Recovering from COVID?19 Environment and Social Impacts in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Role Of Social Engagement

Abstract

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which has spread globally, originated from Wuhan City of Hubei Province in China in December 2019 and has become the most significant contagious disease in the health sectors worldwide. This has affected more than 241.87 million people globally, with nearly 4.92 million deaths in October 2021. All governments have suffered both negative and positive effects on the COVID-19 pandemic. Most countries’ lockdowns and border restrictions have positively impacted the environment, but they resulted in dramatic consequences at the social level, negatively contributing to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), increasing poverty (SDG1) and inequality (SDG10) in the poorer countries, severely affecting unemployment (SDG8) and education (SDG4), particularly in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In this specific context, social actions (SA) through the public and innovative private initiatives are being used locally to produce personal protective equipment and other logistics materials, aimed to reduce foreign dependence and also to assist in food and medicines supply to alleviate people in this region. Also, to fully achieve SDGs, particularly in developing countries, a requirement on collaboration across many sectors, organizations, and individuals dedicated to improving the human experience is truly necessary, namely led by SA initiatives. This chapter will focus on how social engagement has impacted the COVID-19 crisis from the standpoint of the environment and social dimensions in the SSA. The discussion is expected to promote and increase social awareness to the need for further investment in SA towards sustainable development in developing countries.