Amid a looming global economic crunch driven in part by a slowdown in China, a recalibration of Beijing’s footprint in Africa and deepening tensions with the West, many African governments are asking questions about what direction the relationship between their countries and China will take in the next couple of years.
Aid and Development
The novel coronavirus caught many world leaders unprepared, despite consistent warnings that a global pandemic was inevitable. And it has revealed the flaws in a global health architecture headed by the World Health Organization, which had already been faulted for its response to the 2014 Ebola pandemic in West Africa. Will there be an overhaul of the WHO when the pandemic is over?
Earlier this month, Zambia agreed to a $1.3 billion loan with the IMF that comes with stringent conditions. That development has sparked conversations elsewhere in Africa about a return to the kinds of IMF-imposed austerity programs seen in the 1980s and 1990s, and what the ramifications of those policies could be for Africans today.