Capacity Development Webinar Series on “Leveraging ICTs and Digital Government for Innovative Solutions to Address the COVID-19 Pandemic - Responses in Africa”

The current COVID-19 pandemic calls for agile and scientific solutions of government by leveraging ICTs and digital government for innovations. Many countries have effectively deployed ICT and digital government tools for health and wellbeing support, ensuring business continuity, and delivering uninterrupted digital services. Sharing of strategies, innovative cases, and lessons learned and fostering cooperation among countries is crucial for combating COVID-19.

In Africa, as of 06:00 AM (GMT +1) on 02 June 2020, 54 countries have been affected by the virus with 150,610 cumulative cases and 4,281 reported deaths1. African governments are exploring every means to leverage ICT and digital government for innovative solutions to address COVID-19, ranging from sharing information, engaging people, establishing effective multi-stakeholder partnership, to applying frontier technologies to increase the resilience of healthcare. As in other regions, innovation plays a key role in Africa in responding to the COVID-19 crisis. For example, in Kenya, the information on COVID-19 is published on the Open Government portal; in Ethiopia, an information-sharing platform has been created to share guidance on the virus; and in South Africa and many other African countries, the government has a designated SNS webpage.  Read more