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...
ONE
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...
Megan Gieske is a storyteller and photographer based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Tony Elvin, IKhaya Le Langa’s founder, sits inside the retro 1950’s style eatery, “The Sun Diner,” after Langa, which means “the sun.” It’s flanked by two repurposed shipping containers, one a bright cobalt blue. He’s nurturing a puppy that arrived at IKhaya Le Langa’s gates the day before. It’s not hard to tell that IKhaya Le Langa, in part, means “home.”
That’s what Elvin wants the IKhaya Le Langa...
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...
Ashlegh Pfunye and Iyunoluwa Ademola-Popoola are Youth Leaders for Global Partnership for Education. They raise awareness of the barriers to education and aim to increase the ambition of leaders for financing education and development.
It is undeniable that COVID-19 has altered how we live and work. Lives continue to be lost, and hospitals and health workers have been overwhelmed with patients suffering from the virus. Though efforts such as social distancing, wearing of masks, and bans on large gatherings have...
Top news
Begins at home: 72% of African women reported worrying about not having enough food to eat in the past 30 days, according to a major new survey from Facebook’s Data for Good program. 53% of women (35% of men) felt that their current financial situation does not fully cover their own expenses.
Gender vulnerabilities: 80% of the countries where women are most vulnerable to COVID-19 are in Africa. So says new research from DATA2x and Open Data Watch. Women...