Search

This paper provides glimpses of transactions in chemistry classrooms in five African countries (Burundi, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria, and Senegal) during the COVID-19 lockdown. Members of the secondary school community in the countries including teachers, students, and school managers were unprepared for the unprecedent demand in shift from a face-to-face to an online delivery system. From a tepid, faltering start in the early days of the lockdown in Morocco, Nigeria, and Senegal, and recognizing that the end of the lockdown may not be in sight, some minuscule progress is being made in exploring virtual delivery of the chemistry curriculum. Four major challenges to online delivery of chemistry education emerged. These are a teacher capacity deficit for delivering online education, poor internet service, an erratic power supply, and severe inadequacies in infrastructure for open and distance education. Taken together along with poor teacher motivation induced by low and irregular wages, these challenges are depressants to quality chemistry teaching during the COVID-19 period. We foresee that these challenges will persist. The harsh effect of COVID-19 on the economy of all African countries is a sign that funds will be unavailable to address these challenges in the near future. A glimmer of hope can be the reprioritization of funding resources by African governments to online delivery of education, noting that blended learning will be the new normal in the coming decades.

This paper discusses multidisciplinary international research collaboration team formation during the COVID-19 pandemic, challenges faced, strategies adopted, achievements and dynamics in the implementation of research on Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), by the African Translational Research Group (ATReG). The paper also discusses the lessons learnt and future opportunities for global collaborative research. In-depth virtual interviews were conducted with consenting members of ATReG. Questions were designed to provide rich, deep, and insightful opinions, lived experiences and perspectives of ATReG group members on group formation, challenges, strategies and achievements. Interview data was transcribed and analysed thematically, and the results were presented with important quotations presented. The ATReG consisted of English (n = 13) and French (n = 1) speaking sub-Saharan African (SSA) researchers who specialise in public health, epidemiology, optometry, information technology, supply chain management, psychiatry, community health, general medical practice, nutrition and biostatistics. Most members of the group reported an informal but well-coordinated structure of the group. Formed during the pandemic, all group meetings were held online, and many members are yet to meet each other in person. The group collected data from Africans and published 10 peer reviewed journal articles on COVID-19 within two years. It presented in international conferences, engaged with the media and the public and was awarded a national competitive funding in Nigeria all of which which contributed to career progression and academic promotion of some members. There have been challenges in sustaining the research collaboration and maintaining productivity. Challenges include difficulties meeting deadlines and obtaining funding for research activities. However, these challenges have been addressed through a collaborative problem-solving approach. The study found the need for operational and methodological flexibility, centralised coordination, and established funding sources as being essential for long term sustainability and performance of the group. The ATReG's objective of providing useful data on COVID-19 and generating useful knowledge about COVID-19 in SSA has been achieved. In such a multi-disciplinary international collaborative team relaiant on the online medium to operate, the experiences and challenges can be a model for learning for researchers intending to form international multidisciplinary collaborative groups. Nonetheless, there are still many important areas of research which ATReG will continue to pursue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyze how Nigeria, the 86th ranked State according to the Global Health Security Index (GHS Index), fared through the Covid-19 pandemic by linking its Ebola experience to the pandemic response. The paper will tackle (one of) these questions: Does their response as a State truly reflect the ranking? Or were they, like the rest of the world, truly unprepared and powerless against the outbreak? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mandate to ensure and protect the health of the public is an inherent moral pursuit of any responsible government whose obligation is to care for the well-being of its citizens. Through well planned prevention of ill health, individuals can spend more of their years in good health and contribute meaningfully to the development of the society. Because of the concern in balancing respect for individual autonomy and liberty, ethical justification for government intervention to promote public health through vaccination deserves renewed scrutiny. A case in point is the suggestion for a mandatory vaccination necessitated by the latest COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccination campaigns aiming to eradicate disease have been deployed in the past to create herd immunity within a given population. Depending on the epidemiological situation, vaccinations may be voluntary in some countries but mandatory in others, with mandatory policies sometimes leading to resistance against the government. Acceptance of vaccination for preventable diseases is often high at various places. However, in Africa, as its often the case with many developing countries, a significant number often refuse vaccination due to various concerns, including cultural and religious perceptions, ideological differences, or stark ignorance or misinformation about vaccines. Proponents of mandatory vaccination argue with justification that under such epidemiological condition the state is right to act in the interest of public health. But the complexity of African society with varying cultural and religious practices also reflects on the people's perception and understanding of their health matters. Many African cultures have different notions and understanding of the causes of diseases and may thus reject vaccination for a disease they believe is spiritual or even non-existent. We are of the opinion that mandatory vaccination for COVID-19 for Africans given its heterogeneous and complex nature and significant uncertainties in both the pathophysiology and management of the virus calls for intentional and robust community engagement and dialogue. This paper will explore any ethical dilemma and present a platform to address concerns around safety, access and dissenting opinions as well as sustainability before any form of implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The eruption of the novel virus brought to the global scene the prediction that Africa would be worse hit by the pandemic. This prediction was partly built on the widely recognized fact that Africa is the continent with the weakest public health care system and the lowest budgetary allocations to health. However, contrary to this prediction, the COVID-19 death rate in Africa has been low compared to in other continents. Debates on Africa's low COVID-19 death rate have generated mixed reactions, the majority of which have centred on beliefs and superstition about hot weather