Welcome to AfricArXiv
This initiative showcases UbuntuNet's commitment to fostering knowledge sharing, collaboration, and accessibility within the African research community. With AfricArxiv, researchers across the continent have a dedicated platform to disseminate their findings, making them accessible to a global audience. By facilitating open access to scholarly work, UbuntuNet Alliance plays a pivotal role in advancing the principles of open science, enhancing research visibility, and driving innovation across Africa.
Communities in AfricArxiv
Select a community to browse its collections.
- The general repository is open for individual submissions by researchers, librarians and research administrators.
- Showcase of project activities, presentations, and scholarly contributions curated by the AfricArXiv initiative.
- A Rapid Grant Fund to address research questions and implement science engagement activities associated with COVID-19
- An initiative to support the development of a harmonised quality assurance and accreditation system at institutional, national, regional and Pan-African continental level.
- Facilitating knowledge sharing and collaboration among institutions, researchers, and educators within the Ubuntunet Alliance network.
Recent Submissions
Advocating for Preprint Sharing in Rwanda
(2024-09-24) Dine , Roseline Dzekem; Sindayigaya, Patience; Okafor, Izuchukwu; Lawan Adamu, Nuhu; Shitindo, Mercury
Advocating for Preprint Sharing in Rwanda - AfricArXiv Open Science Webinar Series 2024
Rethinking the Evidence on COVID in Africa
(2024-10-18) Bejon, Philip; Agweyu, Ambrose; Oyier, Isabella; Hamaluba, Mainga; Kamuya, Dorcas; Kinyanjui, Sam; Barasa, Edwine
The COVID pandemic was predicted to cause substantial mortality in Africa. However, experiences from many countries in Africa were notable for a striking absence of overwhelmed hospitals, and for low reported mortality. The marked contrast with the overwhelmed hospitals and high mortality seen in Europe and other high income settings was regarded as “puzzling” or a “paradox”. We reflect on possible explanations for this paradox with particular reference to observations made “on the ground” in Kenya.
We identify sufficient evidence to reject many potential explanations for the differing epidemiology in Africa. Longitudinal surveillance using antibody assays suggested that viral transmission was widespread and rapid. These data contradict explanations such as: an impact of climate on virus droplets; enhanced air circulation in rural settings; or stringent and effective public health interventions against infectious spread. We acknowledge resource limitations on surveillance of severe disease in hospitals and registration of deaths, but nevertheless identify sufficient evidence to exclude hidden hospital surges, and to exclude a hidden substantial death rate outside hospital.
Population age structure is an important but incomplete explanation of the epidemiology. The simplistic calculation of multiplying infection-fatality rates by the Kenyan population age structure implies a figure substantially higher than the observed excess deaths, and the calculation is further misleading because the infection fatality rates were derived from settings where the health system capacity mitigated the risk of death. Multiplying infection-hospitalization rates by the age structure of the Kenyan population predicts over a million hospital admissions, which would have been well beyond the surge capacity of the Kenyan healthcare system, and incompatible with the data showing that substantial hospital surges were not seen.
We found a very high prevalence of asymptomatic infection in routine data as well as in longitudinal studies with active surveillance. Taking this together with the lack of hospital surges, the low mortality estimates, and the evidence against reduced viral transmission, we conclude the primary explanation for the “paradox” is reduced susceptibility to symptomatic disease among populations in Africa.
There is an opportunity to further study pre-pandemic immunity and other potential mechanisms for the reduced susceptibility to severe COVID in Africa. Given our incomplete understanding of the mechanisms associated with reduced susceptibility to severe COVID, we should not be complacent about health security in Africa, and should prioritize the rapid acquisition of data on the ground to guide future pandemic responses.
