This case study report contributes to the evidence base on how young people across the African continent have adapted their situations and enterprises in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In this guest contribution for ECDPM, Dr Jide Martyns Okeke argues that collective African leadership and deliberate investments in boosting intra-African trade and digital transformation could accelerate the quest for silencing the guns on the continent.
The European Commission DG NEAR and the office of the High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy released a new policy statement (âCommunicationâ) âRenewed Partnership with the Southern Neighbourhood: A New Agenda for the Mediterraneanâ on 9 February 2021. The Communication was accompanied by a staff working document âRenewed Partnership with the Southern Neighbourhood Economic and Investment Plan for the Southern Neighboursâ. The priorities outlined in the Communication and the investment Plan are to be concretised during 2021 as the new âNeighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI), which will finance the EUâs international cooperation, is programmed during 2021.Â
It is vital for the EU-AU partnership to improve digital infrastructure development in Africa, particularly expanding fixed broadband coverage and access, as well as to improve African firms and consumersâ access to e-commerce platforms and provide targeted support for digital transformation in key sectors such as agriculture.
The impacts of Covid-19 on mental well-being and the mental health and psychosocial support needs of adolescents in Viet Nam and Tanzania. It is guided by two research questions:
– What impact has Covid-19 had on the mental health of adolescents in Viet Nam and Tanzania?
– What interventions (digital and non-digital) have been used to mitigate or respond to these mental health needs during the pandemic?
The study looks at the challenges facing industrialisation in African countries, in particular the issues for the policy framework needed to support it. It identifies three positive issues that have appeared during the Covid-19 crisis which will be important in economic recovery efforts: (1) repurposing, accelerated pharma production and joint procurement; (2) increased attention to agro-processing; and (3) use of technological advances.
