Public Health Policies beyond the State: A socio-spatial Analysis of early Responses to Covid-19 in Africa

Abstract

In the perceptions presented by global media channels as well as in the academic public health debates of today, national perspectives on responses to the Covid-19 pandemic prevail. This situation also holds true for the dynamics unfolding on the African continent. In this paper, a socio-spatial perspective is taken to better understand the dynamics of current transregional responses to the virus in Africa. This perspective is adopted against the backdrop of the spatial turn in the humanities and social sciences while analysing the activities of the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Africa and the African Union’s Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention as well as examining a case study on the transregional coordination efforts undertaken by the government of Ethiopia.

Biographical Note

Prof. Dr. Ulf Engel (SFB 1199 & Leipzig University)

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).