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This study analyses how strengths and weaknesses of economic, societal, political and environmental structures played out during the Covid-19 crisis in Africa since March 2020. Its main aim is to improve evidence on the direct and indirect effects of the pandemic on African countries and, based on that evidence, identify policy implications and formulate recommendations. It comprises the analysis of (a) direct impacts of the pandemic as well as of policy responses such as lockdowns and their potential determinants; (b) indirect effects of lockdowns and policy responses to the pandemic on economic, social, political and environmental domains in the light of structural strengths and weaknesses of African countries. In general, the study is based on the assumption that economic and other structures determine the magnitude and direction of the pandemic's impact on the short and long run. Its added value is the thematic comprehensiveness and the comparative analysis of country clusters. Amongst many other findings, the analysis shows the important role of social cohesion for coping with the pandemic and for sustainable development on the longer run. This implies the need for (a) material and immaterial investments in good and trustful relationships within societies and between society and the state; (b) incentives for increasing cooperation of individuals for a common good need to be at the core of future development strategies. It identifies a trias of political priorities, which are all equally important and relate to each other. They contain (a) inclusive and green economic development that must be linked to (b) the establishment and improvement of universal social systems (health, education, social protection in case of poverty, old age and unemployment) as well as (c) a redesign of political institutions that are capable and inclusive to collect revenues and provide public goods. (d) None of these policy priorities will be effective on the long run without saving ecosystems.
With both domestic and external financing expected to dry up in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, this book argues that there is a need for fresh ideas and new strategies for achieving sustainable development in Africa. In addition to triggering the most severe recession in nearly a century, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted global value chains, causing unprecedented damage to healthcare systems, economies, and well-being, hitting the world’s most vulnerable people the hardest. Even before the pandemic, Africa was suffering from the effects of low commodity prices, sluggish GDP growth, high debt levels, low levels of domestic savings, and weak private capital inflows. This book argues that now, as the continent emerges from the current crisis, it will be important to reconfigure current financing sources under a forward-looking framework that incorporates other non-traditional financing tools and mechanisms such as public-private partnerships, sovereign wealth funds, gender lens investing, new growth drivers, and emerging and disruptive technologies. Finally, the book concludes by adopting a sectoral approach and examining the real economy impacts of new growth drivers such as agriculture value chains, industrialization, tourism, and the blue economy. Drawing on a range of original research as well as insights from practice, this book will be a useful guide for Global Development and African Studies researchers, as well as for policy makers, investors, finance specialists, and global business practitioners and entrepreneurs.
This book investigates how African countries respond to socioeconomic shocks, drawing out lessons to help to inform future policy and development efforts. The challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic affected all sectors of the economy, exposing substantial structural weaknesses and complexities in supply chains and logistics across the African continent. This book examines the disruptive impact of the pandemic across Africa. However, it also goes beyond the current crisis to investigate how socioeconomic pressures in general impact commodity prices, national budgeting processes, food, business, energy sectors, education, health, and sanitation. Overall, the book presents evidence-based solutions and policy recommendations to enable readers to improve resilience and responses to future crises. The insights provided by this book will be of interest to policymakers and development agencies, as well as to researchers of global development, politics, economics, business, and African studies.
The book examines the failures and some of the successes of Africa in its efforts to transform into a society where human security or development in the broadest sense is achieved. It is argued the African continent had, and will continue, to content with disruptions or change on its path to development. Development policy making in this regard, is an art of setting out strategies to build resilience and take advantage of disruptions or change in whatever format: political, economic, health, diplomatic, demographic or even environmental and climatic. The book discusses nine major disruptions in Africa’s socio-economic life and the limits imposed by the rhetoric in development policy: exclusion and social inequality, environmental degradation and climate change, natural resources and poor beneficiation, trade and aid, food insecurity, demography and migration, pandemics and disease burden, conflict and criminality and technology and innovation. The book is intended for intermediate students in African studies, Area Studies, Development Economics, Development Studies, Public Policy and Comparative Politics. In addition will be development practitioners working in developing countries, the UN system, multilateral development banks, donor agencies and regional economic communities in Africa.
The outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges to both developed and less developed local economies. The aim of the book is to uncover the best practises in responding to a pandemic from global perspectives, as well as from a trans-disciplinary point of view. Scholars from various spheres in arts, culture, education, health, environment, business and the public sector present their perspectives on the impacts, responses and consequences for local economies and communities. As a fundamental part of LED, the arts, culture, education, health, environment, business and the public sector domains were some of the hardest hit by the pandemic. The pandemic has certainly exposed the weaknesses of current development policies and calls for new, innovative measures in developing resilient local regions. This book will form an essential part of the development series of CENLED as it offers insight into how a global pandemic (COVID-19) impacted LED in the global North and Global South and the different responses from different spheres.
