The Covid-19 pandemic in Africa: What impacts, and what policy and institutional solutions?

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“The Republic of Equatorial Guinea and its government” strongly encourage the institutions of the African Union and particularly the Specialised Technical Committees (STCs) on Education, Science and Technology to do everything possible to effectively counter the terrible consequences for African economies and to mitigate the great inequalities resulting from the COVID-19 crisis … African leadership must be able to be very effective in encouraging, accompanying, and assisting local technological innovations capable of providing particularly essential responses to our times and in this case to the challenges resulting from the COVID-19 crisis.

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   Topic A:  Supporting and creating opportunities for local technology as a solution to challenges resulting from the COVID-19 crisis.

   Supporting local innovations capable of providing particularly essential responses to our times: COVID-19 crisis

   The world has changed; humanity is facing the most serious global health crisis in recent months. As a society, as an African, we have not been spared this global drama. To date, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the African continent has a total of:

• 8,062,402 (Total number of people infected with Covid-19)
• 553,034 (Covid-19 cases still under treatment)
• 204,025 (deaths).

   We should not delude ourselves that the African continent has miraculously escaped the hecatomb. However, it is important to remember that we are one of the few continents excessively dependent on health products, supplies and materials. Not to mention the low levels of training of our human resources in the field of health and the hospital structures that are too often dilapidated and unsuited to universally acceptable requirements and frameworks. If we had been hit hard by this terrible pandemic, on this very day we would be counting millions and millions of human lives lost. Therefore, as far as health structures are concerned, “the Republic of Equatorial Guinea” calls on African institutions to hold talks and work as soon as possible with the Representatives of the International Health Organisation for Africa based in Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo, with a view to the standardisation and labelling of health structures and frameworks on the Continent. And if need be, to put at the centre of these issues the local African initiatives that are already participating in these operations that are essential and necessary for the future.

   The African continent does not lack the intelligence to respond positively to the challenges ahead. That said, if our local, regional, and continental responses have failed to provide urgent and highly effective solutions to the serious health crisis of Covid-19 that continues to take many lives in Africa and elsewhere, we can still act for the future to effectively address the current shortcomings in the most essential areas that can better prepare us for the future, namely, science and technology.

   “The Republic of Equatorial Guinea and its government” call for a collective awareness of the issues and challenges resulting from the Covid-19 crisis. To this end, we call on the African Union to make innovation one of the major priorities on the continent. We also call for massive continental public policies to support local innovations capable of providing the answers that are particularly essential for our time. To achieve this essential objective for our survival as a society, “Equatorial Guinea” calls on the African Union to make education on the continent one of the major pillars and specially to encourage, support and give particular interest to training based on science and technology.

   Finally, “the Republic of Equatorial Guinea and its Government” would like to congratulate the Republic of Rwanda and its Government for having recently made innovation one of its top priorities, particularly in public establishments where technological courses of study and training are strongly offered to our young people. Such an initiative can only be encouraged and imitated because it favours the progressive integration of our young people into these increasingly complex globalised technological worlds, sources of wealth and professional opportunities.

   Recently in the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, “the Ministry of Labour, Employment Promotion and Social Security has recently launched a webinar on the Impact of COVID-19 on the labour sector in Equatorial Guinea.

   The seminar in question has had the collaboration of the Equatoguinean company ICUBEFARM whose vision is to promote human resources through its African Forum called “Africa HR Forum”; giving way to the exchange between authorities and company representatives to learn about the actions carried out by both actors.

   A session lasting an hour and a half tested the quality of technology, active listening, public and private interrelation, the knowledge of the panellists and possible recommendations for the improvement of the Equatoguinean labour market during and after the pandemic of the new coronavirus.

   The responsibility of companies and the exchange with the Ministry of Labour, Employment Promotion and Social Security of Equatorial Guinea during and after COVID-19, and “The effects of COVID-19 on the labour sector in Equatorial Guinea, before, during and after the pandemic” were the topics discussed on 28 and 29 May 2021.” (cf. https://www.guineaecuatorialpress.com).

   We have local technologies on the continent that are just waiting to be boosted, supervised, and financed in order to experience a favourable and positive development, in support of our economies and capable of making up for the lack of employability on the continent.

   The Africa of tomorrow, the one capable of solving these societal challenges on its own, is an Africa that will have won the bet on innovation, based on its local technologies.

