On April 7, 2020 the Advocacy Network for Africa (ADNA) sent a letter to Congress and the Administration about relief and aid for Africa from the crisis which arose from the COVID-19 Pandemic. Starting in December 2019, the world watched from a distance as people in Wuhan, China died from a new Coronavirus (confirmed by Chinese authorities on January 7, 2020) and named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020.
In the statement, which AFJN helped draft, ADNA called on the U.S. for the: expedient relief and aid to Africa, “Global Jubilee” or debt forgiveness for Africa, creation of a sustainable health infrastructure, recognition of the connection between climate change and pandemics, implementation of good governance including transparency and accountability practices, end of deportations and immigrant detention centers, and call for immediate global ceasefire. The statement strongly encourages the U.S. government to partner with African nations to minimize the projected drastic impact of COVID-19 and help prepare with a better future response and stronger infrastructures should it reappear. Read “ADNA Statement on Responding to the COVID-19 Crisis in Africa.”