Valentine Dzvova, the CEO of African Equity Empowerment Investments, strategically navigated rough waters when Covid hit leading to financial growth at a challenging time.



African Equity Empowerment Investments (AEEI), a fully black-owned and black-controlled investment company situated in southern Africa, faced a turbulent last quarter, but despite this, is probably one of the few in a pandemic-stricken continent that has managed to grow by 44%.



The captain at its helm, Valentine Dzvova, reveals that the strength of the company, majorly focusing on fishing and IT, has been the diversity of its portfolio.



“Having diversity is absolutely vital to weather any storm, with the most recent example being the storm brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic,” says Dzvova.



Dzvova, from humble beginnings in Zimbabwe, saw her career scale new heights when she was made Chief Executive Officer of AEEI last year. Having come in when interim results were due and the company’s Chief Financial Officer was leaving, Dzvova dove straight in at the deep end.



“It also helps that I’m not a stranger to AEEI because during my years as an auditor clerk and auditor manager, AEEI was my client as well, so it was almost like rejoining family because they’ve known me from when my career began back in 2007,” she says.



Rising through the ranks at PKF International (a global network of accountancy firms) saw Dzvova familiarizing herself with the likes of AEEI as she was promoted to supervisor and then manager shortly after completing her articles.



Balancing her current role with her home-life has been no easy task, as she states; “I have to be very strategic about how I spend my time, I have to work late at night because you know, during the day, I would have mini emergencies at home that would need my attention, so certainly it has been challenging.”



Dzvova was inspired by ‘career days’ in high school and seeing other girls pursuing accounting inspired her to do the same. She achieved success by completing both board exams successfully in her first attempt while still continuing with her daily workload. Joining AEEI was the culmination of her determination and tenacity.



“The previous CEO and his team did a fantastic job so I joined with there being a very solid foundation already in place,” she says of her predecessor.



Under her leadership, AEEI ensured no jobs were lost during the Covid-19-induced lockdown period as operational costs were streamlined and these practices were also encouraged amongst AEEI’s suppliers and partners.



And about the future, she says: “We are looking at offloading some of our smaller investments so we can really focus on the major ones which are Information Technology and fishing; these are the areas where we feel our strength lies.”



As Dzvova reflects on her growth strategy, she emphasizes the need for one thing – liquidity.



“Cash is king and there has never been a time that this has been more true than right now. With lockdown, businesses weren’t able to trade as normal, so revenue wasn’t coming in but there were still employees and suppliers to pay, so if one didn’t have cash on hand, you were basically dead in the water which is why a lot of businesses closed.”



Dzvova’s expertise, coupled with her business acumen, has seen AEEI grow by 44% and its basic earnings per share increase by 101.3%. It is clear she brings the same enthusiasm for business to everything she believes in.



“Certainly as women, we wear many different hats at the same time and as a result, there is so much more responsibility on us and we just have to work that much harder for everything to fall into place. As women, we have our focus pulled in different directions at different things and it takes a lot of hard work to master this and it’s all the nasty back-ends that no one else sees which is where all this hard work happens,” she says about juggling her multiple roles.

Val Head Shot 2

How to PANDEMIC-PROOF Your Business.

While most cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus have been reported in the U.S. , Europe, and China, the virus is spreading rapidly across the African continent. 



The confirmed worldwide cases for the virus have surpassed 50 million with the current figure being at 86,979,718.



The increase in newly reported cases around the world has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the coronavirus a global pandemic. 



The death toll continues to rise globally now surpassing <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/current-affairs/2020/09/29/coronavirus-claims-the-lives-of-more-than-1-million-people-worldwide/">one million</a>. It is currently at 1,878,992.



The U.S. leads with 365,740 deaths. Brazil comes second with 197,777. India&#8217;s deaths are at 150,151; Mexico is with 128,822 deaths, and The U.K is with 76,329.



China, where the virus originated from, maintains that the country&#8217;s death toll is at 4,634.



The figure of the global recoveries stands at 61,684,121.



The African continent now has a total figure of 2,895,592 confirmed cases of Covid-19, while the death toll stands at 68,872. The continent has made 2,388,345 recoveries. 



