What is COVID-19 Exist Strategy for Africa?

Today, I reflect on the ongoing COVID-19 and the efforts, the resources, and the finances that are committed to addressing the impact of the pandemic on lower and middle-income countries, especially in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). A couple of these countries have done very well in controlling the effect of the pandemic on their population. These countries are Rwanda,  South Africa, Egypt, and Ghana with a very strong leadership commitment to protecting their population from the impact of the pandemic.

Other countries, including Nigeria, Senegal, and Cameroon are on the trajectory of controlling the pandemic in their respective economies. These countries have the advantage of learning from other Africa Union member states on strategies and approaches to bring the pandemic under control. It may be that the impact of the pandemic was not as predicted in Africa, but suffice to predict that a long term exists strategic approach is needed for Africa to sustainably come of the current and future pandemic.  

What then, are the potential strategic approaches to undertake by countries to come out of the pandemic and prepare for a potential future outbreak. In my perspective, the following are worth consideration:

  1. Leadership commitment to building strong health systems: Time and time again, leadership has been a major bottleneck to achieving comprehensive health systems in SSA. At the same time, visionary leadership has demonstrated capabilities in addressing health disparity, and yet these "model" of leadership was not rolled out on the continent. I, therefore, call on the leadership of the Africa Union and, for that matter ALL leaders on the continent to demonstrate the commitment to helping their population achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) in Africa. 
  2. Private sector participation in the health sector. In my recommendation of this approach, I am not inferring the "wholesale" transition of health services to the private sector, but the gradual participation, collaboration, and synergies in resource allocation with the private sector. 
  3. Moving away from parallel health systems, which is based on donor-funding, to an integrated health infrastructure development and skills training, regardless of the donor-disease-support interface. Implementing this approach will require strong leadership where the government takes up the responsibility of directing donors and implementing partners on their priorities, commitments, and self-direction to consolidate their gains.
These may be the simplest approach to building systems but may be challenging to implement. With the weak health systems in most SSA countries, looking beyond the current pandemic response and moving away from the donor-funded health systems to self-sustained response to health infrastructure. 

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