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From the article: “Indeed, soon after schools across Liberia closed on March 16, when the country's first coronavirus case was confirmed, authorities launched a radio schooling initiative to bridge an education gap. Within two weeks, the first lessons were aired on radio stations nationwide. Today, some 32 stations now broadcast several prerecorded lessons a day, each lasting half an hour, catering to different educational levels. It is a hands-on venture, with senior officials from the Ministry of Education devising and recording their own lessons. Other classes are produced by private education providers, including Rising Academies, which manages a network of some 140 schools in Liberia and neighbouring Sierra Leone. Lessons cover subjects from literature to maths and science to social studies, interspersed with health tips and messages promoting the wellbeing of students and their families. Many of the lessons feature the now ubiquitous sound of President George Weah's coronavirus awareness song, in which the head of state informs listeners about the symptoms of COVID-19, the highly infectious respiratory disease caused by the pathogen, and measures to prevent its spread. ‘What makes a good distance learning programme will vary from country to country,’ said Susannah Hares, a co-director for education policy at the Center for Global Development. ‘The 'right' technology will be the one that the most people can access and already know how to use…’”

From the op-ed in Inter-Press Service Of course, I am not expecting the G20 suddenly, due to COVID-19 to take on an operational role. However, I would have expected that, this time, they would have acted differently: lived up to the exceptional scale and urgency of the crisis the world confronts. For example, they could have decided to act as lead investors in a global mission-oriented project, perhaps executed, by the World Bank, in close collaboration with WHO and other multilateral development banks or other appropriate agencies, and aimed at establishing a sizeable special fund that could be used to bulk-purchase face masks (if and when available), security equipment and gowns for hospital staff, beds, medicines and, in due course, vaccines –in order to make these supplies available at affordable prices to poorer developing countries.

From the op-ed: "On April 6, there were reports of a clash between youthful traders at a temporary market and police enforcing Covid-19 lockdown restrictions in Kaduna, Nigeria. It left five dead with multiple sustaining gunshot wounds. This follows movement ban related shooting deaths in Rwanda, one in South Africa, the death of a teenager in Kenya and two sustaining gunshot wounds in Uganda. These clashes will only increase and escalate if the choice remains for daily wage earners to stay at home and face inevitable starvation or venture out and face the wrath of security services. The response to the Covid-19 pandemic that has become standard in high and middle-income countries is, in its current form, unfeasible, impractical, and arguably counterproductive in low income countries, especially across sub-Saharan Africa. These difficulties, however, do not make these social distancing measures any less necessary.  We need these public health measures. Our challenge is to adapt them to informal economies which lack a comprehensive safety net to support those shut in. Cash-driven informal sectors are a huge share of the economy of most developing countries, particularly in Africa where between 30%  to 90% of all non-agricultural jobs are informal. Millions of Africans are unable to survive without some form of daily trade and don’t have the advantages of bank savings, credit cards and online commerce to be able to stay indoors or “social distance” for extended periods. Our choices, however, need not be so stark or irreconcilable. The recommendations below, which are neither exhaustive nor universally applicable, attempt to adapt social distancing to Africa’s informal economies. It is possible this disease will be with us for up to a year, and thus must be met with public policy that can be sustainably implemented over the long haul. While the crisis is a test for underfunded health systems, it will also be an exacting examination of any state’s governance capabilities and social cohesion. It cannot be overemphasized that any country attempting to implement these adjustments must ensure eternal vigilance since relaxation could potentially lead to carelessness, causing infections to explode…”