A few weeks ago I wrote a piece on what Africa can do to kickstart its economy and drive long term growth after the coronavirus crisis has ended. What’s becoming clear is that the crisis will be longer and deeper than many had first thought. This poses the question, what policies do we need to put in place so that when it ends, we are in a position to kickstart a recovery.

African governments do not have the financial firepower or operational capability that developed countries have deployed. But I do not believe that means we are hobbled. As policy responses around the world are showing, what was previously thought impossible, too expensive or too complex is doable. The same applies to Africa. To make it through the crisis we must abandon the art of the possible and attempt the impossible. This crisis presents critical obligations to African policymakers, that we must be bold and creative to save lives, livelihoods and possibly the state itself. This crisis also presents policymakers with an opportunity, to redefine what policy in Africa can do, particularly when health, wealth and well-being of its people are at its centre.

The Nature of the crisis

This crisis is unlike anything Africa has seen before. Its effects are multiple, simultaneous and intense.

First, this crisis will last longer than many of us thought. Until there is a widely available vaccine or cure, we will continue to see outbreaks, travel restrictions, social distancing, quarantines etc. In various parts of the world and Africa as governments try to avoid a second wave. Considering the staggered way in which the virus has spread across the world, it’s estimated that the most severe restrictions will continue for the next 3-6 months and various restrictions could remain in place for up to 18 months until medical solutions are widely available.

Economically the World Bank predicts the continent could lose between $37 billion and $79 billion in output and face a recession of –5.1% (negative 5.1%). Furthermore, agricultural production (the most important sector in terms of output and employment on the continent) could contract by between 2.6% and 7%. This is an economic disaster for the continent. The formal sector will be defined by falls in productivity, revenues and severe job losses. In the informal sector which accounts for 89% of employment on the continent, its traders, farmers, vendors, MSME’s, tradespeople who rely on daily incomes are facing disaster if those incomes are disrupted endangering their ability to afford food and shelter not just for them but also the people who rely on them.

This crisis will also stretch our healthcare systems, in many cases past their breaking points. Endangering, the lives of those with Covid-19 and the lives of those who need medical attention for things other than Covid-19 (expectant mothers, HIV-AIDS patients, cancer patients, malaria patients etc.).

Internationally, help (financial or technical) from the traditional donor/development aid community will not be as forthcoming, as it has been during previous crises, as they try to deal with the crises within their borders. Thus, Africa cannot rely on the international community as we have become accustomed to doing.

With all these effects, in responding to this crisis we have to have a core goal. That we have to keep our people fed, healthy and secure livelihoods as far as is possible. Which means designing and implementing a mechanism to enable people to keep themselves fed and secure. Providing lifelines to the informal and formal sectors, so that people have livelihoods to sustain themselves in the long run. Restructuring how our governments communicate with the public to ensure that the measures taken are as effective as possible and provide a foundation for re-forging our societies.

Keeping people fed and secure

This is probably the biggest headache facing African policymakers in their response to the crisis, and many will default to what they know, distributing foodstuffs. However, what we need in a situation like the current crisis where millions of people who were ok now fall into vulnerability, is a solution that is big, simple and fast. One solution that encapsulates all three is cash transfers. Give vulnerable populations money and trust them to know how best to use it. As I have previously written, cash transfers are effective, and people are rarely irresponsible with them. With innovations like mobile money which has permeated across much of the continent, it is possible to get money where it needs to go and to do it quickly. And, it avoids the mess of corruption and delays associated with government procurement. Finally, it puts money where the economy needs it. In the hands of consumers who buy their food and other essentials from the informal economy, keeping those value chains alive.

How do we pay for this? Simple, print money. The UK is doing this. Those afraid of inflation should note that the money would be replacing depleted economic activity, thus limiting the inflationary impact.

Reinforcing health systems

First, African countries need to devote more resources to public health. For decades we have let public health fall into a state of disrepair and underfunding. Over the short term, this needs to be remedied by immediately ramping up funding, and resourcing over the short term to fund the immediate Covid-19 response. As well as thinking through how to implement public health measures in an African context. Rather than lockdowns, how can we make markets which are critical nodes of the food system sanitary and credibly social distant? How do we make informal settlements where people share multiple spaces as safe as possible?

But it also represents an opportunity to start long term investment in community health. If we want to keep hospitals free to treat Covid-19 we need to deliver care to people in their communities. This means public health communication and education, provision of basic care at a grassroots level and investing in preventative infrastructure (sanitation, water, clean cooking etc). That could over the long-term form the basis of a viable universal healthcare system.

Paying for this will require shifting resources for normal noncritical spending (non-salary and critical operations) to the health systems, delaying or freezing development projects and tapping into capital markets (borrowing) where possible.

