ALC Covid-19 Research
- Details
- Hits: 3468
Op-Ed Series – Vol.1 Issue: 3
April 24, 2020
Absorbing the Shocks or Irreversible Damage? The Impact of Covid-19 on Africa’s Political Economy
Clement Sefa-Nyarko*
In Summary
- In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries have adopted lockdowns, virus testing regimes and social distancing measures. African countries have followed suit, mostly with ‘copy and paste’ versions of these actions, resulting in profound social and economic stresses on their people.
- What is immediately evident is that without creativity, contextualisation and civil participation in political decisions, African countries will struggle to weather the storm and resuscitate after the pandemic.
- It is important that the interventions, particularly lockdowns, are implemented without the brutal repression of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
- Agriculture is a key economic driver for Africa. This crisis presents an opportunity for African countries to harness potential in this sector and innovate across various industries.
Without question, the COVID-19 pandemic has created chaos, panic, and hopelessness for people across the world. Markedly, and for the first time in recent years, an infectious disease has ravaged the global north defying modern stereotyping of contagious diseases. There is no known cure or vaccine yet for this disease. As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads throughout Africa, we must ask, will the continent be spared or left reeling from the fierce blows being dealt to all aspects of social, economic and political life across the globe? How is Africa absorbing the shocks from the disease and resultant policy responses? What will the policy responses produce when the economies are weak, the majority of citizens rely on the informal sector, contested legitimacy forces the state to largely rely on the use of force to enforce the responses, democratic rights and freedoms are routinely violated, citizens distrust the state and sophisticated corruption networks are embedded?
- Details
- Hits: 4815
Op-Ed Series– Vol.1 Issue: 2
April 15, 2020
COVID-19 and The Conundrum of China-Africa Relations
Dr. Barney Walsh and Hubert Kinkoh
In Summary
- Notwithstanding some scepticism around the narrative of success China has presented in tackling the crisis at home, Africa seems to be very open to receiving support from Chinese government and private enterprises.
- More Africans have expressed pessimism on social media about Chinese assistance to Africa in the fight against COVID-19.
- China and Asia’s seemingly superior capacity and effectiveness in halting the spread of COVID-19 versus the struggles by Western (Euro-American) Democracies, appears to resonate with African governments.
- The pandemic will likely strengthen China’s relations with African states and ruling elite on the one hand, but deepen the fissures between African citizens and their leaders on the other.
Will the COVID-19 pandemic impact China’s relations with Africa? If yes, how? Is it likely to strengthen official ties or expose and deepen the skepticism held by many African citizens towards China and their perceived collaboration with African ruling elites? Or will COVID-19 impact China-Africa relations in puzzling ways that are unimaginable and indiscernible at present? At the minimum, two things are clear at this stage: there are many twists and turns ahead in terms of COVID-19 and Africa; and how it eventually plays out in Africa will matter for China-Africa relations. Likewise, the global context of COVID-19 is bound to impact Africa and could well mean a new chapter in China-Africa relations.
Read more: COVID-19 and The Conundrum of China-Africa Relations
- Details
- Hits: 1997
Op-Ed Series – Vol.1 Issue: 1
April 15, 2020
Introduction
The ALC is launching an Africa-focused op-ed series to track, analyse and reflect on COVID-19 in and for Africa. Occasionally, sometimes over the course of a century, an earth-shaking event redefines the ‘normality’ of events, systems, ideas and people’s lives in ways that are unpredictable. The COVID-19 pandemic is surely one of such moments which are bound to change the world. In fact, it is plausible to expect that many of the aspects of the pre-COVID-19 world order are gone forever. Africa and indeed the World will never be the same after COVID-19!
The transboundary, transregional, and trans-world nature of COVID-19 exposes the unique weaknesses and failures of the post-World War 2 ‘Order’, specifically the limitations of the neoliberal consensus. COVID-19 is laying bare the overt and covert, internal and external, and the small and big weaknesses of different political systems, state structures, and state-society dynamics across rich and poor, developed and developing, and so-called ‘strong’ and ‘fragile’ states. The global nature of the pandemic also exposes the marginality of Africa and its circumstances and experiences of COVID-19 in scholarly and even policy debates and discussions thus far.
