While the pandemic is hitting all global economies around the world, African countries have been hit especially badly. In the lead-up to the pandemic, there was a decline in official development assistance (ODA) and an increase in debt. And since the pandemic hit, there have been huge declines in remittances, foreign investment, and revenues.
The impact isn’t just economic, but it’s also on an individual level — access to vaccines, children not being able to go to school and learn,...
COVID-19
“Pandemica” is ONE’s newest animated content series about a world where the pandemic never ends — it’s a never-ending pandemic purgatory. From showcasing how vaccine hoarding will impact populations to what will happen if the COVID-19 virus continues to mutate, Pandemica sheds light on the reality that billions of people are experiencing right now as one-third of the world’s countries have yet to receive a single dose of COVID-19 vaccines, and what the entire world could experience if vaccine...
A roundup of the latest news, stats, and analysis of COVID-19’s impact in Africa. View our data tracker and sign up for our weekly newsletter here, and read on for COVID’s impact on education, new data on how Nigeria’s remittances have tanked, and what’s next for Tanzania. And our new series Pandemica launches this week. It’s a preview of what’s to come if rich countries keep hoarding vaccines.
Top news
Truly depleted: African finance ministers met on Monday, agreeing that “our...
Welcome to Pandemica. It’s a never-ending pandemic purgatory, where COVID-19 never goes away, but continues to mutate and cross borders. It’s the most deadly place on earth, where twice as many people die, the global economy loses an additional US$9.2 trillion, and life as we once knew it does not return for anyone. Sound familiar?
We’re all in Pandemica. To escape, we need to act now. Having safe and effective vaccines within a year of the first reported COVID-19 cases...
The entire world is overwhelmed by a virus that has stalled economic construction efforts that have been in place for more than a century, and continues to threaten millions of jobs worldwide. In the quest for recovery, countries, and leaders have directed the efforts of the world’s laboratories to find a vaccine as quickly as possible. Scientists have taken unprecedented steps to create safe and effective vaccines and offer immunity to humanity. In this race, Africa was not outdone.
Before...
A roundup of the latest news, stats, and analysis of COVID-19’s impact in Africa. View our data tracker and sign up for our weekly newsletter here, and read on for more on Nigeria’s unemployment crisis, upcoming G7 and African finance ministers meetings, and the latest poverty figures. But first, with Tanzania’s president passing, what’s next for the country?
Top news
RIP Magufuli: Tanzanian President John Magufuli passed after a short illness this week at age 61. Some outlets are reporting his...
March 2021 marked the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization officially declaring COVID-19 a pandemic and of pandemic-related restrictions for many places in the world. To mark the moment, we asked our supporters what ending COVID-19 looks like to them. Almost 3,000 responses later, we learned that our supporters had a lot to say, so we decided to share it with the world.
Here’s how it went.
Campaign origins
At the end of 2020, almost a full year since the first...
Megan Gieske is a storyteller and photographer based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Just outside Somerset West in Asanda Village, South Africa, Rachel Kolisi and a woman named Grace stand side by side in a three-room home unpacking boxes from the Kolisi Foundation. The two represent women who won’t back down — unrelenting and unfailingly humble. Together, they unpack boxes filled with blankets, toiletries, and clothing from the foundation for a woman fleeing gender-based violence, who will be staying in Grace’s...
Top news
100,000 African health workers: have been infected with COVID as of this week, citing a lack of PPE and over-work. A year into the pandemic, cases on the continent are about to hit 4 million, according to WHO Africa. Test positivity is greater than 10% in Ghana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zambia with a 3% increase across the continent.
Relief! This week US President Joe Biden will sign into law an historic $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill. The OECD...
Facts from our Africa COVID-19 Tracker
Total population: 44,269,594
Percentage of population living in extreme poverty: 41.5%
Food inflation: -1.2% (latest: 30 January 2021)
People with insufficient food intake: 34.1% (latest: 25 Feb 2021)
Children (under 5) with chronic malnutrition: 28.9%
Economy
Uganda is a low-income country with a fast-growing population. 68% of the population work in the agriculture sector, 7% in industry, and 20% in services. Like many African nations, the future of the Ugandan economy is dependent on the...