{"id":16924,"date":"2022-07-04T10:04:24","date_gmt":"2022-07-04T10:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-must-build-strategies-for-social-cohesion-and-fast"},"modified":"2022-07-04T11:00:49","modified_gmt":"2022-07-04T11:00:49","slug":"africa-must-build-strategies-for-social-cohesion-and-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-must-build-strategies-for-social-cohesion-and-fast","title":{"rendered":"Africa must build strategies for social cohesion \u2013 and fast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span><\/a>A warning from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that African economies face complete collapse in a worse-case scenario from the coronavirus pandemic, has forced policymakers to look into the profound challenges about to break over the continent.
\nSouth Africa has been under lockdown since 26 March; yet there are nightly street parties taking place, with revellers even chanting the name of the virus.
\nThese very same people are often crowded into informal housing where water and sanitation are scarce and other diseases \u2013 notably AIDS and tuberculosis \u2013 are already endemic.
\nEven so, government messages about coronavirus are not getting through. If this is the case in South Africa \u2013 with its relatively strong institutions and swift central-government response \u2013 what is about to happen elsewhere?<\/p>\n

For Africa, coronavirus is a catastrophe in the making \u2013 and not just a healthcare crisis, but a threat to the cohesion and resilience of societies themselves.<\/p>\n

A recent long read in the Economist<\/a> unpacked with great detail the democratic deficit and demographic divide facing the continent.<\/p>\n

Young, upwardly-mobile populations \u2013 with increasingly high levels of smart-phone usage \u2013 are already facing off against older, entrenched elites. The result is weak social contracts and low trust, precisely at the moment when governments need to maximise cohesion and populations\u2019 willingness to listen.<\/p>\n

When mass casualties start to overwhelm already hard-pressed healthcare services \u2013 most African countries have severe shortages of ventilators and intensive-care beds \u2013 a new and equally deadly epidemic will take hold: fear.<\/p>\n

Fear of coronavirus is almost as great a threat as the disease itself. The Director General of The World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has talked of combating the \u201cinfodemic\u201d alongside the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Social media is already alight with speculation liable to drive public panic; while even the more \u2018respectable\u2019 newspaper websites are filled with sensationalist stories to drive traffic in an effort to mitigate their own uncertain future.<\/p>\n

The most powerful weapon in the fight against coronavirus is public trust. Reinforcing this means getting ahead of the downward spiral of contagious fear and social breakdown with responsive communications programmes tailored to local conditions and highly-varied populations.<\/p>\n

Early, accurate, and credible communication is key. Yet, although delivering factual messages is a large part of the mix, it\u2019s not the same thing as managing emotional responses.<\/p>\n

No one knows for sure how populations will react under extreme pressure, when anxiety and panic overtake rational thinking. It is therefore essential to read the emotional landscape \u2013 and better understand people\u2019s deeper motivational drivers \u2013 before designing public-information campaigns.<\/p>\n

To ascend this learning curve, African governments should urgently conduct rapid, large-scale behavioural research to answer the most fundamental questions:<\/p>\n

Do people understand the virus \u2013 how it spreads, what the symptoms are, and how they can help slow its progress? Do they fear most for themselves or their families? If they don\u2019t trust the government, who do they trust? Which sections of the population are most minded to help \u2013 and which least? What type of countermeasures will meet with popular support \u2013 and which won\u2019t?<\/p>\n

Public-health officials across Africa face a particularly delicate balancing act when it comes to the timing and enforcement of \u2018lock-down\u2019 measures. South Africa, for example, is using armed force to restrict freedom of movement and enforce social distancing on a mass scale.<\/p>\n

Yet telling people who live in cramped, makeshift houses \u2013 with no access to running water or private toilet facilities \u2013 to stay at home itself poses the most extreme test of social cohesion.<\/p>\n

Getting it wrong will lead not only to higher mortality but also to civil unrest \u2013 potentially tearing the social fabric for a generation. Some governments may fall; others could become irreversibly authoritarian.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to know which is the worse outcome. Fortunately, there is also a great deal that governments can do to \u2018nudge\u2019 people in the right direction \u2013 with a focus on reinforcing positive actions and counteracting destructive behaviours.<\/p>\n

Lessons can be drawn from different communications campaigns across the globe: mass-media advertising, televised press conferences, social-media engagement, in-community outreach, digital \u2018influencers\u2019 and grass-roots \u2018guerrilla\u2019 marketing techniques.<\/p>\n

Appealing to people\u2019s better nature can be a powerful incentive. In the UK, for example, the National Health Service filled its national quota for volunteers twice over within hours of launching its appeal. This surge of community spirit will surely leave a positive social imprint for years to come.
\nA pandemic response that seeks to leverage such positive reserves of national and local sentiment \u2013 mobilising populations behind government efforts rather than against them \u2013 is all the more important given what\u2019s at stake in Africa.
\nThe social and political impact of coronavirus will be the defining moment for a generation or more. Its memory will be deeply entwined with the level and type of government response.
\nThose which are positive and decisive \u2013 identifying with populations and tapping into the ties that bind communities and nations \u2013 will be the relative winners.
\nThose which wait for the wave to break, then layer additional hardship on their already-suffering people, will not be looked on as kindly \u2013 if they survive at all.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. A warning from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that African economies face complete collapse in a worse-case scenario from the coronavirus pandemic, has forced policymakers to look into the profound challenges about to break over the continent. South Africa has been under lockdown since 26 March; yet there are nightly street […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":16923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8,16],"tags":[242,233,246,245],"class_list":["post-16924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nAfrica must build strategies for social cohesion \u2013 and fast - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A warning from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that African economies face c ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-must-build-strategies-for-social-cohesion-and-fast\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Africa must build strategies for social cohesion \u2013 and fast\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A warning from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that African economies face c ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-must-build-strategies-for-social-cohesion-and-fast\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-04T10:04:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-04T11:00:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_4-62c2c83228572.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"732\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"418\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-must-build-strategies-for-social-cohesion-and-fast#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-must-build-strategies-for-social-cohesion-and-fast\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Africa must build strategies for social cohesion \u2013 and fast\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-04T10:04:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-04T11:00:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-must-build-strategies-for-social-cohesion-and-fast\"},\"wordCount\":865,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-must-build-strategies-for-social-cohesion-and-fast#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_4-62c2c83228572.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa\",\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-must-build-strategies-for-social-cohesion-and-fast#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-must-build-strategies-for-social-cohesion-and-fast\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/africa-must-build-strategies-for-social-cohesion-and-fast\",\"name\":\"Africa must build strategies for social cohesion \u2013 and fast - 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