A lifeline to the economy

Through no fault of their own, businesses across the continent are suffering as demand falls, export markets go into lockdown, their supply chains are disrupted, and their consumers stay at home. To save jobs, livelihoods and in some cases whole industries. Many governments have already put in place tax holidays and encouraged banks to renegotiate loans with businesses. However, in a recession predicted to be deep, more is needed, and this could consist of several measures such as:

• The utilisation of domestic private sector capacity by the government as part of the crisis response. Using streamlined public procurement to buy goods and services (e.g. Masks, logistics and transport, beds etc.) that are needed by the government to respond to the crisis. This will help keep some local businesses alive and build local capacity.
• An SME loan program divided into two tranches. The first tranche would be given now, to keep SME’s alive and the second tranche would be given when the WHO declares the crisis over to enable SME’s to quickly restart their operations. This can be done by the banking sector backed by a guarantee given by the central bank in case of defaults. The guarantee would have 2 conditions: low-interest rates and a 6-12-month grace period before the loan payments start to give SME, breathing room. This would have the effect of giving SME’s working capital and keeping the credit system alive.
• Safe business programs. Many businesses require social interaction such as open markets, salons & barbershops, restaurants bars and clubs, etc. We should be developing guidelines and rules for safe interactions in these businesses that integrate sanitary measures and social distancing (where possible) to enable these businesses to reopen as early as possible without endangering public health.
• Utility bill and commercial rent holidays to ease pressure on businesses with reduced cash flows. Utility providers and commercial landlords can be provided with tax credits to offset the reduced revenue. I

Communicating with the public

I have written previously on the need for effective and persistent communications strategies to be built into policy design. This is critically important during a crisis, where not only do the public need to know what is happening, they need to buy into it, trust what their governments are saying and understand that it is being done for the public good. For that to happen governments have to change how they communicate with their publics from talking at them to engaging with them, this means:

• Be honest. Now is not the time for bluster or false assertions. If governments lie and people die as a result, trust will be fundamentally broken, and people will be unwilling to listen again. Thus, governments must lay out the truth to their people, what this crisis will do to every one’s health, livelihoods and general welfare and why they are implementing exceptional measures.
• Explain your thinking. Governments will be implementing measures that will affect people’s lives in a multitude of ways. As the heavy hand of government, intervenes in people’s lives in unprecedented ways, the government must explain why, what drove the thinking, and what they are hoping to achieve
• Accept and respond to criticism. No policy response will be perfect. Being able to acknowledge where something has not gone as planned or was not implemented properly and communicating real action taken to fix it, will build trust and support.
• Communicate often. This is a constantly evolving crisis; people need to be updated regularly. In times like these, there is no such thing as talking too little.
• Engage across channels. To reach everyone, you must go where they are, which means going beyond traditional media onto social media, and breaking language barriers. If information is inaccessible, then it may as well not exist.

Communicating, honestly, effectively, and openly will help reshape the relationship that has been characterised by a lack of trust between opaque African governments and populaces that have long been indifferent to whatever pronouncements and declarations those governments make. Rebuilding trust can be the basis for rebuilding the sense of community and society that too many African countries have lost, reinforced by genuine efforts to assist people.

A pan-African response

Though the international community may be pre-occupied, it does not mean the pan-African community cannot respond. Though we may not have the money or the resources that the developed world can deploy, we can cooperate to ease the pain of the crisis. Critical areas of cooperation would be:

• Sharing data and information on how the pandemic is evolving in each country. providing public health officials and policymakers valuable data on the epidemiology of the virus within similar demographics that can help every country fine-tune their response.
• Sharing policy responses. What measures have implemented in other African states, how effective have they been, can they be adopted elsewhere.
• Sharing resources. If the crisis has eased in one country but is ramping up in another, they could provide resources (equipment, personnel, money) to help in that fight.
• Buy Africa first. Stimulating the African private sector by encouraging African governments to buy what they cannot find at home (e.g. if there is a food shortage) in other African countries before looking abroad.
• Engage the world as one. While African states do not agree on everything, this crisis will bring us together on various things. One of the most important of those things is Debt. Africa needs debt relief to give it the fiscal space to pay for the virus response and a post-crisis stimulus. Rather than have each African country go to its bilateral and development partners on its own to beg for debt relief or a payment pause. The message will be much more powerful if the continent speaks and negotiates with one voice, increasing its bargaining power and the momentum behind the issue.

Unprecedented crisis – an unprecedented response

This crisis is unlike anything Africa has ever seen before. Even the Ebola crisis of 2014 did not threaten the whole continent and had significant international assistance. It is hampering our health systems, economies and socio-cultural way of doing things on a scale we have never had to deal with.

This is by no means a comprehensive look at the policies that can or should be implemented. The policy interventions I have presented are a few among many that a lot of talented and clever people are thinking of across the continent. What I have tried to lay out in this piece is that this dual health and economic crisis is a threat to us all. And responding to this crisis requires a multi-pronged approach that is big and bold. That will need African governments to get out of their comfort zones and implement measures such as cash transfers which they have termed too expensive or too hard,  shift money from cherished infrastructure and other projects to the health system, invest in the private sector especially SME’s in new ways and talk to the public in a more genuine way.

If we do not respond in a big and bold manner, many African nations will emerge from this crisis hobbled, suffering extended socio-economic aftereffects and much more likely to suffer civil and political unrest. If we can respond with boldness then we could lay the foundations for a genuine recovery after the crisis, a public health system that isn’t an oxymoron, a reset of the relationship between private enterprise the and public good and a  much more positive relationship between the government and its peoples. I’m hopeful that maybe, this time, African leaders and policymakers will recognise this crisis for the threat it is and start thinking big and acting boldly.