The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has proposed strategies to African countries of how to fight the coronavirus pandemic following containment measures taken to limit its economic and societal damage to African countries.
In a statement released on Sunday, 10 May 2020, the ECA said that at least fourty-two African countries have imposed partial or total containment measures to bar the way to the pandemic.
ECA estimates that Africa would lose about 2.5% of its GDP in a month of containment, or $65 billion. This projection is distinct and adds to the wider external impact of the Covid-19 crisis on Africa, which is the result of falling commodity prices and investment flows.
In a new report called Covid-19: Deconfinement Strategies for Africa, ECA proposes seven plans that ensure sustainable economic activity, even if it is reduced.
The publication of this report comes two days after the web-debate between experts, organised on Thursday on the initiative of ECA and during which they called for effective strategies both socially and economically to promote recovery.
The report stresses that the deconfinement strategies proposed and tested by several countries around the world expose the risks run by Africa.
With containment measures, African economies face serious challenges, including a drop in demand for products and services; a lack of operational cash flow; reduced opportunities to meet new customers; closing businesses; problems related to the evolution of commercial strategies and the supply of alternative products and services; a drop in the production and productivity of workers compared to telework; logistical and product transportation difficulties; and the difficulties of supplying raw materials essential to production.
According to ECA, one of the most sensitive issues facing policy makers is the impact of containment measures on food security.
The seven deconfinement strategies proposed by the think tank are identified from proposals and experiences around the world. In most cases, countries apply a combination of several strategies such as testing, contact tracing and segmented progressive deconfinement.
These strategies relate to improving tests; maintaining containment until preventive or curative drugs are developed; tracing contacts and carrying out a large number of tests; issuance of immunity permits; gradual and segmented reopening; adaptation and mitigation measures.
As part of adaptation measures, African countries can relax containment measures once infections decrease and reimpose it if they start to exceed the capacity of intensive care. These measures would require regular closings for two-thirds of the year; which would make little difference than permanent confinement from an economic point of view. Africa has a limited hospital capacity which would therefore quickly be exceeded, with a definite impact on the number of deaths.
In addition, the companies questioned by the ECA declare that they only operate at 43% of their usual capacity and 70% of slum dwellers admit to lacking meals or eating less because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
ECA calls in its report on African countries to take advantage of this delay in the spread of the crisis and the lessons learned from other regions as well as their experiences of reopening. It also invites them to use the “additional time” caused by the restrictive measures to quickly set up test systems, treatment, prevention devices and in particular to carefully develop deconfinement strategies.
– APA
