The African Union Secretariat of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC), which fosters and consolidates partnerships between the African Union (AU) and civil society organisations, is collaborating with the Civil Society and Community Engagement Division of the African Development Bank (AfDB) to launch a policy report on Covid-19 response and recovery.
When the pandemic reached Africa’s shores, ECOSOCC and the AfDB initiated a webinar series to raise awareness, sensitise and educate African citizens and civil society organisations about Covid-19 and associated public health guidance from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and World Health Organisation (WHO).
As Africa moves away from the emergency response stage of the pandemic to long-term reconstruction, ECOSOCC and the AfDB have developed an advisory report that consolidates the key policy proposals from their webinar series. The report is scheduled to be launched through a special edition of the webinar on 09 July, 2020, with the theme ‘Launch of Policy Report on Covid-19 Pandemic Response and Recovery’.
The report focuses on themes central to the elaboration of new frameworks that will be required to facilitate recovery, build resilience and adapt institutions and systems to the realities of post-Covid-19 socio-economics in Africa. It also identifies the most effective means to deploy its recommended policies, as advocacy tools by civil society practitioners. The webinar will seek to situate the report within the ongoing policy debate on post-Covid-19 recovery as well as identify opportunities.
Speakers at the launch will include the AU Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security, H.E. Bineta Diop; the Executive Director MS Training Centre for Development Cooperation and the Emeritus Presiding Officer ECOSOCC, Mr. Richard Ssewakiryanga; Chairperson, ECOSOCC Cluster Committee on Gender and Women’s Development, Ms. Julie Kone; the Executive Director SDI and Chairperson, ECOSOCC Cluster Committee on Political Affairs, Mr. Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai.
It was noted that since the webinar series began, it has addressed issues on health and sanitation, information and misinformation, the frontline experiences of civil society organisations, resource mobilisation, gender mainstreaming in the pandemic response, and the use of innovative technology and ICT in the context of Covid-19. The webinar series has also provided a platform for sharing lessons from the interventions that civil society organisations have been undertaking at local and national levels to respond to the pandemic under emergency conditions. The webinar have focused on drawing lessons on what is working and what more needs to be done to save lives and build community resilience.
Source: ECOSOCC
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