Coronavirus: Containment Challenges of a Global Crisis

Reflections on resilience, technology, and policy preparedness in Eastern Africa

“My eldest son is the deputy farm manager. He is away in college now, hopefully studying something,” so went the candid statement of a cheerful Finnish farmer who left us in stitches when we visited their commercial family farming project in the greater Helsinki area in October 2019. Such candour with a tinge of humour finds its match in the kind of answers citizens may give when asked the whereabouts of their erstwhile common and conspicuous political leaders during this Covid-19 pandemic.

Coronavirus has been a disruptive, distractive, destructive, and distancing virus. It is a watershed dividing our era apart into three distinct periods with key leadership lessons worth reflecting on: BC (Before Corona), DC (During Corona), and AC (After Corona). The BC era requires hindsight to reflect on what leaders should have done better, predictive models and timely containment measures being key. The DC era invokes insights into the prevailing circumstances — how to cope by utilising homegrown strengths and expertise for crisis management while promoting governance goodwill. As such, DC is the period over which the world can discover the icons of crisis leadership. The AC era is even more challenging. It requires incredible foresight, strategic leadership, and long-term systems thinking to deal effectively with the aftershocks of Covid-19. The AC era will, in the medium and long term, reveal to the world the leaders who…