The long-term socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 across Africa

The various joined-up responses of African countries to the COVID-19 pandemic, including in coordination of medical provision and knowledge-sharing networks, has underscored the continued commitment of African countries to regional collaboration and integration.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), launched in January 2021, represents the continent’s largest economic integration project and vehicle for COVID-19 recovery, although its implementation faces many new pandemic-induced challenges.

As African countries strategize and coordinate on economic integration and recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, it is important to take stock of the ways in which the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic diverge and converge across the continent’s many heterogenous economies.

At this event, which launches a new report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Analysing long-term socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 across diverse African contexts, speakers reflect on the varying economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic across Africa, including on human development indicators, economic interdependence, and growth and resilience patterns.

They will also discuss the significance of these conclusions for capacity-building and long-term strategizing by African countries to the pandemic.

The event will be held with simultaneous interpretation in English and French.

This webinar is held in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme and the African Union Commission.

The event will also be broadcast live on the Chatham House Africa Programme’s Facebook page.