Rendering Africa more resilient, sustainable, and better prepared for COVID-analogous pandemics: Proposals from across seven African countries

Rendering Africa more resilient, sustainable, and better prepared for COVID-analogous pandemics: Proposals from across seven African countries Chapter Authors Laouris, Yiannis, Norma RA Romm, Abiba Abdallah, Bill Graham Osei Akomea, Melvis Kimbi, Abel Mavura, Apollo Murigi, Abdulkarim Taraja, and Rahab Wairimu Book Title COVID-19 Pandemic: Perspectives across Africa Book Editor Alain L. Fymat, A.L., Romm, Norma R.A., and Kapalanga, Joachim Book Publisher Tellwell Talent Publisher Location Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Pages 36-61 Year 2022 Link Download

Abstract

This chapter details a number of proposals for rendering African countries more resilient, sustainable and better prepared for COVID-19 and similar future pandemics. The proposals were solicited from a group of participants from various countries in Africa, who previously (2016) participated in week-long face-to-face dialogues as part of a project entitled “Re-inventing democracy in the digital age” funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund and organized by the Futures Worlds Center. Many of the youth pioneers (aged 18-30) who participated in the 2016 sessions subsequently continued to liaise with one another via various virtual forums. In August 2021, spearheaded by the Future Worlds Center, we decided to set a “triggering question” for these participants to reflect upon and engage around with each other, with the aim of writing a chapter on responses to COVID-type pandemics, to share with audiences. The triggering question to kindle Ideas/proposals was: “What actions/reforms/ policies should our country take in order to become more resilient, sustainable and better prepared for future crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic?” Volunteer participants were invited to share their Ideas regarding practical and forward-looking (visionary) responses to this question. They were invited in the first instance to share Ideas on a virtual platform called IdeaPrism in preparation for a video conference using Zoom in which clarifications of the Ideas were solicited from the Idea-originators, by others asking questions. The clarification questions were mainly around actual or potential ways of actioning the Ideas within and across countries. This resulted in a rich array of concrete proposals, which we detail in the chapter, along with an overarching synthesis.

Citation

Laouris, Y., Romm, N. R., Abdallah, A., Akomea, B. G. O., Kimbi, M., Mavura, A., ... & Wairimu, R. Chapter Two Rendering Africa more resilient, sustainable, and better prepared for COVID-analogous pandemics: Proposals from across seven African countries.