African Development Bank approves $27 million to boost African Union’s COVID-19 response initiative

The African Development Bank approved $27.4 million in grants to boost the African Union’s (AU) efforts to mobilize a continental response to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.

“With this financing package, we are reaffirming our strong commitment to a coordinated African response in the face of COVID-19. Most importantly, we are sending a strong signal that collectively, the continent can address the pandemic in Africa, which is straining health systems and causing unprecedented socio-economic impacts on the continent,” said Development Bank President, Akinwumi Adesina.

The bulk of the Bank’s grant financing for this operation, about $26.03 million, will help to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) to respond to public health emergencies across the continent, while the balance of $1.37 million, will be a contribution to the AU COVID-19 Response Fund.

The two grants, from the Bank’s concessional window, the African Development Fund, and the Transition Support Facility, will support the implementation of Africa CDC’s COVID-19 Pandemic Preparedness and Response Plan through strengthening surveillance at various points of entry (air, sea, and land) in African countries; building sub-regional and national capacity for epidemiological surveillance, and ensuring the availability of personal protective equipment for frontline workers deployed in hotspots and testing materials. The operation will also facilitate the collection of gender-disaggregated data and adequate staffing for Africa CDC’s emergency operations center.

At the beginning of February 2020, only two reference laboratories in Senegal and South Africa could run tests for COVID-19 on the continent. The Africa CDC, working with governments, the WHO, and several development partners and public health institutes, have increased this capacity to 44 countries. Despite this progress, Africa’s testing capacity remains at less than 600 per one million people compared to 50,000 in Europe.

This support will complement various national and sub-regional operations financed by the African Development Bank under its COVID-19 Rapid Response Facility to support African countries to contain and mitigate the impacts of the pandemic.

Original source: AfDB
Published on 27 July 2020