Issue No: 31/2020

COVID-19 Conflict & Resilience Monitor – 18 November 2020

The Conflict and Resilience Monitor offers monthly blog-size commentary and analysis on the latest conflict-related trends in Africa.

Photo: REUTERS/Jok Solomun
Photo: REUTERS/Jok Solomun

In this week’s edition, our Monitor features a think piece on how the African Continental Free Trade Area can help Africa to adapt and recover from COVID-19, contributed by the African Union’s Commissioner for Trade and Industry, H.E. Albert Muchanga.

James Okuk writes about the impact of COVID-19 on the delicate peace process in South Sudan, and ACCORD’s Professor Martin Rupiya reflects on the implications of the emerging global COVID-19 vaccine politics for Africa.

Lastly, Dr Andrea Prah and Katharine Bebington write about the effect that a possible second wave – as the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has warned – could have on livelihoods, social stability and the economies of various African states.

Chief Editor: Conflict & Resilience Monitor​
Managing Editor: Conflict & Resilience Monitor
Photo: REUTERS/Samir Bol
Photo: REUTERS/Samir Bol
COVID-19, Political Unrest or Violence

The impact of COVID-19 on the delicate peace process in South Sudan

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted peace processes in Africa. In South Sudan, COVID-19 has not only presented a risk to the health and socio-economic circumstances of the citizenry but has also put a strain on the 2018 Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS). More efforts will have to be made to minimise the impact of the pandemic on the political processes around power-sharing and security reforms, as well as the preparation for elections at the end of the transitional period.

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Photo: GCIS
Photo: GCIS
COVID-19, Livelihood Insecurity & Economic Impact

The implications of COVID-19 global vaccine politics for Africa

In the past few days, the dominant debates on COVID-19 have included the development of a vaccine and making it available to a desperate 7.2 billion people worldwide, against the background of an alarming 54.8 million cases of infection and 1.4 million deaths. Three potential vaccines, with promising clinical trial results, have been announced in the last few weeks in the United States (US), Europe and Russia, leaving Africa isolated and marginalised as the developed world engages in highly competitive discoveries.

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Photo: USAID in Africa
Photo: USAID in Africa
COVID-19, Livelihood Insecurity & Economic Impact

Africa and the implications of a second wave of COVID-19 infections

While Africa has demonstrated a degree of resilience against the COVID-19 pandemic to date, this progress could be affected by a potential second wave of infections. If such a second wave is even worse than the first, which seems to be the pattern in Europe, it will have serious implications for Africa’s health systems, as well as its economy and the growing debt crisis. This situation presents additional challenges for the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), which has thus far played a leading role in coordinating prevention measures and promoting a coherent African response.

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Photo: REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya
Photo: REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya
COVID-19, Livelihood Insecurity & Economic Impact

Using the African Continental Free Trade Area to adapt and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic

Some of the key words in the unprecedented era of the COVID-19 pandemic are disruption, damage, change, adaptation, recovery and resilience. Against the background of these words, what is clear is that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the status quo as we knew it. In this change, the pandemic has also challenged the interdependence of economies, leading to the disruption of global and regional supply chains. Some of the countries’ early responses to the pandemic were increased protectionist measures, especially with regard to the supply of personal protective equipment.

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ACCORD recognizes its longstanding partnerships with the European Union, and the Governments of Canada, Finland, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, UK, and USA.

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