Addis Ababa, 18 April 2020 (Joint press release) - The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD) have unveiled an initiative to strengthen Africa’s data ecosystems in the face of COVID-19.
Addis Ababa, 15 April 2020 - As part of its analysis to inform COVID-19 policy responses, the Economic Commission for Africa, is calling for adequate consideration of the vulnerability of city economies as African governments consolidate efforts and define stimulus measures to mitigate national and regional economic impacts.
“As engines and drivers of economic growth, cities face considerable risks in light of COVID-19 with implications for the continent’s resilience to the pandemic,” states Thokozile Ruzvidzo Director of the Gender, Poverty and Social Policy Division of the ECA.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, April 7, 2020 (ECA) – African countries need to do more to upgrade the continent’s fragile health delivery systems if they are to cope with pandemics such as the coronavirus which within weeks, has infected 10,662 people in 52 countries with 533 deaths and 1174 recoveries recorded as of this writing.
Addis Ababa, 31 March 2020 (ECA) - African Ministers of Finance held a second virtual meeting Tuesday, against the backdrop of rising COVID-19 cases in Africa which could spiral out of control unless measures are put in place now to curtail its spread. The meeting was hosted by Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, and co-chaired by Ministers Tito Mboweni of South Africa and Ken Ofori-Atta of Ghana.
Not since our species first emerged out of Africa have we been so linked as one human family, sharing so many common opportunities and threats. So, when world leaders meet virtually as the G20 today to plan humanity’s global COVID-19 fightback, it is in the interest of us all that Africa sits centrally within that strategy – central to the global health response, as well as the economic and jobs response. Otherwise, humanity’s collective effort will fall short.
Over 41 African countries are now hit with the Coronavirus. The numbers have gone from below 70 people affected ten days ago, to over 1,200 as of March 22, 2020. Recognizing the impact that the COVID-19 is having and is going to have on African economies, an African Ministers of Finance web conference hosted and organized by the Economic Commission for Africa, to discuss its COVID-19 impact on Africa. This was co-chaired by Tito Mboweni, Minister for Finance, South Africa and Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister for Finance, Ghana.