Ahead of the Global Education Summit on July 28-29, hosted by the United Kingdom and Kenya in London, 82 civil society organizations and 14 Members of Parliament together with 6 artists and 43 individuals on the continent all from over 22 countries are asking African Heads of State to protect domestic public financing of education in their countries. They are also urging them to endorse President Uhuru Kenyatta’s political statement on education. In it, he calls on them to prioritize,...
As COVID-19 spreads across low- and middle-income countries, billions of people are vulnerable to variants that could resist vaccines and put the world back at square one in tackling this pandemic. So why isn’t the vaccine already available to everyone, everywhere? It comes down to supply and distribution. Rich countries have bought up the majority of the supply and are hoarding even what they don’t need. Meanwhile, low- and middle-income countries are struggling to roll out the doses they do...
Top news Fallout of COVID-19 pandemic causes spike in world hunger Critical juncture: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a dramatic worsening of world hunger – in 2020, just under 10% of the global population was undernourished, up from 8.4% in 2019. A UN report on the state of food security and nutrition in the world found that Africa saw the sharpest rise – at 21% of the population, Africa’s rate of undernourishment is more than double that of any other region...
Rasna Warah is a Kenyan writer and journalist who is working with the ONE Campaign’s COVID-19 Aftershocks project. EU countries will issue a COVID-19 vaccine certificate that excludes key vaccines distributed through the COVAX facility – which is financed by many of the same countries – placing Africans at a unique disadvantage. Africans who have expressed concern over the extremely stringent and punitive visa application procedures of EU countries now have to contend with another barrier to their entry to Europe....
COVID-19 has certainly had a negative effect on the African economy but is not responsible for all the economic challenges faced on the continent. Even though Africa’s economy has been affected by the pandemic, the continent has fared well due to the urgent preventative steps taken by individual governments to avoid the advanced spread and effects of COVID-19. But with the COVID-19 crisis, Africa has experienced an unprecedented economic shock. Despite the efforts made by the governments to support their...
Top news Africa’s worst week since the pandemic started Nothing we have seen before: This week was Africa’s worst since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Confirmed cases across the continent surged past the previous peak. Infections are now rising by 25% every week. The WHO’s Africa Director, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti said, “the speed and scale of Africa’s third wave is like nothing we have seen before.” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the country’s health system is “buckling” as...
This guest blog was written by ONE Youth Ambassador Veerle Blokhuis. The coronavirus has brought about a lot of change in the world. The various measures deployed worldwide to combat the pandemic have had a major impact on our daily lives, from many workers losing part, or all, of their income to children no longer being able to go to school. In African countries, however, these impacts are even more severe. On the continent, lower incomes and less education have led...
African countries are facing a third wave of COVID-19 infections which threatens to be even more brutal than the two that came before. Across Africa, between June and July, cases rose by nearly 200%. The continent just exceeded its worst-ever week in the pandemic, and the WHO has warned that cases are now doubling every three weeks. Over a dozen countries have already reported their highest rate of infections since the start of the pandemic, with over 700,000 confirmed...
Top news Governments, businesses and philanthropists commit $40 billion to fight for gender equality Time for change: The Generation Equality Forum taking place in Paris this week is an opportunity to ensure that gender is at the heart of the post-COVID agenda. The event has already raised $40 billion in new financial commitments, including a pledge of $2.1 billion from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. US Vice-President Kamala Harris announced that the US plans to double PEPFAR’s DREAMS partnership, which...
Rasna Warah is a Kenyan writer and journalist who is working with the ONE Campaign’s COVID-19 Aftershocks project. Tanzania’s new president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, is slowly reversing the COVID-19 policies of her predecessor, the late John Magufuli, who infamously declared that the coronavirus had been defeated in the country. He banned the publication of official data and reports on the disease, even as doctors privately reported a rise in the number of patients with COVID symptoms dying in hospitals. Despite being...