Helping Africa Plan and Respond to COVID-19
The Challenge
As governments around the world scaled up their responses to COVID-19, we wanted to help them make the most of limited resources by identifying vulnerability — the potential social, economic, and health impacts within and across countries — in Africa, where data on the pandemic is scarce, and testing and infrastructure is spotty.
Our Approach
In July 2020, we built the Africa COVID-19 Community Vulnerability Index (CCVI), which assesses seven kinds of vulnerability for 751 regions in 48 countries across Africa to help governments, donors, non-governmental organizations, advocacy groups, researchers, and others develop more effective, data-driven responses to the pandemic.
Key Results
- Our Africa CCVI won the first COVIDAction Data Challenge Award given by the UK’s Department for International Development — recognized for its impact on the pandemic in low- and middle-income countries.
- The Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics has featured the Africa CCVI as a key resource for government planners.
- Our Africa CCVI has been held up by The Associated Press, the Economist, Financial Times, Quartz, and other prominent media outlets as a key resource for decision makers to compare regions on different vulnerability metrics and target services and support accordingly.
Relevant Press
As US struggles, Africa’s COVID-19 response is praised
—Associated Press, 9-22-20
'The pandemic is gaining momentum:’ Africa prepares for surge in infections
—Financial Times, 7-20-20
A COVID-19 Success Story In Rwanda: Free Testing, Robot Caregivers
—National Public Radio, 7-15-20
Knowing where to focus planning and resourcing to effectively respond to COVID-19 is important, especially in Africa, where data is sparse and inconsistent, and resources are limited. Across the continent-- especially at a subnational level — data on key indicators, from non-communicable diseases to testing capacity to health system infrastructure, is often out-of-date, not localized, and not consistently measured. This makes it difficult for policy makers to identify and reach the most vulnerable communities in a targeted manner.
To address this information gap, we created the Africa COVID-19 Community Vulnerability Index (CCVI), which ranks 751 regions across 48 African countries in terms of vulnerability to COVID-19 based on seven key themes: socioeconomic status, population density, access to transportation and housing, epidemiological factors, health system factors, fragility, and age of population. It is the only index to measure vulnerability to COVID-19 across the African continent at a subnational level.
By showing the different ways African regions can be vulnerable to COVID-19 beyond just mortality, the Africa CCVI can help predict the downstream consequences of COVID-19 that each region should plan for, and inform more precise, effective responses.
We are in conversations with a number of African stakeholders on how to use the Africa CCVI to inform their response.
This includes:
Guiding the resource allocation of governments, donors, organizations, and companies
Developing more targeted, sector-specific interventions to mitigate the impact of the pandemic
Targeting social distancing and shielding policies
Informing the deployment and scale up of vaccines and scale up of community health workers and mobile response
Analyzing the impact of Non-Pharmacological Interventions on vulnerable regions
Quantifying the impact of COVID-19 on other health outcomes, and how underlying vulnerabilities may contribute