Search

Begin New Search Topic COVID-19 Political Geography Cameroon

11. The Impact Of Covid-19 On Sino-African Trade Activities

Author:
Egoh Aziz
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Nkafu Policy Institute
Abstract:
The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has caused waves of horror and anxiety across many nations in the world. Considering the intense unravelling of the pandemic, no exact figure as per the number of confirmed and death cases worldwide is definite because the situation changes almost every hour. However, on April 14, 2020 3:40 GMT, Worldometer reported 210 countries and territories across the globe having a total of 1,925,179 confirmed cases, and a dead toll of 119,699 deaths. The impact of the pandemic is disastrous globally affecting a variety of sectors including the service and supply chain, as well as trade, manufacturing, and tourism. This article aims to provide a synoptic assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on Sino-African trade activities. It stresses that, if African policymakers revamp their efforts to quickly address COVID-19, the human casualty will be less and African economic growth may experience lesser shock as previewed by the IMF. On the other hand, if they relent their efforts, the human casualty will soar while the growth rate may decline. The effect of COVID-19’s outbreak in China has caused a slowdown on exports and services directed towards China.According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs of China, in 2018, China’s total import and export volume with Africa was US$204.19 billion, a yearly increase of 19.7%, surpassing the total growth rate of foreign trade in the same period by 7.1 percentage points. Among these, China’s exports to Africa were US$104.91 billion, up 10.8% and China’s imports from Africa were US$99.28 billion, up 30.8%; the surplus was US$5.63 billion, down 70.0% every year. The growth rate of Sino African trade was the highest in the world in 2018. This shows that Sino-African trade has a significant contribution to the growth of African economies.
Topic:
Economics, Health, International Cooperation, International Trade and Finance, Trade, Coronavirus, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Africa, China, Asia, and Cameroon

12. Cloth Face Masks Should be Used in the Community, Not by Health Care Workers in Health Facilities

Author:
Ronald Gobina
Publication Date:
04-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Nkafu Policy Institute
Abstract:
Wearing face masks are an essential aspect of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Although medical face masks are reportedly in very short supply in many countries especially low-income countries, cloth face masks seem to be gaining ground in terms of popularity and usage. In Cameroon, where the government has mandated wearing face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, with hefty fines for violators, cloth face masks are becoming more and more ubiquitous. They are a natural choice for community face mask users due to the ease of access (relatively low cost of production, accessibility of materials), potential reusability, and esthetic variability. The usefulness of cloth face masks to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses, however, has been subject to a lot of debate. The scientific community is torn between outright restriction of use because of a lack of evidence supporting protective ability and the ethical dilemma of appearing to prefer a ‘no face masks’ policy (where medical masks are unavailable).
Topic:
Health, Coronavirus, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Africa and Cameroon

13. Socio-economic implications of Covid-19 in Cameroon and proposals to reduce the economic fallout

Author:
Henri Kouam and Dr. Fuein Vera Kum
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Nkafu Policy Institute
Abstract:
The economic impact of COVID-19 will be broad-based, causing wages to fall due to social distancing and quarantine measures on the service sector. While communications and ICT-related sectors will be less affected, transport, entertainment and leisure sectors will be adversely affected, together with exports and domestic demand. Policymakers should utilise the $164 billion availed by international institutions to support SMEs and wages in the informal sector, whilst the 90 billion should be used in other to invest in the physical and digital infrastructure to support educational outcomes and employment over the medium term. Such actionable policies should accompany broader quarantine and social distancing measures.
Topic:
Economics, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Socioeconomics
Political Geography:
Africa and Cameroon

14. Lockdown Preventive Measure against COVID-19 Pandemic: Livelihoods Implications in Cameroon

Author:
Dr. Tata E. Sunjo, Adeline Kaptue Wuyt, and Dr. Yauba Saidu
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Nkafu Policy Institute
Abstract:
The entire world today is, in one way or another, affected by the spread of the novel coronavirus infection which the World Health Organization (WHO) declared to be a pandemic on the 11th of March 2020. This outbreak which has spread to all continents (Figure 1) has been characterized by exponential increase in infected cases, attributed deaths and socio-economic hardship. There are already more than 3.8 million confirmed cases globally with over 265 862 deaths (WHO Situation Report, 9 May 2020). The quality of the health system in a given country appears to not be an influential factor in preventing the installation or propagation of the pandemic as the nations with relatively robust health systems like in Europe and the USA have also been hit hard.
Topic:
Health, Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, Socioeconomics, and Global Health
Political Geography:
Cameroon and Global Focus

