COVID-19 Africa Watch is tracking a variety of policy developments across Africa.
This page will be updated frequently to reflect new policy announcements. We also welcome updates and corrections from readers (africawatch [at] milkeninstitute [dot] org). See also our collection of useful policy trackers from other organizations at the bottom of this page.
As the pandemic expanded globally, the majority of African governments announced either an economic stimulus package or new federal healthcare spending in direct response to COVID-19.
In a best-effort attempt to compare spending announcements across countries, the table below provides announced stimulus figures as converted to U.S. dollars and as a percentage of GDP; and new healthcare spending in U.S. dollar values and then also as a percentage of total government expenditures, based on 2018 figures from the IMF’s World Economic Outlook database. In at least one case (Rwanda), healthcare spending is included within the announced stimulus package figure, though we made efforts to distinguish between health spending on preparedness and mitigation from economic stimulus packages.
FX rates have fluctuated greatly since the beginning of the pandemic. For the purposes of this table, conversions have been made to U.S. dollars using FX rates from April 4, 2020. This was the day the cumulative total of confirmed cases across Africa passed 10,000.
Sources: National policy statements and press releases, the IMF’s COVID-19 Policy Tracker, and (for GDP and government expenditure statistics) the IMF World Economic Outlook Database, October 2019.
We welcome queries and feedback from readers. Please reach out here.
By June, over twenty African central banks had reduced the central bank policy rates, and over thirty had announced policy measures in response to the economic and market effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tracker below shows which African central have introduced the following kinds of policies to mitigate the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic: policy rate reductions, capital requirement reductions, liquidity support measures, loan deferrals/refinancing frameworks, exchange rate measures, and fintech/e-payment support measures
On some screens, you may need to scroll right to see all columns.
Sources: Central bank websites, monetary policy statements, and press releases.
For a more detailed breakdown of the various monetary policy measures deployed by African central banks, see our analysis here: ‘The Initial Policy Response to COVID-19 from African Central Banks.’
The chart below shows policy approaches towards school closures across African countries. Each color corresponds to the strictness of school closures:
The data come from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker from the Blavatnik School of Government and are updated daily from their dataset. The gray boxes to the right indicate no data are available for those dates.
Source: Hale, Thomas, Sam Webster, Anna Petherick, Toby Phillips, and Beatriz Kira (2020). Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, Blavatnik School of Government.
Data use policy: Creative Commons Attribution CC (standard).
By the end of April, more than 25 African nations had declared a state of emergency or state of disaster. Many did so before even one case of COVID-19 was confirmed.
Sources: See links in table.
The table below provides other trackers we have found useful beyond those linked to in the notes above.
| Name of Tracker | Organization | What It Covers | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| COVID-19 Civic Freedom Tracker | International Center for Not-for-Profit Law | Restrictions on movement and assembly | ICNL Tracker |
| COVID-19 Education Policy | Center for Global Development | School Closures and Online Learning Availability (including breakdown by region in Nigeria) | CGD Education Tracker |
| Economic Support Measures in Response to COVID-19 | International Growth Centre | Wage support, tax policy changes, and other economic support measures | IGC Policy Tracker |
| COVID-19 and African Prisons | Prison Insider | Consequences of the pandemic on the living conditions in African prisons | Prison Conditions |
| COVID-19 Policy Response Portal | International Food Policy Research Institute | Population restrictions, social protection, trade, health, fiscal, and monetary measures | IFPRI CPR Portal |
A hub for information, analysis, and the global response to COVID-19’s impact on Africa