Facts from our Africa COVID-19 Tracker 21.3 million people require humanitarian aid. 1.8 million people are internally displaced. 792,000 refugees are seeking safety. Ranked 84th of 195 countries for capability to prevent and mitigate epidemics. A socioeconomic crisis As Africa braces for the spread of the latest Ebola outbreak, the COVID-19 pandemic has already placed Ethiopia in an acute crisis. COVID-19 is causing a loss of income for many families who have been simultaneously affected by irregular rainfalls and outbreaks of...
h2>Top news Debt donut: ONE’s new debt donut shows that 80% debt service payments from poorer countries have not been suspended, despite warm words from the G20. In 2021, we expect countries eligible for the Debt Service Suspension Initiative will have $6.8 billion of payments rescheduled until later. But they will still have to pay $36.1 billion to bilateral creditors, multilateral institutions, and private creditors this year. African countries eligible for relief will still have to pay $19.8 billion. G20...
In September 2020, Vanessa and her husband, both residents of rural Makueni County in Kenya, reported to the FSD FinMark Trust COVID tracker, a survey of economic and social issue across seven African countries, that the couple had not gotten any work for three months, and the family was running out of food. Like Vanessa and her family, many respondents to the COVID tracker drew down their savings, asked for remittances, and borrowed from friends to survive the pandemic....
Dear Prime Minister Draghi, Finance Minister Franco cc G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, We warmly welcome the “People, Planet, Prosperity” framing of the Italian G20. We call upon the G20 Leaders and Finance Ministers meeting on February 26th to agree the following steps to deliver historic increases in the quality and quantity of financing for a global recovery that is job-rich, resilient, and environmentally, socially and financially sustainable. Together we must recognize that there are three concurrent crises to crack-...
A roundup of the latest news, stats, and analysis of COVID-19’s impact in Africa. View our data tracker and sign up for our weekly newsletter here, and read on for more on COVID’s impact on food security in Africa. But first, what to look for at this week’s G7 meeting. Top news War-time footing: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, new Italian Prime Minister and G20 Chair Mario Draghi, and US President Joe Biden have all said we are at war with...
Carine Umutoniwase is a Kenya ONE Champion and the founder of Footprints for Change. COVID-19 has crippled education systems worldwide, leading to the closure of schools for months in countries like Kenya. This saw millions of children out of school, confined to their homes. E-learning was instituted as a response to the learning loss that resulted from schools closing — but this increased inequality among learners, especially for those in underserved and marginalized communities that have limited supply to electricity...
The National Assembly recently approved the 2021 budget proposal submitted by the federal government of Nigeria. As the nation grapples with the health, economic, and social impacts of the pandemic, here’s what you need to know about Nigeria’s government priorities and allocations: The 2021 budget is higher by 26% from last year’s budget (N13.6 trillion vs N10.8 trillion). There was an increase in debt service allocation. In fact, debt servicing is almost 3 times more than total allocation to education...
This year, in the face of a global pandemic, the fight against global poverty and inequality became tougher, but more important than ever. Our tireless activists fought for fair deals on debt, vaccine access, aid budgets, and more. Hundreds of thousands of global activists signed petitions, completed surveys, tweeted at or sent emails to politicians, attended briefing calls, shared messages of solidarity, or danced to our anthem “Stand Together.” Here’s a quick look at some of what ONE and our activists...
In 2020, global health has gone from a fringe issue to the forefront of people’s mind, all thanks to COVID-19. The last time the entire world came close to being as focused on a pandemic threat was over two decades ago, when HIV/AIDS was killing almost 4,000 people every day and new infections doubled year after year. Since then, the global response to AIDS has become a success story, and AIDS-related deaths have been cut by more than half. Today,...