and Africa's youth-dominated society. Little or none of these reactions have attributed the low COVID-19 death rate to swift and prudent budgetary adjustment, which partly aided a swift response from some African governments. Indeed, not many studies have examined the swiftness in the response of some African governments and prudent budgetary adjustment in tackling the spread of COVID-19. This paper, through secondary data, advances knowledge on how budget revision aided government response to the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa and Nigeria. It found that both countries adjusted their budgetary allocations in response to COVID-19. It further indicates that South Africa, through budgetary revision, allocated more funds to government agencies in charge of COVID-19 and various relief packages than Nigeria. Moreover, it indicates that the swift budgetary adjustment by both countries partly aided a quick government response that progressively flattened the curve and, in the long run, partly contributed to fiscal impulse and deferrals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covid-19 has become a major issue of academic and social discourses. Lives, livelihoods, communities and businesses have been seriously disrupted by its dramatic spread across the globe. Statistics reveal that 55 countries are affected in Africa and South Africa is the most affected with 1.55million out of 4.32million cases in Africa, as at April 8, 2021. The pandemic has prompted a number of responses from governments, individuals, business organisations and Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) to inventive and reduce the impact on public health and economic challenges. Although some of these were taken as part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, their contributions appeared to go beyond their traditional CSR efforts. This paper seeks to establish the extent of Coca-Cola and Mobile Telephone Network’s (MTN) responses to the challenges of the pandemic in Nigeria and South Africa. Data used were extracted from grey literature and online search to examine the two companies’ corporate social responsibility in health emergency situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food supply chains are extremely important for food access and livelihoods across Africa, but their role is often overlooked and underappreciated. Under normal conditions, the gap between myth and reality can result in the design of policies and programs with limited or negative impacts on food security and welfare. The shock of COVID‐19 has heightened this disconnect, with potentially dire consequences for food security. This paper demonstrates the importance of recognizing and accounting for the essential role of food supply chains when designing policy and interventions, particularly in response to COVID‐19, and provides recommendations for action based on current realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since pandemic declaration, the vulnerability of countries with serious economic challenges and limited health resources became evident. This vulnerability has been put to the test once again with the appearance of Omicron as another variant of concern. Although great efforts have been made to develop effective and safe vaccines, they need to be made available globally at an affordable price to all governments and distributed equitably to maximize immediate and long-term efforts to contain the virus and advance global public health. Potential sources of unfair allocation of COVID-19 vaccines are not hard to find. The COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) has so far shipped over 406 million COVID-19 vaccines to 144 eligible participants. From that batches, about 115 million doses (28%) were allocated to 49 African countries. If proactive measures are not undertaken, Nigeria, pointed here as a case study, and Sub-Saharan Africa countries may not be self-reliant for COVID-19 vaccines. This report raises a discussion on the difficulties in accessing vaccines and diagnostics in sub-Saharan Africa, compared to high- and middle-income countries. Now more than ever, it is crucial to note that there is no overcoming a pandemic without coordinated action for actions that go beyond borders. The coordinated effort to raise vaccination rates in the African continent is not a humanitarian action aimed exclusively at Africa, but more than that, it is an effort for the benefit of global public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies acknowledge that COVID-19 is a game-changer resulting in an operational "new normal" across organizational endeavours including university governance. One effect of COVID-19 on social change organizations like universities in Africa is that it intensified operational disruptions. The study utilizes narrative analysis to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on university governance using South Africa-Nigeria settings as a template to generalize for Africa. Its data stems from a methodological qualitative orientation, implying that the narrations derive from unstructured interviews with key players within the university system. It is anchored on a conceptual framework founded on the ontology of African administrative and organizational culture that dialectically prompts epistemological analysis. The ontology facet deals with the status quo of university governance before COVID-19, denoting universities as mini societies reflecting the continent's general operational culture. The epistemology aspect dealt with knowledge generation, indicating innovation African universities need to adopt to operate effectually during and aftermath of COVID-19. It finds that e-university governance application in Nigeria is underdeveloped compared to South Africa's model which is basic. However, it concludes that improved investment in digitalizing operations of universities is imperative for their successful governance in a post-COVID-19 pandemic epoch in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to establish how African libraries have been thriving during the COVID-19 pandemic through systematic review of literature from the Library Philosophy and Practice e-Journal (LPP). The PRISMA guidelines were followed to review and select the twelve (12) articles used for qualitative analysis. The study findings established that research productivity pertaining to libraries and Covid-19 is very low in Africa based on LPP e-journal. Nigeria was established to be the most active country in this research phenomenon. Majority, of the studies were conducted in academic libraries, thus creating a gap in research. To sail through the pandemic, libraries are using various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, Zoom, Microsoft teams and Skype to provide virtual reference services. Librarians also, went an extra mile to ensure dissemination of authentic COVID-19 information by collating and verifying information sources for their patrons. Services such as curb-side pick-up have also been introduced in Africa. However, it was not clear whether African libraries are conducting document delivery by scanning or through courier services. Challenges that are likely to fuel the pandemic and inhibit transition of libraries in to the 4IR era include lack of change management, lack of ICT literacy, inadequate ICT infrastructure, and lack of technological support, lack of clear policies, power cuts and financial issues. Research implications to policy makers, librarians and researchers have been established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]