Theme: Trust between Citizens & Institutions

The European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU) maintain a long-standing partnership on peace and security which can be qualified as constructive. It is largely based on joint interests and objectives and is less contentious compared to other more challenging topics, such as migration and trade. The EU’s new seven-year budget for 2021 – 2027 introduces new ways of working which impact on how the EU will engage on peace and security in Africa. Most notable in this regard is the establishment of the European Peace Facility (EPF) which can potentially undermine the AU’s role in leading and coordinating peace and security measures on the continent. Moreover, these new developments take place against the backdrop of an overall troubled EU-AU relationship which suffers not only from the divergences in interests in key areas such as migration, trade and climate but also from the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, and global geopolitics.

Since the start of 2021 South Sudan has seen a large increase in COVID-19 cases in the country. Over the course of 2020 and into January 2021 South Sudan recorded 4,000 cases of COVID-19. However, over the next month and a half, from the beginning of February through to March, this number has more than doubled to 8,870 confirmed cases. This rise in cases has unfortunately been accompanied by an increase in the number of COVID-19 related deaths bringing the total number to 102. While the number of tests carried out in South Sudan has risen, it cannot on its own account for the surge in cases. These facts indicate that a second wave, much worse than the first, is currently underway in South Sudan.

Just a few months ago, many South Sudanese were breathing a sigh of relief, believing that the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic had largely passed them by. Today, a virulent second wave is sweeping through the country causing huge harm to people’s health and wellbeing, damaging the already dire economy, and further interrupting the stagnating peace process. The number of cases is headed towards the 10,000 mark and there have been more than 100 deaths, although the true number of people affected by the virus is likely to be much higher given testing is largely limited to travellers and those with symptoms.

The celebration of the International Day of Girls and Women in Science, on 11 February 2021, as well as the International Day of the Rights of Women on 8 March 2021 gave me the opportunity to pay a resounding tribute to and reflect on the many contributions of women scientists from Central Africa in the fight against COVID -19, which are largely unrecognised. Since the start of 2020, the world has been confronted with the COVID-19 pandemic, which is wreaking havoc among the populations of the entire world. While Africa and our sub-region in particular remains relatively less affected than other parts of the world, its effects remain to be feared, especially since the best prepared health systems in the world seem relatively powerless in the face of the pandemic.

Tomorrow, 11 March 2021, marks a year since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a pandemic. A year ago, the world as we know it and our daily routines were disrupted to an unprecedented extent overnight. In an effort to curb the spread, governments across the world put in place lockdowns, quarantine measures, stay-in-place orders, closed workplaces and education institutions. Almost immediately, it became very clear that although the pandemic was a great equalizer in the sense that no one was immune to the virus, it was also a great destabilizer of many socio-economic and development trajectories and social justice agenda, least of all: our mission for gender equality. In many ways, the pandemic has exposed so many of our shortcomings in our quest for a fairer and more equitable world.

Like all countries caught in the first wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Ramaphosa government has had to take some tough decisions: ease into a hard lock-down regulation or take a softer but cautious approach. South Africa was quick out of the starting blocks opting for a hard lockdown that imposed strict curfew restrictions that only allowed certain essential sectors to operate, forced small and medium businesses to endure greater strain on their operations, limited social gatherings and urged social distancing and mask wearing as part of the personal protective measures. The harshest impact was on the alcohol and tobacco industries that saw the sale of these products being banned.

The 34th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State and Government was held virtually due to COVID-19 pandemic from the 6th-7th February 2021. The Summit focussed on Africa’s response to the COVID-19 Pandemic; progress in the AU institutional reform and the election of a new Bureau for the AU Commission.

Heads of State and Government of the 55 Member States of the African Union (AU) met on the 6th and 7th February 2021 for their 34th ordinary session. For the first time, the most significant diplomatic gathering of the Continent, which usually brings together over 7000 delegates at the headquarters of the AU in Addis Ababa, was held by videoconference to avoid further spread of the COVID-19 virus.

The 2021 elections of the top leadership team of the African Union Commission (AUC) were historic because they were the first following the adoption of the institutional reform process of the Union. It was therefore the litmus test for the proposed reforms adopted by the Union in 2018 particularly concerning the election of the senior leadership of the Commission. Of particular importance is that according to the reforms the chairperson, deputy chairperson and six commissioners have to be, on a rotational basis, representative of the five regions of Africa and the team has to be gender balanced.

The 34th ordinary session of the African Union (AU) Assembly took place without the usual fanfare. Held away from the gaze of the public via an online platform courtesy of the COVID-19 pandemic, the AU summit set by design a very limited agenda. Apart from the transition of the leadership of the AU Assembly from South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa to Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and an update on the institutional reform of the AU, the summit focused, in the main, on the election of the new leadership of the AU Commission and Africa’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.