A group of G-20 leaders are preparing an international response to the impact of the coronavirus crisis in Africa that would include debt relief and financial aid, African officials and European diplomats said.
A comprehensive package supported by countries including France and Italy would incorporate recent demands from President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia, who have called on the world’s most industrialized countries to support the continent through the economic downturn caused by the pandemic.
They want rich countries to waive all interest payments on Africa’s debt obligations and provide immediate cash injections through the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and African Development Bank.
“Solidarity during these unprecedented times in our history does not refer to vague gestures of sympathy, but actual cooperation,” said Ebba Kalondo, spokesperson for the chairperson of the African Union. “It is not charity. It frankly is common sense and our common survival depends on it.”
Last week, the G-20 agreed to inject $5 trillion into the global economy and noted the “serious risks” posed to Africa due to its health systems and economies being less able to cope.
While work is underway in several European capitals on a proposal to the G20 specifically targeted at Africa, a detailed support package is likely to be slowed by the ongoing crises engulfing Europe and the U.S., three senior EU diplomats and two African government advisers said.
Still, one idea discussed between Abiy and French President Emmanuel Macron in a telephone conversation over the weekend is a sensitive proposal to reallocate money from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to the fight against COVID-19.
“The current ideas being discussed hinge on the implementation of the G-20 communiqué, we requested the language on Africa that’s in it,” according to a French official familiar with the discussions.
The economic fallout for Africa is projected to be significant. The U.N. projects Africa’s GDP growth will fall from 3.2 percent to 1.8 percent this year. Africa needs to grow by at least 8 percent in order to meet its U.N. development goals, experts say.
South Africa, the African country most impacted by the coronavirus with 1,353 cases to date, has begun delivering water to parts of the country with no sanitary provisions, while the ratings agency Moody’s has downgraded it to a sub-investment grade.
“Even as our country faces deep and pressing challenges on several fronts, there is no doubt in my mind that we will prevail,” Ramaphosa said this week.
Health Ministry projections seen by POLITICO outline a worst-case scenario for Ethiopia predicting that 28 million people are at risk of contracting the virus. Health officials are now working on the assumption that in a worst-case scenario Ethiopia could already be an incubator for a “super-spreading event” and that the health system will be “overwhelmed in a few weeks.” A shortage of medical oxygen supplies is one major concern.
Abiy has told world leaders and senior politicians in a flurry of recent phone calls of the risk African countries face from civil unrest should a disruption to supply chains lead to food shortages, said a senior EU diplomat. “Abiy and Macron are on the same page,” said a senior EU diplomat briefed on the call between the two leaders. Abiy’s office did not reply to several requests for comment.
But Mamo Mihretu, a senior adviser to the prime minister, said the global consensus around an aid package to Africa was growing fast.
“There is a lot of momentum. There is no scope to make any debt repayment at this particular point. So we are pushing for bilateral creditors to suspend all payments,” he said.
“Without significant international support, we are looking at a looming economic crisis, a looming financial crisis, and a looming job crisis. And in terms of Africa, it will affect the livelihoods of millions of people … This is a serious issue we are looking at and this is something the international community should support.”
In Ethiopia, both the International Monetary Fund and World Bank are looking at front-loading a significant portion of $9 billion in financial aid from Western donors earmarked to upend 15 years of Chinese dominance in the country.
Ramaphosa, meanwhile, has established a continental anti-COVID-19 Fund to which African Union member countries have agreed to contribute $12.5 million.
The U.S. State Department did not reply to a request for comment.
Rym Momtaz contributed reporting.