March 2021 marked the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization officially declaring COVID-19 a pandemic and of pandemic-related restrictions for many places in the world. To mark the moment, we asked our supporters what ending COVID-19 looks like to them. Almost 3,000 responses later, we learned that our supporters had a lot to say, so we decided to share it with the world.
Here’s how it went.
Campaign origins
At the end of 2020, almost a full year since the first...
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Megan Gieske is a storyteller and photographer based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Just outside Somerset West in Asanda Village, South Africa, Rachel Kolisi and a woman named Grace stand side by side in a three-room home unpacking boxes from the Kolisi Foundation. The two represent women who won’t back down — unrelenting and unfailingly humble. Together, they unpack boxes filled with blankets, toiletries, and clothing from the foundation for a woman fleeing gender-based violence, who will be staying in Grace’s...
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100,000 African health workers: have been infected with COVID as of this week, citing a lack of PPE and over-work. A year into the pandemic, cases on the continent are about to hit 4 million, according to WHO Africa. Test positivity is greater than 10% in Ghana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zambia with a 3% increase across the continent.
Relief! This week US President Joe Biden will sign into law an historic $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill. The OECD...
Facts from our Africa COVID-19 Tracker
Total population: 44,269,594
Percentage of population living in extreme poverty: 41.5%
Food inflation: -1.2% (latest: 30 January 2021)
People with insufficient food intake: 34.1% (latest: 25 Feb 2021)
Children (under 5) with chronic malnutrition: 28.9%
Economy
Uganda is a low-income country with a fast-growing population. 68% of the population work in the agriculture sector, 7% in industry, and 20% in services. Like many African nations, the future of the Ugandan economy is dependent on the...
Ashlegh Pfunye and Iyunoluwa Ademola-Popoola are Youth Leaders for Global Partnership for Education. They raise awareness of the barriers to education and aim to increase the ambition of leaders for financing education and development.
It is undeniable that COVID-19 has altered how we live and work. Lives continue to be lost, and hospitals and health workers have been overwhelmed with patients suffering from the virus. Though efforts such as social distancing, wearing of masks, and bans on large gatherings have...
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Begins at home: 72% of African women reported worrying about not having enough food to eat in the past 30 days, according to a major new survey from Facebook’s Data for Good program. 53% of women (35% of men) felt that their current financial situation does not fully cover their own expenses.
Gender vulnerabilities: 80% of the countries where women are most vulnerable to COVID-19 are in Africa. So says new research from DATA2x and Open Data Watch. Women...
Facts from our Africa COVID-19 Tracker
Population: 2,347,706
Share of population living in extreme poverty: 10.3%
Share of people with insufficient food intake: 12.8% (latest: 18 Feb 2021)
The economy relies upon agriculture, tourism, and remittances.
Economic impact
The COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding border closures have severely impacted the fragile economy of The Gambia. Pandemic responses are affecting trade, which accounts for 25% of imported goods and exported earnings, and the valuable tourism industry, which provides an income to 42,000 Gambian people. Hotels, restaurants, and...
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...
Having safe and effective vaccines a full year since the first reported cases of COVID-19 is a historic scientific achievement. It has shifted the conversation from “if” we will see an end to the pandemic to “when.”
But COVID-19 will not end with just a vaccine. It ends when everyone, everywhere has access to it. If the virus remains unchecked anywhere in the world, it will continue to move across borders, mutate, and drastically impact the global economy. Prioritizing the...
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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...