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. This week G7 leaders meet in Germany to address the converging crises of COVID-19, climate change, and conflict. Spoiler alert: You can’t deal with one while ignoring the others.
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Marshalling plans: G7 leaders have signalled their long-term support to Ukraine, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressing hope that progress can be made against Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian...
Aftershocks
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Must read from ONE: Did you know solving global hunger could cost half of what we spend on pet food? To understand the impacts, drivers and solutions to the food crisis check out our new data dive.
A 5 Point Plan to End the Pandemic: We got fed up waiting for world leaders to come up with a plan to end the pandemic. So we wrote our own. Read it here.
Getting worse: The World Bank slashed its economic growth projections and cautioned that things could get...
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Upending lending: Despite federal troops and rebels in Ethiopia having declared a truce in the 1.5 year-long civil war in Tigray, lenders are scaling back. Disbursements from public and private banks are down by nearly 75%, from $3.1 billion in 2019-20 to under $775 million in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, with a growing budget deficit. This comes as aid is desperately needed: the conflict, paired with severe drought, has caused over 2.6 million...
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Feeling charitable: Pfizer will provide patents on a not-for-profit basis for new and existing medicines and vaccines available in the US or EU to 45 lower-income countries. Rwanda, Ghana, Malawi, Senegal, and Uganda are first in line to join the “Accord for a Healthier World”, announced at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos. The accord currently includes 23 medicines and vaccines that treat infectious diseases, some cancers, as well as rare and inflammatory diseases. It’s a...
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COVID-19’s poor legacy: The pandemic pushed 55 million people into poverty in 2020. That’s more than the total number of people pushed into poverty in the entire 20 years prior to 2020. In Africa alone, another 58 million people could fall into poverty, with women more likely to be affected.
Future focused: Senegal President Macky Sall called for a united African vision for restructuring the international system at this year’s Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (CoM2022). Conference discussions centred on...
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. Today, Thursday, 12 May, Belize, Germany, Indonesia, Senegal, and the US co-host the Second Global COVID-19 Summit. In this special edition, we take stock of where we are in the pandemic. Spoiler alert: The world wants to be done with COVID, but the virus is far from done with us.
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Vaccination apartheid: The summit takes...
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. This week, we look at progress on a malaria vaccine, the not-so-good records broken at the World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings, Africa’s role in a new vision of global finance, and more.
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Default tip of the iceberg: Hunger and blackouts are the immediate symptoms of global economic fallouts, which will see growth stall at 3.6% in 2022...
Humanitarian organizations and religious leaders are criticizing the controversial deal to relocate migrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers from the UK to Rwanda. Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said there were “serious ethical questions” about sending refugees and asylum-seekers abroad, while the Office of the United High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the deal violates international law and international refugee conventions because it outsources refugee assistance to a third country.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on the other hand, defended his government’s policy, saying Rwanda’s...
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Seismic waves: Russia’s war in Ukraine is going to weaken the economies of 143 countries this year — that’s 86% of the world — driven by rising food and energy prices. Likening the war to “seismic waves” rolling over the global economy, the IMF lowered its global growth projections from an estimated 6.1% in 2021 to 3.6% in 2022 and 2023 (and 3.8% for sub-Saharan Africa in 2022, see chart below). This could lead to greater risk of violence from heightened economic tensions in...
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Hunger emergency: Amidst a historic drought threatening 13 million people in East Africa with severe hunger, the rise in grain, fertilizer, and fuel prices resulting from Russia’s war in Ukraine is exacerbating an already dire problem. A gas shortage persists in some parts of Kenya despite government interventions. The cost of wheat has risen 80% over the past six months, causing the price of bread in Sudan to roughly double. Median food inflation across Africa is 10.6%. Fertilizer...