In May 2020, Speak Up Africa joined together with Globesight to launch the bi-weekly #StaySafeAfrica COVID-19 tracker, as part of the #StaySafeAfrica campaign.
The campaign worked to build trust in vaccines among the general public to promote uptake, while simultaneously advocating for equitable access to these vaccines to support the World Health Organization, and national governments’ response plans. #StaySafeAfrica aims to strengthen Africa’s capacity to develop and adopt innovative solutions to the continent’s biggest health challenges.
Focused on Africa, the tracker, which was powered by Globesight, provided timely and relevant news updates as well as analyses of key philanthropic efforts and institutional responses to COVID-19 across the public, private, philanthropic, and multilateral sectors in the African continent. From vaccination efforts and the latest COVID-19 figures to pan-African and regional spotlights, the tracker provided a comprehensive overview of the ever-evolving COVID-19 situation in Africa for the past year.
The #StaySafeAfrica COVID-19 trackers added significant value to our understanding of context-specific strategies to emerging health crises, and of funding mechanisms and opportunities for LMICs, as well as perspectives into trends at play in the aid and philanthropic sectors. They gave real-time insight into the inequality demonstrated in response and preparedness to health crises in LMICs compared to advanced economies. As the African continent encountered multiple waves of COVID-19, the trackers highlighted calls for vaccine equity and innovative solutions for more sustainable health systems in Africa.
After a successful run with over 35 trackers sent out to a database of over 800 subscribers, the #StaySafeAfrica COVID-19 tracker concluded in October 2021. We are grateful for the support it received and hope that the tracker proved to be a useful tool in helping improve access to information. We will be bringing forth more of these thoughts with platforms like 2030.solutions and other forums.
The tracker’s archive can be accessed here as a resource.