Africa’s Economic Response to COVID-19

Speaker: Shri V. Srinivas, Additional Secretary, Govt. of India and Director General, National Center for Good Governance

 

Chair: H.E. Ms. Jainaba Jagne, High Commissioner of the Republic of Gambia

 

The COVID-19 pandemic is taking place in a context where African countries are battling rising debt, huge health infrastructure gaps and high employment which has limited the scale and effectiveness of government’s policy response. Government debt as a share of GDP has risen sharply in the past 5 years. Africa has witnessed a commodity price amidst the COVID-19. The pandemic is a call to African governments to close health infrastructure gaps, implement targeted social security programmes, and adopt economic diversification to overcome commodity price shocks.