Assessing Africa’s responses to COVID-19: challenges and prospects
Webinar (By invitation)
The Policy Center for the New South is hosting a joint webinar in partnership with the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) under the theme “Assessing Africa’s responses to COVID-19: challenges and prospects”.
The COVID-19 pandemic, while primarily a public health matter, has brought about a number of concerns related to its economic, social and political impact. The deadly virus is increasingly imposing itself as a threat to international peace and security, and the stability of countries, especially those experiencing ongoing conflict and other crises.
While it is already struggling to silence the guns, improve stability and good governance and strengthen its medical systems, Africa has not been spared from the catastrophic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. In fact, the most unstable and vulnerable parts of the continent risk seeing an exacerbation of their existing challenges, which might in turn imperil responses to COVID-19 in these zones. Although the United Nations has called for a global cease-fire, violent conflict and extremism continue unabated, worsening the humanitarian situation in certain areas of the continent. This has placed some of Africa’s vulnerable people such as refugees and internally displaced persons as well as those depending on food programs in greater danger.
Simultaneously, several countries have imposed stringent restrictions on the movement of people, placing millions of people under lockdowns and curfews, and taking away their ability to earn a vital daily living. This has been done, in many cases, without providing support to them, hence creating an untenable situation and causing sporadic protests in some countries.
African countries have each, according to their national realities and capacities, taken a variety of measures to combat COVID-19, and mitigate its socio-economic and political impact. A continental response has emerged, spearheaded by the African Union and its Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. Some regional economic communities are also attempting to coordinate their efforts in the fight against COVID-19.
This webinar therefore aims to assess Africa’s responses to COVID-19 thus far at national, regional and continental levels. Discussions will look into the continent’s responses as well as the opportunities that may arise for better prospects towards African peace and stability as well as economic integration and prosperity.
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Andrews Atta-Asamoah, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Security Studies
Dr Andrews Atta-Asamoah joined the ISS in February 2019 as a Senior Research Fellow working on the African Peace and Security Dialogue Project in the ISS Addis Ababa office. Before taking up this position, he spent three years as a member of the UN’s Panel of Experts on South Sudan. Andy worked previously as an ISS senior researcher, and at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Accra, Ghana. He has a PhD in political studies from the University of Cape Town, South Africa and a Masters in international affairs from the University of Ghana.
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Paul Simon Handy, Senior Advisor, Institute for Security Studies
Dr Paul-Simon Handy is a Senior Advisor to the ISS Regional Offices in Dakar and Addis Ababa. He first joined the ISS in 2007 and held various research and management positions, including division head, research director and acting deputy executive director. Between 2013 and 2018 he was on the UN Panel of Experts on the Central African Republic before rejoining the ISS in 2019. Paul-Simon is a visiting lecturer at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. He held teaching positions at the Freie University of Berlin before acting as Associate Fellow with the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin. Paul-Simon studied political science and international relations at the universities of Yaounde, Berlin and Leipzig where he obtained his PhD in 2005
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Mohammed Loulichki, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South
Mr. Loulichki is a Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, previously known as OCP Policy Center, who focuses on Diplomacy, conflicts resolution and Human rights. He has an extensive experience of 40 years in diplomacy and legal affairs. He assumed inter alia the functions of Head of the Department of Legal Affairs and Treaties in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was also Ambassador of Morocco in Hungary, Bosnia – Herzegovina and Croatia (1995-1999), Ambassador Coordinator of the Government of Morocco with MINURSO (1999 – 2001), Ambassador of Morocco to the United Nations in Geneva (2006-2008) and New York (2001-2003 and 2008-2014), as well as President of the Security Council (December 2014).
Mr. Loulichki was appointed President of the Counter-Terrorism Committee of the Security Council (2013), President of the working Group on Peace Keeping Operations (2012), Vice-President of the Human Rights Council (2006), Facilitator of the Universal Periodic Review of the said Council (2006 and 2010) and President of the National Committee in charge of the follow up on nuclear matters (2003-2006).
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Sara Hasnaa Mokaddem, International Relations Specialist, Policy Center for the New South
Sara Mokaddem is an International Relations Specialist in the Geopolitics and International Relations’ research program at the Policy Center for the New South. Prior to that, she has worked as a research analyst in charge of specific due-diligence reporting and risk analysis on private placements for a London-based investment fund focused on the mining and energy sectors. She has also worked with firms and individuals on attaining FCA authorization and regulation in the United Kingdom. Her previous professional experience includes a position as a visiting researcher at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in 2011 and 2012 where she has produced research on the post-revolutionary situation in Tunisia and Libya and on the security of the Sahel. Having written modules on corporate forensics and on employee protection as part of the certificate in corporate security policy, Sara was a member of the RUSI academic team for the ACTIS center for security policy.
She holds an MBA in Finance and International Management supported by an analysis on the piracy off the coast of Somalia and its effects on the insurance business, and a Master’s degree in International Relations and Security with a dissertation on the Northern Mali conflict (2012) completed at Westminster University.
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El Mostafa Rezrazi, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South
Dr El Mostafa Rezrazi is a professor of Crisis Management, and Security Studies and a Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, previously known as OCP Policy Center, who focuses on Terrorism, Security and East Asia studies. His area of Expertise covers Afro-Asian Affairs, Strategic & Security Studies, Terrorism, Extremism and Deradicalization, mainly from the view of Criminal; Legal and Forensic Psychology.
He got his Ph.D. in Regional & International Affairs from the University of Tokyo in 1998, and later a Doctorate from the University of Mohammed V on the Psychological dynamisms of Suicide Bombers (2014). He is the executive director of the Moroccan Observatory on Extremism and Violence, Director of the African Center for Asian Studies, Rabat. Currently, he is Visiting Professor at the University Mohammed V Rabat.
In 2017, he was appointed a Co-coordinator of the OBOR China-Morocco Research Group, and a member of the Advisory Board of The Euro-African Studies Institute, Hanyang University Seoul, South Korea.
Rezrazi is the president for the second term of the Moroccan Association for Asian Studies. Dr Rezrazi has served in the past as a distinguished professor in the school of law of Sapporo Gakuin University (Japan), a professor & Deputy Director of the Institute of International Relations in Hagoromo University in Osaka (Japan). A political Analyst at the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research in Abou Dhabi, and was also a Visiting Fellow in Princeton University, USA.