African Union and Covid-19: Regional Coordination and Solidarity

The African Union (AU) has demonstrated substantial proactiveness in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, owing to its long-standing institutional commitment to regional public health. The AU has committed to trace, test, and track the pandemic, ensuring that African states have access to a sufficient share of the global vaccine supply, and soliciting foreign aid to combat the pandemic due to the deficiencies in many African nations' public health systems and governments' staggering financial shortfalls. Despite these efforts, the AU continues to be an intergovernmental organisation that depends on member states' capacities and involvement of foreign aid, both of which create obstacles to achieving and implementing continent-wide strategies to deal with COVID-19. This chapter explores AU policies responding to COVID-19 and the challenges they encountered. There is a broad realization by the AU that this pandemic cannot be managed without regional, continental, and international coordination and cooperation, considering the history of pan-African cooperation. Such efforts have led to a high level of solidarity, cooperation, and collaboration between various local, regional, and international actors. The COVID-19 pandemic provided the AU with new opportunities to strengthen its authority to accomplish results and advance regionalism successfully.