemic swept across the globe. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei Province. Since then, at the time of writing, World Health Organization (WHO) figures show there have been more than 2 million cases with 133,732 fatalities and 451,481 recoveries. These figures are drawn from 212 countries, areas or territories including Africa. To date, only the Comoros and Lesotho have not reported any COVID-19 case in Africa, but this is expected to change in the months ahead as the disease knows no borders.
AU plan
While the coronavirus was spreading across Chinese cities, the rest of the world watched with bated breath at the measures that the Chinese Government was taking to contain its spread. Wuhan was quickly put on a lockdown, which was lifted after 76 days.
COVID-19 has adversely affected the global community not only in matters of health, but also in terms of international trade, macroeconomic indicators, financial markets, among others. Alarmed by the potential of the global economy grinding to a halt because of COVID-19, African leaders caucusing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the 33rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) in February this year, set the ball rolling by recommending that the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) activate its Emergency Operations Center and its Incident Management System.
This will improve surveillance, emergency response and prevention of the disease.
The decision came as the backdrop to the first confirmed coronavirus case in Egypt while the second case (the first in sub-saharan Africa) was in Nigeria. The AU was perturbed about the COVID-19 spreading to Africa mainly because the healthcare systems on the continent do not have the capacity to withstand the pressure exerted by large number of patients. This is due to a lack of medical supplies such as personnel protective equipment, financial constraints, insufficient training of healthcare workers and inefficient data transmission.
The AU was concerned that the pandemic may be difficult to nip in the bud if proper containment measures were not adopted in time, causing unprecedented economic challenges. Several policy measures were proposed by the AU to deal with the pandemic, for instance, African countries need to put in place policies that are responsive to the immediate situation and adopt measures that correspond to the COVID19 aftermath. The AU has constantly and consistently been issuing periodic press releases dubbed “Outbreak Brief” as a way of updating members with current information on new infections, deaths and recoveries, along with measures that member states need to adopt to control the spread of the disease.
Managing the pandemic
With confirmed COVID-19 cases increasing, the AU recommended the need to take urgent action to lockdown affected areas to contain the virus spread.
To effectively manage the spread of the pandemic, the AU urged its members to review and revise their annual fiscal budgets to reflect prioritization of spending on healthcare systems, especially on infrastructure and logistics, purchase of pharmaceutical and medical products, and protective equipment. The revised budgets are meant to create funds for medical research, emergency, and social protection for the vulnerable population. Through the initiative of central banks, members have adopted fiscal and monetary policies signaling commercial banks to lower their reserve requirement ratios for increased liquidity, to support affected small and medium enterprises – which are the engine of economic growth and development in least
Several policy measures were proposed by the AU to deal with the pandemic, for instance, African countries need to put in place policies that are responsive to the immediate situation and adopt measures that correspond to the COVID-19 aftermath.
developed countries.
The AU emphasizes the need to promote transparent sharing of information with citizens to minimize the spread of false information to avoid a situation where the continent will be fighting both the pandemic and “infodemic” (false information about coronavirus) simultaneously. The organization also mandated the AU Commission to lead debt relief negotiations on African external debt amounting to $236 billion, develop coordination mechanisms for identifying and monitoring the spread of the pandemic and mapping out policy responses by individual members and within the Regional Economic Communities.
Post-pandemic preparation
The AU members have also been encouraged to partner with the private sector to raise funds for fighting the pandemic. Leading by example, the AU, in partnership with Africa CDC, launched a public-private partnership initiative - Africa COVID-19 Response Fund - to raise an initial $150 million to prevent transmission and $400 million for the procurement of medical supplies and for supporting the most vulnerable population. Founder of Alibaba Group Jack Ma has donated medical equipment, including ventilators, protective suits and face masks, and laboratory diagnostic test kits to fight this pandemic in Africa.
On the post-pandemic efforts, the AU has urged members to diversify and transform their economies by strengthening the production capacity of the private sector to process raw materials locally. This is meant to improve domestic resource mobilization and minimize the likelihood of the supply chain disruptions caused by the continent’s dependence on external financial flows, which they estimate to be 11.6 percent of Africa’s GDP compared to 6.6 percent of developing economies’ GDP.
Due to the continent’s overstretched health systems, the AU has recommended the need for African countries to complete the signing and ratification of the African Medicine Agency – a specialized agency of the AU for regulating medical products on the continent. This is part of the AU’S efforts for establishing regional public private partnerships to produce medical and pharmaceutical products and personal protective equipment to not only combat the COVID-19 pandemic, but also reduce Africa’s imports and ensure quality control of production. In addition, there is a need to harness a digital revolution for economic transformation to achieve the AU’S Agenda 2063, particularly on youth unemployment. As a post-pandemic remedy, the AU Commission is tasked with the responsibility of leading negotiations for increased funding from multilateral donors to develop the healthcare systems in Africa.
The above mitigation measures coupled with collective and individual responsibilities like regular washing of hands with soap, use of sanitizers and face masks, self-quarantine for those exhibiting symptoms and maintaining social distancing will go a long way to reduce the magnitude of the impact that the pandemic would have on the African economy. For now, let us stay home, stay safe and flatten the COVID-19 curve. CA
The writer is an economist, consultant and a regional commentator on trade and investment based in
Nairobi, Kenya
As COVID-19 spreads across the continent, African countries have adopted many prevention and control measures, such as travel restrictions and border closures. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has played an important role in the fight against COVID-19 in Africa.
In early April, Wang Xiaochun, a professor of epidemiology and senior advisor for disease control at the Africa CDC, talked to Chinafrica about the work Africa CDC has done on prevention and control of the COVID-19 outbreak in Africa, the challenges the continent faces in fighting the epidemic, and the measures he has recommended. An excerpt of his views follows:
Actions
In February, the Africa CDC, at the request of the African Union (AU), formulated a plan for Africa to respond to the COVID-19 epidemic. In order to implement this plan, two temporary work groups have been established within the Africa CDC. One is Africa Task Force for Coronavirus to deal with