15. 199 Days Into Covid-19 Pandemic

Author:
Ngwa Wilfred, Denis Foretia, Mbuwir Charlotte, Dr. Asahngwa Constantine, Kibu Odette, Ronald Gobina, and Nkengafac Fobellah
Publication Date:
08-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Nkafu Policy Institute
Abstract:
The outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was first reported in Wuhan (Hubei province) China in December 2019. The virus has since then spread to all the 7 continents of the world, infecting over 14 million persons and killing over 600,000 [1] (as of July 19th, 2020.) By 30 January 2020, WHO Director General declared that the outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) [2]. The highest concentration of infected persons has shifted several times since mid-February 2020 from China to Iran, and then to Italy and Spain and is presently in the United States of America [3]. According to the Lancets, it is inevitable that Africa and Latin America will be experiencing the next wave of infections [4]. Since the introduction of the first case on February 14th, 2020, Africa as of July 19th, 2020, counted 683,905 infected persons and 14,684 deaths, thus contributing to 5% of the global caseload and to a little above 2% of the global death roll [5]. Although yet to be proven, several conspiracy theories have been proposed to explain these fewer cases observed in Africa [6]. Cameroon as of the 19th of July had recorded 16,157 cases with 373 deaths with 13,728 recovered cases [7]. This translates into a case fatality rate of 3.6% and a COVID 19 patient recovery rate of 85%. This ranks Cameroon as the 65th most affected country worldwide, the 7th in Africa [10] and the first [5] in Central Africa. The situation in Cameroon has pushed decision makers in Cameroon into taking a number of measures aimed at limiting the spread of the disease [8] in the country while at the time mitigating its impact on the economy [9]. Commendable efforts have been made by the government so far so such as the decentralisation of testing to 9 out of the 10 regions of the country (Rapport de Situation COVID 19 au Cameroon, Sitrep No 38). This report looks into COVID 19 situation in Cameroon with regards to the distribution of COVID 19 cases, the situation of health workers, some key mortality and morbidity indicators as well as the weekly evolution cases; making use of data from the beginning of the pandemic up to the 3rd of July 2020.
Topic:
Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Global Health
Political Geography:
Cameroon

16. Armed Conflict and COVID 19: the Ramifications on the Educational Sector in the NW/SW Regions of Cameroon

Author:
Tazoacha Francis
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Nkafu Policy Institute
Abstract:
In late 2016, the social and political forces in the now restive South West and North West (NW/SW) regions of Cameroon erupted as a crisis and quickly mutated into a human disaster with a rising human and property destruction that has been going on unabated. The impact of this lingers given that disasters, be they natural or anthropogenic have always had immense ramifications on human lives in the area they occur and even beyond. The NW/SW regions have unfortunately become the theatre of such a ravaging disaster since four years ago triggered by accumulated layers of grievances meted on the consciousness of the Anglophone population in these regions of the country in tandem with marginalization particularly in the educational and legal systems by the Francophone-dominated government which led to widespread protests in September and October 2017. The conflict escalated from a peaceful demonstration that was met with a heavy crackdown from the government security forces. This has resulted in the majority of schools in these two regions to be shot down because of security reasons. This situation has further been worsened with the emergence of the coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic that was first identified in Cameroon in February 2020 [1]. The COVID 19 situation in Cameroon has been evolving rapidly, with dozens of new cases reported each day. Adding to the current challenges of the armed conflict, the COVID 19 put the educational sector in Cameroon to a halt in March 2020 with far-reaching ramifications on the lives of the children of school-going ages, especially in the war-torn area.
Topic:
Security, Education, War, Children, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Armed Conflict
Political Geography:
Cameroon

17. COVID-19: Lessons and Implications for Public Policy-Making Processes in Cameroon

Author:
Peter SAKWE MASUMBE
Publication Date:
06-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Nkafu Policy Institute
Abstract:
Public policies can rightly be viewed as a political system’s responses to public demands and problems arising from its environment in domains as, transportation, education, agriculture, health, law enforcement, security, business, and so on, depending upon whether a chosen policy approach falls within the armpit of constituent, distributive, re-distributive, regulatory policy type. Policy problems are conditions or situations, which generate a human need, deprivation or dissatisfaction, self-identified by a group or groups of people, for which relief is sought for a large number of people in society. On the contrary, it is not a policy problem if it affects only a few persons in society. Talking of the political system, it comprises the identifiable and interrelated institutions and their activities, otherwise known as governmental institutions and political processes, which authoritatively allocate values in form of decisions, which are binding upon society. Certainly, binding as these decisions are, and going by this view of public policies; what character of policy responses has Cameroon enunciated against COVID-19; and what are the lessons and implications of these responses on the human capital and economy Cameroon now in the future? Are the policy responses against COVID-19 akin to impromptu approach with weak physiognomies? Are there alternative policies open to Cameroon for combating COVID-19?
Topic:
Health, Health Care Policy, Public Policy, Coronavirus, Pandemic, Domestic Policy, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Africa and Cameroon