In early 2020, as COVID-19 spread its tentacles beyond Asia into other parts of the world, global thought-leaders feared that the world had been set back about 25 years in just about 25 weeks. The pandemic had birthed mutually exacerbating catastrophes; a health crisis that had no cure in sight had, in the blink of an eye, become an economic crisis, a food crisis, a housing crisis, a political crisis, a security crisis, and much more. Everything collided with everything else and the standard of living of citizens across countries sunk even lower.
But this dire and gloomy crisis also comes with a glimmer of hope; amid the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen the innovation and ingenuity of humans and, oh, it is endless.
Every year, in its Goalkeepers Report, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation tracks the progress the world has made over decades, when it comes to the United Nations’ SDGs. Last year, the 2020 Report estimated that the world community has regressed on nearly all of the 18 indicators it tracks each year. However, 2021 is very different; this year’s report shows that people in every part of the world, especially in Africa, have been stepping up to protect the development progress we’ve made over decades. African innovators are saving the continent, one innovation at a time, across all SDGs.
Read the full 2021 Goalkeepers report here.
There were quite a number of things in the 2021 Goalkeepers Report that surprised us! Pandemics are not new in the world, but this pandemic that was ravaging the world in early 2020 demanded a swift cure. New vaccines usually take about 10 to 15 years to make, and it is unprecedented that the development of multiple high-quality COVID-19 vaccines was done in less than a year. Today, 5.76 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, 42.3% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 33 million are now administered each day.
But as we innovate around and bring solutions to our healthcare, a new problem is rearing its head: inequity is widening, and there are stark disparities in the distribution of vaccines in high-income countries and low-income countries.
As we read the report, we highlight key takeaways from it. One of the most important being that as the world sinks deeper in inequities, innovators in African countries are rising up to the occasion and bridging this gap between people in their communities and countries, and the resources they need to thrive.
Inequities Are As Old As Systems But the Pandemic Has Exacerbated it
The disparities between high income countries and low income countries have been bare, and virtually unchanged since time immemorial, but the pandemic has exacerbated this inequity. The world’s response to COVID-19 has been far faster than any other disease in history, but as the world manufactures and distributes vaccines, low-income countries are, in many ways, neglected and left to their fate.
More than 80% of all COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in high and upper-middle-income countries while less than 1% of doses have been administered in low-income countries. Africa is home to 17% of the world’s population, but has less than 1% of the world’s vaccine manufacturing capabilities. By mid-August, only 4% of the population in Africa had been vaccinated.
In low and middle-income countries, the COVID-19 disruption is projected to cause 254,000 – 1,157,000 additional deaths of children under the age of 5, and 12,000 to 57,000 more maternal deaths.
The inequitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines poses a greater threat as each infection can generate new variants that could spread to the entire world. It has become a matter of urgency that beyond the discovery of vaccines, the world needs to focus on closing equity gaps and having honest health-related data to meet Sustainable Development Goals.
To end COVID-19, we need to get all the health tools to the entire world.
More than a health crisis
The economic impact of COVID-19 continues to be dire, particularly for low-income countries and vulnerable people. An additional 31 million people around the world have been pushed into extreme poverty, and nearly 700 million people, the vast majority in low and middle-income countries, are projected to remain mired in extreme poverty in 2030.
An economic crisis affects every facet of a system, especially education. The #GatesFoundation2030 report shows that before the pandemic, nine out of 10 children in low-income countries were already unable to read, compared to one in 10 children in high-income countries. Evidence suggests that learning losses will be greatest among marginalised groups.
This is the year for equity
For women and girls all over the world, the statistics are bleak. Compared to men, women continue to be disproportionately affected by the economic and social impacts of the pandemic. The inequalities between women and men in the world of work have been heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic and the International Labour Organization (ILO) fears that this will persist in the near future as fewer women than men will regain employment during the COVID-19 recovery.
