Seite - 545 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

545COVID-19 and Africa: Does “One Size Fit All” in Public Health Intervention? Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Before and within this period, as COVID-19 began to spread on the conti- nent, African countries had—but mostly missed—the opportunity to take early preventive action.2 Taking into account the socio-economic, cultural, and political dynamics of Africa, and drawing from publicly available information, this chapter explores Africa’s experiences with selected aspects of COVID-19 public health responses. It aims, in part, to identify facets of the contextual dynamics of the continent that war- rant creative and fit-for-context public health responses, outside of a one-size-fits-all milieu. Also, it identifies and reflects on some lessons and opportunities from the COVID-19 experience on the African con- tinent that could reposition the continent and enhance its resilience in the face of the first global pandemic in a globalized world order. Africa’s Existential Socio-Economic Challenges Africa is a heterogeneous continent of 1.2 billion people and 55 coun- tries at different levels of development and with diverse economic and human development indicators.3 As such, it is inaccurate to make generalizations about the continent, save to indicate that all African countries are located in the category of least developed or develop- ing countries.4 These countries’ interconnected yet diverse historical, cultural, linguistic, religious, and colonial affinities are highly com- plex.5 The majority of Africans navigate developmental aspirations within fraught and fragile socio-economic structures. In its central- ity to, and interconnectedness with, socio-economic realities, public health constitutes a core dimension of the existential vulnerabilities experienced by ordinary Africans. Those tensions are now heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic.6 2. See Mike Onyiego, “How the Spread of the Corona Virus is Testing Africa”, BBC News (11 April 2020), online: <https://bbc.in/2WcVB0U>. 3. “Human Development Report 2019” (2019), online (pdf): United Nations Development  Programme <https://bit.ly/3cpyEgT>. 4. But the IMF provides a classification of Sub-Saharan African countries on basis of COVID-19 impact. See International Monetary Fund, “Regional Eco- nomic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa – COVID-19: An Unprecedented Threat to Development” (April 2020), online: IMF  Regional  Economic  Outlook  <https://bit. ly/3fGC7ti>. 5. See Daniel Chigudu, “Strength in Diversity: An Opportunity for Africa’s Development” (2018) 4:1 Cogent Social Sciences 1. 6. See Tracy Bach, “A Quiet Public Health Crisis in West Africa” (21 February 2016) Vermont Law School Working Paper No 2-16.