Here are the country-wide numbers for Africa:



<figure class="wp-block-table is-style-regular"><table><tbody><tr><td>Country </td><td>Confirmed Cases </td><td>Confirmed Deaths</td><td>Confirmed Recoveries</td></tr><tr><td>Algeria</td><td>100,873</td><td>2,782</td><td>68,185</td></tr><tr><td>Angola</td><td>17,756</td><td>410</td><td>11,376</td></tr><tr><td>Benin</td><td>3,304</td><td>44</td><td>3,185</td></tr><tr><td>Botswana</td><td>15,440</td><td>45</td><td>12,481</td></tr><tr><td>Burkina Faso</td><td>7,342</td><td>86</td><td>5,443</td></tr><tr><td>Burundi</td><td>842</td><td>2</td><td>687</td></tr><tr><td>Cameroon</td><td>26,848</td><td>448</td><td>24,892</td></tr><tr><td>Cabo Verde (Cape Verde)</td><td>11,983</td><td>113</td><td>11,608</td></tr><tr><td>Central African Republic (CAR)</td><td>4,963</td><td>63</td><td>1,924</td></tr><tr><td>Chad</td><td>2,289</td><td>105</td><td>1,876</td></tr><tr><td>Comoros</td><td>995</td><td>13</td><td>759</td></tr><tr><td>Congo</td><td>7,107</td><td>108</td><td>5,846</td></tr><tr><td>Cote d&#8217;Ivoire (Ivory Coast)</td><td>22,855</td><td>138</td><td>22,154</td></tr><tr><td>Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) </td><td>18,248</td><td>599</td><td>14,723</td></tr><tr><td>Djibouti </td><td>5,854</td><td>61</td><td>5,752</td></tr><tr><td>Egypt</td><td>144,583</td><td>7,918</td><td>115,414</td></tr><tr><td>Equatorial Guinea</td><td>5,286</td><td>86</td><td>5,154</td></tr><tr><td>Eritrea</td><td>1,445</td><td>3</td><td>740</td></tr><tr><td>Eswatini&nbsp;(formerly Swaziland)</td><td>10,338</td><td>252</td><td>6,094</td></tr><tr><td>Ethiopia</td><td>126,241</td><td>1,963</td><td>112,813</td></tr><tr><td>Gabon</td><td>9,605</td><td>66</td><td>9,415</td></tr><tr><td>Gambia</td><td>3,812</td><td>125</td><td>3,677</td></tr><tr><td>Ghana</td><td>55,168</td><td>335</td><td>53,928</td></tr><tr><td>Guinea</td><td>13,845</td><td>81</td><td>13,199</td></tr><tr><td>Guinea-Bissau</td><td>2,455</td><td>45</td><td>2,398</td></tr><tr><td>Kenya</td><td>97,398</td><td>1,694</td><td>79,966</td></tr><tr><td>Lesotho</td><td>3,206</td><td>65</td><td>1,496</td></tr><tr><td>Liberia</td><td>1,779</td><td>83</td><td>1,406</td></tr><tr><td>Libya</td><td>102,880</td><td>1,546</td><td>77,435</td></tr><tr><td>Madagascar </td><td>17,767</td><td>262</td><td>17,298</td></tr><tr><td>Malawi</td><td>7,110</td><td>199</td><td>5,753</td></tr><tr><td>Mali</td><td>7,349</td><td>284</td><td>5,070</td></tr><tr><td>Mauritania</td><td>14,981</td><td>367</td><td>12,639</td></tr><tr><td>Mauritius</td><td>531</td><td>10</td><td>513</td></tr><tr><td>Mayotte</td><td>6,045</td><td>56</td><td>2,964</td></tr><tr><td>Morocco</td><td>445,439</td><td>7,581</td><td>416,708</td></tr><tr><td>Mozambique</td><td>19,542</td><td>171</td><td>17,069</td></tr><tr><td>Namibia</td><td>25,887</td><td>222</td><td>21,777</td></tr><tr><td>Niger</td><td>3,557</td><td>112</td><td>2,152</td></tr><tr><td>Nigeria </td><td>92,705</td><td>1,319</td><td>76,396</td></tr><tr><td>Réunion</td><td>9,173</td><td>42</td><td>8,706</td></tr><tr><td>Rwanda</td><td>8,955</td><td>110</td><td>6,878</td></tr><tr><td>Sao Tome and Principe</td><td>1,024</td><td>17</td><td>987</td></tr><tr><td>Senegal</td><td>20,156</td><td>433</td><td>17,782</td></tr><tr><td>Seychelles</td><td>354</td><td>1</td><td>224</td></tr><tr><td>Sierra Leone</td><td>2,724</td><td>76</td><td>1,924</td></tr><tr><td>Somalia</td><td>4,714</td><td>130</td><td>3,612</td></tr><tr><td>South Africa</td><td>1,127,759</td><td>30,524</td><td>920,879</td></tr><tr><td>South Sudan</td><td>3,589</td><td>63</td><td>3,131</td></tr><tr><td>Sudan</td><td>23,316</td><td>1,468</td><td>13,524</td></tr><tr><td>Tanzania</td><td>509</td><td>21</td><td>183</td></tr><tr><td>Togo</td><td>3,770</td><td>69</td><td>3,515</td></tr><tr><td>Tunisia </td><td>147,061</td><td>4,934</td><td>110,324</td></tr><tr><td>Uganda</td><td>36,407</td><td>290</td><td>12,387</td></tr><tr><td>Western Sahara</td><td>10</td><td>1</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td>Zambia </td><td>23,495</td><td>417</td><td>19,672</td></tr><tr><td>Zimbabwe</td><td>17,194</td><td>418</td><td>11,813</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>







