Leaving Africa behind? COVID-19 and global public goods

Just as the understanding of COVID-19 has evolved over time – particularly the virus’ ability to rapidly mutate – so too have the apparent solutions at hand. Nonetheless, vaccinating an adequate number of people remains the holy grail, even if this is unlikely to eradicate the virus altogether. This puts most African countries, where on average only 4.4% of the population are currently vaccinated, at a clear disadvantage. Employing the concept of global public goods, this article argues that in order to halt the pandemic, international efforts should be guided by a weakest-link logic. The good news is that incentives may exist for everyone to act. The bad news is that (1) the current development cooperation architecture is not adequately equipped to offer such a response; and (2) achieving significant immunisation rates in African countries is fraught with a plethora of structural problems. Given that time is of the essence – as the emergence of new COVID-19 mutations constantly reminds us – the final outcome rests on how quickly international cooperation moves forward. In the spirit of ‘shoring up the weakest-link countries’, both in-kind direct help and enhancing capacity to deal with the virus are needed if Africa is not to be left behind.