The COVID-19 pandemic struck the global economy after a decade that featured a broad-based slowdown in productivity growth. Global Productivity: Trends, Drivers, and Policies presents the first comprehensive analysis of the evolution and drivers of productivity growth, examines the effects of COVID-19 on productivity, and discusses a wide range of policies needed to rekindle productivity growth. The book also provides a far-reaching data set of multiple measures of productivity for up to 164 advanced economies and emerging market and developing economies, and it introduces a new sectoral database of productivity. The World Bank has created an extraordinary book on productivity, covering a large group of countries and using a wide variety of data sources. There is an emphasis on emerging and developing economies, whereas the prior literature has concentrated on developed economies. The book seeks to understand growth patterns and quantify the role of (among other things) the reallocation of factors, technological change, and the impact of natural disasters, including the COVID-19 pandemic. This book is must-reading for specialists in emerging economies but also provides deep insights for anyone interested in economic growth and productivity. Martin Neil Baily Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution Former Chair, U.S. President’s Council of Economic Advisers This is an important book at a critical time. As the book notes, global productivity growth had already been slowing prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and collapses with the pandemic. If we want an effective recovery, we have to understand what was driving these long-run trends. The book presents a novel global approach to examining the levels, growth rates, and drivers of productivity growth. For anyone wanting to understand or influence productivity growth, this is an essential read. Nicholas Bloom William D. Eberle Professor of Economics, Stanford University The COVID-19 pandemic hit a global economy that was already struggling with an adverse pre-existing condition—slow productivity growth. This extraordinarily valuable and timely book brings considerable new evidence that shows the broad-based, long-standing nature of the slowdown. It is comprehensive, with an exceptional focus on emerging market and developing economies. Importantly, it shows how severe disasters (of which COVID-19 is just the latest) typically harm productivity. There are no silver bullets, but the book suggests sensible strategies to improve growth prospects. John Fernald Schroders Chaired Professor of European Competitiveness and Reform and Professor of Economics, INSEAD
This book examines sustainable development in the broader framework of Africa post COVID-19. Specifically, the book studies governance and digitalization from the perspective of natural environment management, climate change, the green economy, as well as agriculture and education. Digitalization supports the deepening of natural resource governance by assessing extractive practices, sovereign wealth funds and the emerging discourse on global warming and green economic policies. This analytical exercise will better inform economic and socio-political policies and institutions for African development. The book, against the backdrop of the United Nations Agenda 2030 and the African Union Agenda 2063, offers unique insights on digitalization, governance, the green economy, and natural resource regime in Africa post COVID-19.
In this book, leading social researchers from Australia, India, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, the UK and USA discuss the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic in their respective countries. They explore socio-cultural, health, economic and educational aspects of people’s lives, and governments’ policies and programmes. Their analyses show how coronavirus infects indiscriminately and impacts discriminately, particularly the disadvantaged and marginalized groups. The pandemic exposes hidden health inequalities and calls for structural changes. It significantly contributes to lessons learned from the pandemic and the understanding of implications for community and social development. The book is a useful resource for further research and action, and policies and programmes to fight the pandemic and support people and communities with care and compassion.
The prevalence of global pandemics has been timeless and universal. In 1918, the Spanish Flue grounded Spain and her neighbours. In 1997, 2014 and 2020, the Ebola virus wreaked havoc in West Africa in the same manner that polio had ravaged the globe. Since 2019, the Coronavirus has forced most economies onto a downward spiral. Despite concerted global attempts at observing World Health Organization guidelines, the Coronavirus has been changing peoples' lives, forcing most economies onto their knees, endangering lives and livelihoods, making a mockery of global medicine and causing the widespread despair and helplessness that has come to be known as 'the new normal'. Unlike the other pandemics, the mayhem, complexities and dialectics caused by Covid-19 have been matchless, requiring a systematic study and necessitating a volume like this one. The volume's 16 well-researched chapters argue that despite Covid-19's enormous lessons and predictions about even greater future pandemics, humanity can ill-afford to relent in its determination to conquer the pandemic in the same way that human resolve has defeated past pandemic. As such, the volume provides hope and direction to the global community on how best to deal with Covid-19 and pandemics of similar or even higher magnitude in the future.