Follow the links below to connect to what you heard in Episode 91, which featured a conversation with Peace Medie.
From the News Wrap:
- Read CODESRIA’s tribute to economist Thandika Mkandawire (1940-2020). And then read his article “Thinking About Developmental States in Africa,” published in the Cambridge Journal of Economics in 2001.
- On weak health systems in the time of COVID-19, see Social distancing unlikely to hold up in Africa without a safety net for microentrepreneurs by Addisu Lashitew and Coronavirus: Amid the global pandemic, lessons for Africa by Yvonne Mburu and Yap Boum II.
- See also a working paper by CEGA Director of Research Bilal Siddiqi, affiliate Darin Christensen (UCLA), and coauthors, who find that low-cost accountability interventions in Sierra Leone effectively improved confidence in the health system. When Ebola hit, this confidence translated to more effective containment, and 30% fewer deaths among Ebola patients. Learn more from NPR’s Hidden Brain podcast and in The New York Times.
- Related to learning from earlier epidemics, Allison Grossman (@allisonnamias) has a piece in TMC/WaPo about her research with Leo Arriola, which finds that members of politically marginalized groups are more likely to comply if they hear health advisories coming from local — rather than national — political authorities.
- On remittances to Africa during COVID-19, read The Economist: “At one payments company, transfers from Britain to east Africa may have fallen by 80%. Another has seen flows from Italy to Africa drop by 90%.”
- Brookings has a new report out by Dhruv Gandhi, Anna Schaeffer, and Payce Madden on economic ramifications on a broad scale, and they report that the African Development Bank (AFDB) announced that it had raised $3 billion via a social bond that will be deployed soon to support member countries.
- Uganda’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by 1 percentage point to 8 percent and directed commercial banks to suspend dividends and bonuses for 90 days.
- Nigeria’s finance minister announced that the country would request $6.9 billion from multilateral lenders including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
- Ghana’s finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, called on China—the region’s largest bilateral lender—to take the lead on debt relief for Africa.
- For more on the call for debt relief in Africa, see the recent Project Syndicate piece, “Africa needs debt relief to fight COVID-19” by Africa Growth Initiative Director Brahima S. Coulibaly and co-authors.
- For more on the Coronavirus impact, particularly in Southern Africa, check out this week’s Council on Foreign Relations podcast “In the President’s Inbox” when Michelle D. Gavin, CFR’s senior fellow for Africa studies, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss how COVID is affecting Angola, Botswana, Sudan, in particular, as well as the region as a whole.
- The African Politics Conference Group’s upcoming virtual panel on the effects of COVID-19 on African states and societies is scheduled for Monday, April 27th at 11am Eastern Time. Judd Devermont (Center for Strategic and International Studies), with panellists Emmanuel Balogun (Webster University), Adia Benton (Northwestern University), Simukai Chigudu (University of Oxford). You have to RSVP to get a link to join the panel.
Some links from our chat with Peace Medie (@PeaceMedie):
- Read her short story “Over Seas,” which was published in 2015 in Transition.
- And check out her award-winning article “Power, knowledge, and the politics of gender in the Global South,” co-authored with Alice Kang and recently published in the European Journal of Politics and Gender.
- Peace’s book recommendation for our listeners was My Sister the Serial Killer.
- And definitely check out her books, Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence against Women in Africa and His Only Wife.
And here are a few bonus links:
- Remember Episode 64 with Hannah Armstrong (@brkinibeachriot)? She has a new piece in TMC/WaPo that will probably change your mind about trafficking.
- Millions face hunger as African cities impose coronavirus lockdowns
- Ghana has become the first African country to lift its coronavirus lockdown
