30 September 2020, NIICE Commentary 6076
Dr. Sushmita Rajwar
As the COVID-19 crisis began taking a toll on Africa, the world community started talking about the immediate needs for the continent and also tried to assess the impact of this crisis on the continent. Healthcare needed immediate attention as there is lack of adequate supplies and medical equipment. In such testing times, all the major partner countries of Africa, have made their own individual efforts to aid Africa in sectors like health. Major partners like China and India have been focusing on full swing on the African continent since the beginning of the pandemic. China had quickly stepped up to help African continent firstly, in order to partly shift the focus away from the origin of the virus as is being advocated by countries like US continuously. Another reason for China to help Africa initially has been to correct its tarnished image in Africa because of the harassment faced by African migrants in Guangzhou during the initial days of the pandemic.
The Chinese embassies across Africa have taken the lead by coordinating both public and private donations to local stakeholders through its Chinese aid. Businessman turned philanthropist, Jack Ma Foundation struck a deal with the Ethiopian Airlines and sent 4.6 million masks, 300 ventilators, 200,000 face shields apart from test kits and clothing sets in the first week of April 2020 itself. Chinese companies like Huawei, Naspers and Huajian Group had been very much visible in providing local aid to African nations. Chinese citizens also started campaigns at grassroot level for example the Chinese in Kenya created a group called ‘Buying flowers to help Kenyan flower groups’. In Uganda- Chinese associations have started donating supplies. This helped to create impact at the initial levels.
The Africans started receiving the much-needed aid from China and also praised and thanked the Chinese for giving them support during these difficult times when most of the nations were busy tackling the pandemic themselves. Therefore, despite a large number of fake news across the continent against the Chinese, there have been positive responses towards aid received.
India, on the other hand had also immediately expressed its concern to help the African nations. The Indian Prime Minister was quite vocal about his country’s intentions which materialised initially in providing supply of Hydroxychloroquine to 20 countries of Africa in the first batch to 50 countries of the world. Indian Foreign Minister assured medical aid in Burkina Faso, Comoros, Uganda and Mali and he talked to Presidents of Uganda, Egypt and South Africa to assure them of all possible help. Later on, thirteen more African nations received seventeen types of medical products from India like Madagascar, Zambia, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Congo, Egypt and Comoros. India has provided medical aid to African nations of USD 7.9 million.
Indian engagement with Africa is done majorly through Capacity-building. The Pan-African E-network (ICT) was established since 2009 and has been engaging through Tele-Medicine and Tele-Education. Tele-Medicine has already engaged major super-speciality healthcare institutions of India like Max, Apollo, AIIMS, Escorts, Fortis and Continuing Medical Education (CME). Tele-Education is connecting major Indian Universities like Delhi University, Amity, IGNOU, etc with major African Universities. This would be the right time to undertake such initiatives and even start the idea of India-Africa Virtual University. Initiatives like e-Vidya Bharati that aims to provide five years of free tele-education to four thousand youth and e-Arogya Bharti Network Programme that provides education to doctors, nurses and paramedics. This would also be the opportune time to engage in such skill exchange with African nations.
Use of digital technologies is extremely crucial as these can be used to tackle deadly diseases like COVID-19. India could exchange a number of digital technological innovations with African countries to help them overcome this crisis. Applications like Arogya Setu have been successful in India and can be shared further with other nations in Africa. Agricultural sector can gain much from help in digital technologies. In this context, Indian PM’s 2018 visit to Rwanda can be remembered where he pledged USD 100 to Agriculture sector there. This would be an opportune time for India to take up these amounts that have been pledged.
Solar energy is another major sector that can ensure collaboration between India and Africa. India’s active involvement through International Solar Alliance (ISA) to boost solar energy sector is an initiative which aims at lowering the cost of technology and finance in order to make solar energy affordable and readily available to countries. India and Africa both are regions that can utilise solar energy at their best, hence collaboration at this level can also be aimed at in the future.
Maritime cooperation between India and Africa is also a very important area of concern for both. A healthy and well-developed maritime cooperation can prove to be very useful in difficult times like these. Training of African defence officers, personnel can be done at Indian naval institutes which was highlighted in the India-Africa Higher Education and Skills Development Summit in New Delhi, 2019. Indian ships have helped some African nations through their hydrographic capabilities in the past like Kenya, Seychelles, Mozambique, Mauritius and can be used further for cooperation. Reducing and completely cleaning Indian Ocean of piracy is one of the major concerns for both India and Africa, therefore, cooperation can also be sought in this sector. Indian navy has been actively helpful in providing humanitarian aid during natural disasters and security during AU Summits in countries like Mozambique too. This cooperation can be further maintained and strengthened in the post COVID-19 times.
These areas of cooperation between India and Africa can be taken up further during these difficult times. More so, since it is also a time, when there have been global criticisms of China for its role in COVID-19 pandemic and its aggressive behaviour during India-China border dispute as well as the South China Sea. The India-Africa Forum Summit is also scheduled for this year and there can be no other opportune time for India to promise various avenues of cooperation to African nations. With the already existing strong goodwill in Africa, India does not have anything to lose but only to gain from the established networks that it has built in all these years.
