Opinions

When the roots are deep, there is no reason to fear the wind – African proverb   Background Globally, individuals are having to embrace a new world, which involves the restructuring of self, institutions, economies, and the traditional way of living. The source of this urgent restructuring is no other…

The negative implications of COVID-19 on international climate finance flows in Africa should be a wakeup call to African countries to shift from the model of oversees dependency, especially regarding issues central to Africa’s development such as funding for local climate adaptation and resilience     With the manufacturing aviation…

African governments need to act now to ensure small-scale farming and food supply chains remain uninterrupted.     We have only just begun to see the far-ranging consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world. Chief among those is the threat of a food crisis of unprecedented magnitude. Unless measures are…

The threats that are hanging over the African continent with regards to the spread of COVID-19 demand our individual and collective attention. The situation is critical.       Yet this is not about mitigating another ‘African’ humanitarian crisis but to diffuse the potentially damaging effects of a virus that…

The covid-19 pandemic has dealt a severe injury to Africa’s development prospects and worsened the conditions of its poor and vulnerable. Although there are calls for voluntary international aid to support the continent during this difficult time, this is far from the best solution.   Today, Africa is home to…

As the West focuses on its own survival, Africans have the opportunity to complete what their ancestors started.     The Western “brand” is suffering from what many see as a “slow and haphazard” response by Western governments to the COVID-19 outbreak. As the epicentre of the pandemic moved from…

Trading under the AfCFTA Agreement is meant to begin on 1 July 2020. But the AfCFTA State Parties still have critical issues to address to create an integrated, active and efficient AfCFTA market.       Where are we with the AfCFTA? The Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade…

In fact, Africa and the Global South can teach the rest some lessons.      It was inevitable that racism would rear its ugly head. Having previously documented the long and shameful history of unethical drug testing on communities of colour across the globe, I was not surprised earlier this month when…

Covid-19 is like a drama in which each act eclipses the one before. First, it was Wuhan. Then it moved to Europe. Now it’s accelerating in the United States. But the act that could overshadow all is when Covid-19 takes off in Africa.     Unless extremely fast action is…

The coronavirus will challenge African economies already saddled with debt, shrinking budget revenue, and compromised health systems. A continent-wide approach that applies lessons learned in Liberia during the Ebola outbreak and elsewhere during the current pandemic will be needed to prevent fiscal ruin.   As COVID-19 crisscrosses Africa, and policymakers…