Understanding the Impacts of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) over the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) (2013-2023)
(Pakistan Social Sciences Review, 2024-05-30) Muhammad Amjad Raza; Dr. Abdul Basit Khan
To fulfil her ever-growing commercial and economic needs, the 21st century China is undertaking multiple assignments and involved in several mega developmental projects across the globe nevertheless the South Asia, Central Asia and African Union (AU) have been enjoying primary importance in this regard and have attracted billions of dollars during the term of current Chinese President Xi Jinping. Keeping the preceding fact in view, the instant study focuses on the engagements of China with the member states of AU to understand the nature and scope of various projects being undertaken to increase the regional and intercontinental connectivity aligned with Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) and the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) during 2013-2023 across five African geographical regions. By qualitatively evaluating relevant academic literature, project reports, and financial documents, it finds that China and the AU are mutually engaged in infrastructure development, establishing trade routes along with economic zones to promote industrialization and ensure economic growth. It establishes that substantial Chinese investment in the length and breadth of AU has contributed to regional integration and social prosperity whereas China, in return, has secured a deep-rooted as well as long-lasting penetration into the region which, for centuries, had commonly been dubbed as the dark continent.
Role of China in Improving the Regional Connectivity and Economic Development in African Union through Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa-Priority Action Plan 1 (PIDA-PAP 1) (2012-2020)
(Remittances Review, 2024-07-22) Muhammad Amjad Raza; Dr. Abdul Basit Khan
The Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) is an initiative of the African Union (AU) Commission taken in collaboration with other AU institutions. The NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA), the United Nations Economic Commission (UNEC) for Africa, and the African Development Bank (AfDB) partnered with the program. PIDA aims to expedite infrastructure development in Africa and overcome the challenges of regional connectivity. It is divided into two Priority Action Plans (PAP) i.e. 'PIDA-PAP1' and 'PIDA-PAP2'. The PIDA-PAP1 (2012-2020) is a strategic framework which ensures fast-track implementation of various projects to address developmental and integrative issues faced by the AU member states which are chiefly related to energy, transboundary water, transportation, and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sectors. The current study reviews the nature and quantum of Chinese engagements with AU under the PIDA initiative for continental integration by particularly focussing on PAP 1 Program. It qualitatively analyses the relevant literature including official reports and financial documents to critically understand the extensive nature of Chinese involvement in these projects and finds that China is quite keenly involved within the member states of AU to develop inter- and intra-regional connectivity which is apparently intended and would ultimately be helpful to fulfil her own growing economic needs. The study would be helpful for the scholars, researchers from academia as well as policy-makers and think-tanks working on the China-AU economic relations.
A Glimpse of China-African Union Economic Relations during 21st Century
(Journal of Development and Social Sciences, 2024-07-23) Muhammad Amjad Raza; Dr. Abdul Basit Khan
The ever-prospering China-African Union (AU) economic relations are the outcome of their long-term interaction. The dawn of 21st century marked a significant boost in this relationship with the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). Chinese Presidents Hu Jin Tao (2003-2013) and President Xi Jinping (2013- ) preferred to follow a multilateral approach towards African continent and interacted with AU through inter-regional organizations which policy radically transformed the level of Chinese penetration into the continent. The Agenda 2063 of AU has also been designed to maximize the benefits from China’s Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) of 2013. As a consequence of integrated efforts from China and the AU for the economic development of the continent, the collective economy of Africa had reached at a magnificent amount of $3 trillion in 2023. In this scenario, the current study, while reviewing policy documents and available literature, explores the nature of China's enhanced cooperation with Africa through regional and multilateral organizations such as the AU, FOCAC and NEPAD. It elucidates how China and AU had committed and cooperated in pursuit of the mantra 'build an even stronger community with a shared future'. Applying an explanatory and descriptive approach, the study concludes that China's extensive engagement with the AU to promote infrastructure development and connectivity has profoundly impacted African economic growth. Finally, it goes without saying that the analytics, assessments and outcomes of the study would help future researchers, academia and experts working on China’s economic engagements with the AU to rationally understand the impact of these relations.