WASIC Goal: Africa
The COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak has set off the first recession in the Sub-Saharan Africa region in 25 years, with growth forecast between -2.1 and -5.1 in 2020, from a modest 2.4% in 2019.
Volatility in the global environment due to COVID-19 pandemic, which is taking a heavy toll on human life and placing excessive pressure on health systems, continues to negatively impact Sub-Saharan Africa. Economic and social impacts are immense, costing the region between $37 and $79 billion in estimated output losses in 2020, reducing agricultural productivity, weakening supply chains, increasing trade tensions, limiting job prospects, and exacerbating political and regulatory uncertainty. With such formidable challenges, economic growth is expected to contract from 2.4% in 2019 to between -2.1 and -5.1% in 2020, sparking the region’s first recession in 25 years.
A collapse in economic activity that results from the COVID-19 containment measures and macroeconomic instability will increase poverty and endanger lives and livelihoods. Household welfare is expected to be equally dramatic with welfare losses in the optimistic scenario projected to reach 7% in 2020, compared to a non-pandemic scenario…
(source: The World Bank in Africa)
North Africa (5 countries) is predominantly Arab and relatively more developed. Many residents identify more with the Middle East than they do with the larger part of the continent. ... But when it comes to an African identity, some sub-Saharan Africans (from 42 countries) believe they have more claim to the continent than their northern counterparts.
(Photo courtesy of Annie Spratt on Unsplash)
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