Member-only story
COVID-19 in Africa: A Voyage through Uncertainty to Manageable Risks
Lessons towards a renewed public policy resolve for adaptive resilience in Africa beyond flattening the Covid-19 curve
Recently, the world has come to know disease and disaster governance as a serious matter of public policy with borderless geopolitical implications. Despite their small number of COVID-19 cases relative to the rest of the world, African countries are still on a voyage to a highly uncertain future. The closure of learning institutions in a region devoid of adequate technology infrastructure is enough to tell how the extensive impact of COVID-19 can shake the very foundation of long-term societal transformation.
Like a tough adventure involving groping in the dark, the uncertain future of COVID-19 has prompted country policy responses to take on divergent paths. From the experience of the countries that have battled with COVID-19 longer, the pandemic displays a mutating and wavy warring style of tactical retreat and overwhelming ambush. This attack mode positions adaptation through communal behaviour change as the first among equals in the array of practical containment measures. As such, flattening the COVID-19 curve is just a means to an end in this convoluted warfare.