Note: The numbers will be updated as new information is available.

KENYA-HEALTH-VIRUS

[IN NUMBERS] Coronavirus Update: COVID-19 In Africa

The third South Africa Investment Conference was held on November 17-18in Johannesburg, bringing together powerhouses from public and private sector entities to discuss issues around the South African economy and drum up investment for the country. &nbsp;



In the past two years, R660 billion ($42.5 billion) has been raised by this conference and this year’s investment drive raised R109.6 billion ($7 billion). &nbsp;



The panels held over two days addressed participants both digitally and in person.&nbsp;



A total of nine discussions took place and each delved into a pertinent issue related to rebuilding the economy. The Director-General of the BRICS’ New Development Bank, Monale Ratsoma, announced that the bank would be investing&nbsp;$2 billion towards the development of South Africa’s infrastructure. Ratsoma was firm on the involvement of the government in ensuring regulatory compliance. &nbsp;



Kgosientso Ramokgopa, Chief Executive of Infrastructure South Africa, echoed Ratsoma’s sentiments, further emphasizing the need for the implementation of government strategy and action over policy development and discussions around this. Ramokgopa also highlighted the need for government to take actionable steps towards implementation instead of only theorizing the possibilities through the use of policy and regulations. &nbsp;



“We [the government] are very big on talk and policy articulation and there is very little attention on application and delivery,” said Ramokgopa.&nbsp;He&nbsp;said a step towards this would be collaboration with the private sector and reformation of structural procedures.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The message from day one was intertwined into the conversations on day two as Ramaphosa also outlined the need for “walking the walk over talking the talk”. The need for the localization of production was highlighted. &nbsp;



Ramaphosa also outlined the recovery plan which was going to deal with the reformation of the economic structure and stream-lining of industrial processes. Investors into the economy such as Amazon web services and Naspers outlined what their investments have provided to South Africa so far.&nbsp;



“In responding to the coronavirus emergency, South Africa has demonstrated its capacity for innovation, collaboration, and versatility,” said Ramaphosa in his opening speech on the second day. 



As the conference drew to a close, the evidence of its effectiveness or shortcomings will only be revealed in the coming months as the economy continues to tackle the challenges presented by Covid-19.&nbsp;

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa gestures as he delivers the opening address during the 3rd South Africa Investment Conference in Sandton

South Africa Investment Conference Bags $7 Billion In Commitments

Covid-19 has proved to be a game-changer for East African businesses. Among the hardest hit is the region’s alternative energy sector. The sector, responsible for providing many remote communities with off-grid energy services, started the year on a high. However, the pandemic, and the recession it motivated, quickly reversed fortunes. FORBES AFRICA examines how the sector is responding, and coping, to some of these shocks.&nbsp;



Over the last decade, East Africa’s off-grid energy companies have been the unsung heroes of the region’s wider energy industry. According to GOGLA, the global association for the off-grid solar energy sector, these businesses have collectively provided at least 470 million people, many of them in remote communities, and cut off from the national grid, with alternative energy access.



