Seite - 551 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

551COVID-19 and Africa: Does “One Size Fit All” in Public Health Intervention? countries, such measures have been aimed at cushioning the pandem- ic’s wide-ranging disruptive effects on citizens rendered unemployed and/or constrained by lockdowns and other restrictive ordinances; and on various categories of enterprises, including large corpora- tions, which have direct negative exposure to the impacts of the virus. These largely ad hoc measures have severely tested the policymak- ing ingenuity, administrative flexibility, bureaucratic efficiency, and fiscal stability of developed-world governments. Central to these governments’ capacities has been the availability of reliable data nec- essary to identify, and deliver palliatives to, qualifying demographics. Most African nations, even in ordinary times, have precarious public finances,36 with limited fiscal space to absorb shocks. COVID-19 dis- ruptions have hit African mono-product economies extremely hard; for example, severe oil price drops have fiscally destabilized Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy.37 Elaborate social and economic palliatives are beyond the reach of most African countries’ fiscal capacity. Even the negligible palliatives some countries are able to administer38 are bogged down in controversy and bureaucracy.39 In the majority of countries, there is limited socio-economic data for public administra- tion necessary to identify those in dire straits and in need of reliefs. About 85% of Sub-Saharan Africans are informal economic opera- tors who must go out on a daily basis to earn cash, or harvest food, needed to feed their households.40 There is a dearth of the credible data needed to identify and reach vulnerable individuals and house- holds in a targeted, meaningful fashion. Of the estimated 89 million Nigerians living in chronic poverty, only 3.6 million (according to the government) are targeted in the “social register” of people eligible for COVID-19 palliatives.41 36. See International Monetary Fund, supra note 4; McKinsey & Company, supra note 19; “Trade Policies for Africa to Tackle Covid-19” (27 March 2020), online (pdf): United Nations Economic Commission for Africa <https://bit.ly/2STpu4m>. 37. Ibid. 38. See International Monetary Fund, supra note 4 at 9. 39. See Obinna Onwujekwe, “Coronavirus: Corruption in Health Care Could Get in the Way of Nigeria’s Response”, The Conversation (4 May 2020), online: <https:// bit.ly/2W7Ox5U>. 40. See Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe “Mobile Cash is the Best Way to Help Africa Fight Covid-19”, Financial Times (12 April 2020), online: <https://on.ft. com/3c6gDE5>. 41. See “Buhari Expands Social Register from 2.6m Households to 3.6m”, The Guardian  Nigeria  News (13 April 2020), online: <https://bit.ly/35NgP91>.