Covid-19: vaccination, one of the conditions for sustainable growth in sub-Saharan Africa
Johnson & Johnson's Janssen vaccine against Covid-19 (illustration) © KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP
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2 min
The International Monetary Fund forecasts 3.4% overall growth for sub-Saharan Africa in 2021 after a year 2020 marked by an unprecedented recession in more than a quarter of a century of 1.9%.
The IMF calls for increased efforts to enable Africa to immunize its population.
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Vaccines are one of the conditions for a return to growth.
As the director of the IMF's Africa department, the Ethiopian Abebe Aemro Selassie, says, “
vaccine policy is also economic policy
”.
He deplores the fact that Africa is struggling to secure its vaccine arrivals due to global competition.
The main risk is for Africa that new epidemic waves appear which would make the rebound in growth uncertain.
Because in 2021, the economies of sub-Saharan Africa will rebound by 3.4%, predicts the IMF.
A score that will not erase the terrible effects of the 2020 crisis. Last year, 32 million Africans fell below the extreme poverty line.
And per capita income will not return to 2019 levels for several years.
In addition, the African restart requires funding.
And the continent "
cannot get by on its own,
" insists Abebe Aemro Selassie, who recalls that Africa will need $ 425 billion in the next five years.
This will therefore require an effort from all, he insists: the private sector, public donors and international institutions.
Sustainable growth in Africa comes at this price.
But States, for their part, must strengthen efforts at good governance and the establishment of social protection systems.
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