This paper is co-written with the African Development Bank.
Since the beginning of 2020, much of the developing world has been struck with a series of social, economic and geopolitical shocks. These include the Covid-19 pandemic and, recently, food and gas shortages following the Russia-Ukraine war. In addition, increasing threats from climate change exacerbate the socioeconomic impacts of these crises.
Africa is one of the world’s most affected regions by the global climate crisis, putting a significant strain on its public finances, growth prospects, and employment levels. The pandemic severely impacted the macroeconomic conditions of African countries by worsening debt vulnerability and fiscal distress. It also resulted in a loss of jobs to the tune of 22-30 million people and close to 33.9 million additional people driven into extreme poverty in 2020- 2022 (AfDB, 2022). The low level of Covid-19 vaccine rates are likely to make a faster post-pandemic economic recovery more difficult across the continent. These impacts were only worsened by the Russia-Ukraine war, which led to food and natural gas price shocks across the world.
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