APN Innaugural Essay Competition – Winners Announced

December, 2020

The African Paradiplomacy Network (APN) in collaboration with De Montfort University Leicester, University of Johannesburg, City of Johannesburg and Afronomicslaw.org is pleased to announce its inaugural post-graduate/early career researchers essay competition.

Subnational Government Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa: The Role of International Partnerships and Linkages

Context

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the associated socio-economic impacts, as well as the anticipated aftershocks, have reverberating effects and consequences for subnational governments (SNGs)[1] around the world. This is not surprising because SNGs are closest to the communities which have been hard hit by the pandemic. Subnational governments are also at the heart of national and global responses to stop the spread of the virus, mitigate the adverse effects of the worldwide shutdown while planning for life after the pandemic.

Given the monumental task and constraints faced, SNGs have demonstrated resourcefulness, sometimes testing the boundaries of what is constitutionally acceptable nationally to get results. The experiences and responses of SNGs across the world to the pandemic have been as varied as they have been innovative, reflecting significant disparities in legal and institutional contexts, as well as socio-economic circumstances.

Importantly, the ongoing global health crisis comes at a time of increased internationalisation of SNGs, captured in concepts such as paradiplomacy, city diplomacy, decentralised cooperation, city-to-city cooperation or the globalisation of cities. This practice does not only underscore unprecedented transformations in the global political economy but also speaks to a growing recognition of our interconnectedness and shared human destiny, a reality that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp relief. In this context, partnerships and collaboration across national borders and communities, which allow us to learn from one another and complement our individual capacities have become indispensable.

It is also in this context that the internationalisation of SNGs assumes salience as a support mechanism for communities worldwide in their attempt to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus and adapt to its lasting socio-economic and cultural effects. This is not without precedent in the pre-COVID-19 period. Consider, for example, how, through the Fast Track Cities network, cities have been learning and supporting one another to end the HIV, tuberculosis, and viral hepatitis epidemics by 2030, or the World Bank-funded partnership between the cities of Johannesburg and Addis Ababa, which among other focuses allowed the two African cities to learn from each other to strengthen their HIV-AIDS interventions.

With its limited financial and technological resources but immense innovative potential, these international partnerships become even more crucial for SNGs in Africa as they navigate the new terrain reality imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Aims and Nature of Competition

Prizes

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First Prize Winner – Enock Ndawana

Enock Ndawana is a PhD student in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa and a temporary-full time lecturer in the Department of Peace Security and Society at the University of Zimbabwe. His research interests include African security, human security, gender and conflict, conflict resolution and transformation. More recently, his work has been published in refereed journals that include Africa Review, African Security Review, African Security, Migration and Development, Jadavpur Journal of International Relations, Journal of African Military History, the International Journal of Military History and Historiography, Small Wars and Insurgencies and the South African Journal of International Relations.

Enock’s paper focused on the City of Harare’s Response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Second Prize Winner – Nelson Otieno Okeyo

Third Prize Winner – Ms. Janet Jebichii Sego