As an organisation created to tackle extreme poverty and preventable disease, the past year has been a stark reminder to everyone at ONE just how important this mission is. All around the world, we have seen how a single virus has brought chaos and fear — threatening people‘s lives and livelihoods and wreaking havoc on whole economies. As is so often the case, the poorest and most vulnerable have borne the brunt of this crisis; for them, an end to...
In just three months, COVID-19 has upended life in Africa. Around 70,000 people have been infected and over 2,000 have died. Statistically, the African continent has been spared from the high concentration of cases seen elsewhere. Politically, in a world where there is a deficit on global leadership, we have seen the African Union step up to ensure a coordinated response across the continent, particularly in supporting countries with weak health systems and pushing for debt restructuring. However, the reality remains...
A video was recently circulated showing people in overcrowded slums in Lagos, Nigeria resisting lockdown. In the video, people expressed their dissatisfaction with the lockdown, citing their inability to meet their food and energy needs as a major concern. In Kenya, commuters at a ferry received a bout of tear gas as the police tried to disperse a crowd of ferry commuters in Mombasa trying to escape the impending curfew the next day. We should expect to see more of...