   Creating opportunities for local technology as a solution to the challenges resulting from the COVID-19 crisis

   “The delegation of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea” requests the Executive Committee to ask the supreme authorities of the African Union, and therefore with the frank collaboration of all Member States, to accelerate the Strategy for Science, Technology, and Innovation in Africa (STISA 2024).

   The technological environment, especially the new technologies sector, not only needs more proactive local legislation, but above all it needs special attention from the African Union to facilitate, for example, access to registration in the intellectual works protection files and thus access to patents, which will make it possible to protect local technologies in the face of the many violations observed in terms of intellectual property. In case there is no such continental initiative, “Equatorial Guinea” calls for the creation of a continental body that would evolve in this direction, that is to say: to facilitate access to patents for young African creators and thus serve as a technical support in case of intellectual property violations.

   Before considering anything, the institutions of the African Union must first and foremost campaign for the protection of African technologies, which are all too often the victims of international piracy, and we can never say this enough.

   “Equatorial Guinea and its Government” calls on all Member States to adopt a statement requesting a special line of credit within the African Development Bank to support innovation and local technologies in Africa.

   No area should be neglected, no initiative of our valiant youth should be ignored, no effort made to date should be discouraged. “Equatorial Guinea and its Government” calls for joint support for those who participate in the construction of our common future, that of Africa and of all humanity. Africa, the cradle of humanity, Africa, the cradle of science yesterday, the next Africa, a technological power, is possible if we work now to consolidate our efforts and accelerate the efforts underway to halt as soon as possible the collapse of our economies, our present and specially our youth, our future, our only recourse in the face of the challenges to come. Hence the need to invest massively in their training so that they are capable of innovating, taking charge of their lives and contributing effectively to the stability of our countries and hence of Africa. Supporting our local technologies must be our top priority.

Topic B: Strategies to foster opportunities for the increasing number of high school graduates and young academics in the African labour market.

   According to the United Nations (UN), by 2050 Africa will be the continent with the largest number of young people on the planet. This is therefore a great challenge that current African leaders must face to prepare Africa to better face this problem, and to prepare a new elite of African leaders who are prepared and aware of the challenges of their time.

   This requires the implementation of continental policies aimed at encouraging citizens’ initiatives for dialogue and exchange in order to contribute to the construction of a new African vision in favour of youth, one that must necessarily militate in favour of resolving the problems that affect them most closely, such as unemployment, immigration, and the creation of jobs that will make it possible to absorb the excessive number of unemployed young graduates on the continent.

   In this regard, within the Central African sub-regional organisation ECCAS (The Economic Community of Central African States) the Government of Equatorial Guinea has been one of the major actors in the implementation of resolutions and protocols facilitating sub-regional policies for greater youth employability.

   The challenge of youth unemployment in general, and graduate unemployment, is a huge one that Africa must take up because it can do so, and because the continent alone is rich in the bulk of natural resources vital to humanity. Consequently, it is abnormal that the continent does not have enough human resources available, qualified, and capable of participating in the transformation of African wealth.

   Therefore “the Delegation of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea” calls for a global overhaul of school systems in Africa and a better distribution of financial resources in order to put into orbit at the continental level and following the example of what was done yesterday, large schools with a Pan-African vocation and destined to train African youth on a large scale in accordance with the real needs of the African labour market.

   “The Republic of Equatorial Guinea and its Government” also calls for a better consideration of entrepreneurial initiatives throughout the continent, as they help to absorb and train our young people, who are too often graduates and unemployed, in the field.

   “The Delegation of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea” proposes the creation of a Pan-African body which will bring together:

• Public and private partners already committed to youth employability in Africa,
• African diasporic structures organised throughout the world,
• Specialised African experts,
• Free and autonomous delegations of young entrepreneurs from each African country.

   One of the objectives of this African body will be to submit strategic roadmaps to the General Assembly of the African Union on an annual basis with a view to fostering opportunities for the growing number of secondary school graduates and young academics in the African labour market.

   As such, “the Republic of Equatorial Guinea” is willing to support all initiatives in favour of young people and their empowerment.

 

Dr. BITOULOULOU Christopher Jivot

(The article is my contribution to the Model African Union Conference Bayreuth which took place between 3-6 June 2021. It was granted the “Best Position Paper” award in the Specialised Technical Committee on Education, Science and Technology (STC-EST) Committee).