Abstract
AbstractMeasured against the gloomy pre-COVID-19 predictions, Africa has fared far better than most regions in managing the pandemic. This much, however, has received less attention. This paper answers the question: how have the new rituals of self determination in public health affected the successful management of COVID-19 in Africa, and how can the continent and the rest of the world build on such models/lessons in the post-pandemic era? I employ emancipatory theorising in reviewing literature on approaches to governance of COVID-19. The rationale is to empower the grassroots and to accentuate the urgency for a decolonized local ownership of the governance of all public health crises. I argue that while traditional international cooperation is necessary for additional resource and expertise from the global North for sustainable health, the political will of Southern governments remains fundamental for any extraordinary success due to its grassroots/community orientation towards non-pharmaceutical interventions and initial pre-emptive rituals. The novelty in this paper is that it lays bare the ignored African responses and lessons and reveals how to harness protective communitarian ethos in solving future crises. The paper further provides population health as an ‘immune system’ policy framework for explaining and predicting how a scientific and human-centrered grassroots leadership can yield optimal outcomes in any future crisis.
Funder
University of Eastern Finland (UEF) including Kuopio University Hospital
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Strategy and Management,Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management,Business and International Management,Business, Management and Accounting (miscellaneous)
Reference87 articles.
1. Abraar Karan and Mishal Khan. 2020. “The Ghosts of Colonialism Are Haunting the World’s Response to the Pandemic.” NPR, May 29, 2020. Available at: www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/05/29/862602058/opinion-the-ghosts-of-colonialism-are-haunting-the-worlds-response-to-the-pandem?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social. Accessed 14 June 2022.
2. Addae Mensah, I., F. Fakorede, A. Holtel, and S. Nwaka. 2011. Traditional Medicines as a mechanism for driving innovations in Africa. Malaria Journal 10 (suppl 1): 59.
3. Ahen, F. 2021. From Ebola to COVID-19: What explains the ultimate preference for non-optimal solutions in global health governance? critical perspectives on international business. https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-05-2020-0057.
4. Ahen, Frederick. 2017. Responsibilization and MNC-stakeholder engagement: Who engages whom in the pharmaceutical industry? In Stakeholder engagement: Clinical research cases, eds. Edward Freeman, Sybille Sachs and Johanna Kujala, 87–112. Springer Publications.
5. Ahen, F., and O.M.H. Salo-Ahen. 2018. Governing pharmaceutical innovations in Africa: Inclusive models for accelerating access to quality medicines. Cogent Medicine. 5 (1): 1–22.
Cited by
1 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献