This year, women’s employment, globally, is expected to remain 13 million jobs below the 2019 level, while men’s employment is largely expected to recover to pre-pandemic rates. More than ever before, we must disrupt the idea of women empowerment and begin to redefine power, as highlighted by Melinda French Gates from the 2021 Goalkeepers Report.
The End is Not Here Yet
We cannot deny that the effect of the pandemic on every facet of human life is very harrowing, but there’s one more thing we cannot overlook: the resourcefulness of the human mind.
When the pandemic started, Western thought-leaders predicted that Africa would be the worst-hit continent, and foresaw “bodies lying around in the streets of African countries.” That didn’t happen. Although many African countries are bearing the brunt of their economies being on the path of a ‘seeming’ apocalypse, African innovators have, on many key development indicators, stepped up to avert some of the worst-case scenarios.
With “one hand tied behind their backs,” countless individuals, organisations, and countries went above and beyond to innovate, adapt, and build resilient systems, and the fact that we can point to positive signs amid a once-in-a-generation global pandemic is extraordinary.
The LumiraDX, for instance, is an innovation that is cheaper and smaller than the diagnostic device that came before. Countries can take it to remote areas and get results in just 12 minutes. The African Medical Supplies Platform and the LumiraDX Foundation reserved over 5,000 of this innovation for Africans. Dr. Onyimbo Kerama, a Kenyan doctor, says that when COVID-19 was discovered in Kenya, they had minimal personal protective equipment and medical services, the tests available then were too expensive, and the turnaround time was long and notoriously inaccurate. In Kenya, the LumiraDX diagnostic tool has been a game-changer: in 12 minutes, they can get results of patients who have undergone the COVID-19 test.
In Zimbabwe, Strive Masiyiwa, one of the African Union’s special envoys for COVID response, says that “The global supply was so limited, and it became a battle. Africa was edged out.” To find a solution to the health crisis in Zimbabwe, Strive Masiyiwa accepted a gargantuan challenge: he embarked on a high-speed chase to help get Africa’s 1.3 billion residents much-needed medical supplies.
In South Africa, Dr. Penny Moore was also one of the first scientists to discover that a coronavirus variant identified in South Africa could circumvent the immune system.
In Nigeria, more than 100 private-sector partners created the Coalition Against Covid (CACOVID), and private individuals – like Dr. Ola Brown who invented the COVID-19 testing booths in some parts of Nigeria – swung into action to help reduce the impact of the pandemic.
Senegal adopted community-based outreach, and trusted care of community health workers are going home to home to deliver vaccines. clinic staff now use immunization records to identify children who are missing vaccinations and send text message reminders to their families. Investments in community building will be worth nurturing long after the pandemic is behind us.
Beyond the health sector, Africans are building innovations that are reviving the battered economy and saving the ecosystem. From Nigeria, to South Africa, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Senegal and many more African countries, founders are bridging the gap between the people and available resources, addressing distribution challenges and systemic inequalities by providing sustainable solutions to problems peculiar to their communities and countries, and mitigating the continent’s economic crisis.
If there is one thing we can learn from the pandemic, it is that there will always be solutions if we all look within. But at the other end of the solution we provide to problems lies equity: ensuring that everyone has access to the better world we are creating.
“We didn’t ask anyone to give us anything for free. Equitable access meant buying vaccines the same day and time they became available,” says Strive Masiyiwa. Beyond the vaccine, this can also mean that all our solutions – be it economy-related, climate or health – must also be global, interconnected, and fairly distributed to all.
The next big idea or lifesaving breakthrough can be sparked anywhere in the world, and at any time. But the big question is if everyone in the world would benefit from it. To create a world of innovation and equity, we all must do something: push even further and even faster.
Read the full 2021 Goalkeepers Report here.
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In collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates’ Foundation’s 2021 Goalkeepers Report, BellaNaija is taking you on a journey to see how Africans are, with resilience and determination, solving the social, financial, and health problems of the continent. Introducing you to them is just the beginning. We will continue looking to tell the stories of the many more who are blazing trails for a better continent.
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