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Editor's Note

Greetings from the LéO Africa Review!

The world is only beginning to come to terms with the true impact of the global corona virus pandemic. This week the president of Uganda announced a 21-day extension of the country's lockdown; while Rwanda's initial 14-day lockdown extension, due to end on April 19, will likely be extended still.

In Kenya, president Uhuru Kenyatta has ruled out a total lockdown, despite the country's confirmed cases totaling 246 today, the highest in the region. Tanzania, that had initially resisted WHO measures like social distancing to contain the covid19 pandemic, saw its confirmed cases almost double this week with 35 new infections registered on April 15. 

In perhaps another pointer to the challenges of a coordinated regional response to covid19, a planned video conference meeting between EAC heads of state this week was called off at the request of South Sudan. 

Meanwhile, the economic cost of the covid19 pandemic to the region cannot be overstated. According to a recent McKinsey report, the pandemic could wipe off 3-8% of Africa's GDP growth in 2020. Such predictions can only mean the days ahead are going to be hard.

However, we should not let this crisis go to waste. A new project to be launched by the LéO Africa Institute later this month seeks to bring together some of the regions best brains to shape more forward-looking interventions that go beyond containment of the pandemic, to discussions about a post-covid future and how our communities can best prepare for a fast recovery.

Now that I have your attention, you are hereby also invited to join the effort to shape this new future. Send your ideas to the editor and follow the conversation on all our LAR platforms. 

Lastly, we have shared with you some great writing to look back at from our contributors. Blanshe Musinguzi and Jonan Twinamatsiko explore the deplorable levels of pollution in Lake Victoria and what can be done to save the region's biggest resource; Joanne Nvannungi explains why in times like these it is important to heed to the age-old wisdom of "prevention is better than cure" in public health; while Innocent Acan serenades us again with her imagination in Unholy Reception.

Stay well,
Kwezi Tabaro
Editor


The "Great Reset" Project
While the economic impact of the covid19 cannot be overstated—according to a recent McKinsey Africa report, Africa’s GDP growth in 2020 will contract by between three to eight percentage points—the responses by African governments have been more focused on containment: suspension of business activity, public transport, and in some cases total lockdown and curfews. 

Through the “Great Reset” project, the LéO Africa Institute  will seek to push more forward-looking interventions that go beyond containment of the pandemic, to discussions about a post-covid future and how our communities can best prepare for a fast recovery.

The focus of the project will be to galvanize leadership action within and beyond the Institute network, and redirect it to imagine a new, progressive post-covid world for our respective communities and countries.

Some of the outcomes of the project will include commentary on Africa's response, innovations and ideas for a post-covid world, that will be published on the LéO Africa Review. 
Our April 4 conversation on Africa's response to the covid19 asked an important question: Can Africa match its previous successes with epidemics like Ebola to win the fight against the corona virus pandemic? Our panelists, who included frontline health workers from within the Institute network, offered some illuminating insights to the question. You can listen to the conversation here

Joanne Nnvanungi, who was a panelist on the same conversation, shares insights on how the age-old "prevention is better than cure" saying in public health could go a long way to ensure resource-poor countries are better positioned to fight future disease outbreaks. More...
Following recent heavy rains in the East African region, Lake Victoria's water levels have risen to their highest since 1964. The result has been hundreds of families displaced by flooding of the lake's northern shores of Entebbe and Jinja. 

However, residents whose livelihoods depend on the lake, the biggest in the region, are grappling with another far more serious threat: pollution. Blanshe Musinguzi and Jonan Twinamatsiko trace the harmful effects of human activities in the lake basin that threaten the very existence of the lake. More...
OPINION
The recent decision by the East African community to postpone a planned video conference meeting between heads of state of the six-member bloc, the third such postponement following earlier rescheduled meetings on November 30, 2019, and February 29, 2020, puts the future of the community in the doldrums. 

However, where the cynics may see looming disaster and a bloc hurtling towards an eventual breakup, the optimist will see an opportunity for stock-taking of the gains since the regional bloc’s revival in 2000, suggests Kwezi Tabaro. More...
FICTION
 
Innocent Acan serenades us again with this brilliant take down of the hypocrisies of modern religion. She asks: how does one receive the Holy Spirit? More...
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