African Regional and Inter-Regional Health Governance: Early Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic by ECOWAS and the African Union

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic brings back to the fore traditions of interconnected health governance in Africa, both at regional and inter-regional levels. Using the early pandemic responses of ECOWAS and the African Union as empirical case studies, we reconstruct (1) how already established regional actors in managing pandemics, such as the West African Health Organization (WAHO), are (2) now interacting with a newly established continental institution, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), established in response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa (2014–2016). This is bolstered by policy responses coordinated by the African Union Chairperson and (3) forms of inter-regional pandemic governance that are being developed between ECOWAS and the African Union. Against this backdrop, we briefly develop a more conceptual argument on the relevance and nature of inter-regional cooperation between the African Union and ECOWAS. First, when compared to other world regions, interlocking forms of regionalism have allowed many African governments to respond to Covid-19 early on. In view of poorly equipped national health systems, and an array of other demanding challenges, early responses have at least bought affected states time to prepare national health systems, start mutual learning and organize international assistance – despite all shortcomings that still exist. Second, regional crisis response has been an opportunity to (re)negotiate the division of labor between the African Union and ECOWAS, which has been already ongoing in the area of governance, peace and security.

Biographical Notes

Ulf Engel (SFB 1199 & Leipzig Univeristy)

Ulf Engel is professor of ‘Politics in Africa’ at the Institute of African Studies at Leipzig University (Germany). He is also a visiting professor at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies at Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia) and a professor extraordinary in the Department of Political Science at Stellenbosch University (South Africa).

Jens Herpolsheimer (SFB 1199)

Jens Herpolsheimer studied African Studies in Leipzig, Bordeaux, and Lisbon. Subsequently, continuing research initiated during his master’s, he worked on cooperation dynamics at the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP). Since 2016, he is a researcher at the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB 1199) “Processes of Spatialization under the Global Condition”, at Leipzig University. In this context, he has completed his PhD, focusing on intervention practices of African regional organizations and their spatializing effects. Since January 2020, Jens Herpolsheimer is a postdoctoral researcher at the SFB 1199, studying the practices of inter-regionalism between different actors at African regional organizations and the European Union. These issues reflect his more general research interests, among other things, including the politics and practices of peace and security in Africa, Lusophony, and comparative regionalism.