The new board established to mobilise resources to manage the coronavirus pandemic has a monumental task ahead. Enormous resources are required to respond to the emergency.
The government alone cannot manage and with the turn of events where the economy is tanking, new and additional resources to tackle the pandemic will definitely be hard to come by. This is why a multisectoral approach is strategic.
When Covid-19 struck in China, the challenge for every country was to stop any infection. But in just a matter of time, the virus spread fast and furious across the globe, creating human and economic catastrophe. Experiences from Europe and America are chilling and the thought of the same replicating in Africa is terrifying. Kenya’s infection rate has jumped to 59 and counting.
For developing countries, the fundamental concern is the capacity of health institutions to cope with a full-blown coronavirus crisis.
The health systems are fragile, the burden of respiratory and chronic diseases huge and funding severely constrained. Prevention, testing and clinical management are extremely costly.
Before the outbreak, most African countries, Kenya included, grappled with implementing universal health coverage. But limited resources circumscribed the plan. Now faced with an existential threat that is Covid-19, matters are grim.
Essentially, the new board comprises private-sector captains, a perfect illustration that collaboration is germane to the war against the contagion. The push is for the private sector players to take a lead role and mobilise themselves to raise cash to support the government to tackle the threat.
The companies represented on the board have good fortunes and capable of raising substantial cash and rally others to come on board. Kenyans have always pooled together at such trying moments and raised huge sums of money that served a noble cause, for example, during excruciating hunger. If there was another moment to do the same it is now.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto, two Speakers of Parliament and governors have agreed to donate part of their salaries to boost the anti-virus kitty.
Global philanthropists such as Jack Ma of Alibaba has donated testing kits and masks and Mike Bloomberg $40 million to developing countries to manage the plague.
There is goodwill. Yet, there is no structure to harness such resources. Moreover, there is no proper mechanism for monitoring how donations are used.
Importantly, the Health ministry and the National Treasury should provide financial estimates required to combat the virus so that fundraising is targeted. Also, the new board should help the government think through economic and social cushions.
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