The industry, working to reduce energy poverty across East Africa, was arguably on a high at the start of 2020 but the onset of Covid-19, and the reactionary public policies that followed, have worked to reverse a lot of growth that the sector was previously experiencing.



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/The-Marinyn-Elgon-village-part-of-the-Finlays-Tea-Estate-in-Kericho-Kenya-is-electrified-thanks-to-a-mini-grid-system-installed-by-PowerGen-in-1024x571.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-48358" width="637" height="353"/><figcaption>The Marinyn-Elgon village, part of the Finlays Tea Estate in Kericho, Kenya, is electrified thanks to a mini-grid system installed by PowerGen. </figcaption></figure></div>



Looking at the off-grid solar sector, GOGLA’s East Africa representative, Patrick Tonui, says that while the impact of the pandemic has been grave for the industry, Covid-19 remains a universal shock for the region and sector businesses had to react with that in mind.&nbsp;



“Coming into the beginning of this year, this industry was really on a solid growth path and the outlook was looking good. [In] January, we began to hear about Covid-19 and what was happening [especially after] China shut down for the month. We [anticipated] there were going to be impacts on the supply chain and on the manufacturers who were producing these products. As we went into March, when Covid-19 reached Africa, and we saw various government responses to it, one thing was abundantly clear was that we [were] going through a global health crisis and it wasn’t necessarily about us [as an industry],” he says.



Ensuing public health measures to contain the virus including lockdowns, curfews, and travel bans hampered the industry and severely impacted trading for many of these businesses. In fact, according to a survey by EnDev, an international energy access partnership working in a number of developing countries, East Africa’s off-grid energy firms were among the hardest hit, globally, with 35% of these businesses going into hibernation as a direct result of the pandemic. To an extent, says Tonui, this couldn’t be helped.



“We asked ourselves [as GOGLA], we asked our partners, and our members if it would have been responsible for us, as an industry, to go to [our] government and say ‘you are hurting my business by shutting my stores down or by shutting the ability of customers to come to us’. This is a global health crisis and [right now], it&#8217;s a question of how we [as an industry] are going to protect our communities and our workforce.”



While the direct impact of Covid-19 policies have played a major role in declining sales for sector businesses, investment in the industry has also been strained in the fallout.&nbsp;



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="883" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GOGLAs-East-Africa-Representative-Patrick-Tonui-image-supplied-scaled-e1602598344349-1024x883.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-48355" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GOGLAs-East-Africa-Representative-Patrick-Tonui-image-supplied-scaled-e1602598344349-1024x883.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GOGLAs-East-Africa-Representative-Patrick-Tonui-image-supplied-scaled-e1602598344349-300x259.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GOGLAs-East-Africa-Representative-Patrick-Tonui-image-supplied-scaled-e1602598344349-768x662.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GOGLAs-East-Africa-Representative-Patrick-Tonui-image-supplied-scaled-e1602598344349-1536x1325.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GOGLAs-East-Africa-Representative-Patrick-Tonui-image-supplied-scaled-e1602598344349-600x517.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GOGLAs-East-Africa-Representative-Patrick-Tonui-image-supplied-scaled-e1602598344349.jpg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Coming into the beginning of this year, this industry was really on a solid growth path and the outlook was looking good.”<cite>– Patrick Tonui of GOGLA</cite></blockquote>
</div></div>



This is already apparent on the ground. A number of relief funds have been set up to help East African off-grid energy businesses through this crisis including the Energy Access Relief Fund&nbsp; pioneered by Acumen, the multinational not-for-profit impact investment fund, which provides bridge loans as an avenue for emergency funding to eligible businesses.&nbsp;



The realities of this moment are all too real for entrepreneurs like Aaron Cheng, President of renewable energy firm, PowerGen, operating in five countries across the region including Kenya and Ethiopia.



“In general, Covid-19 has impacted some investors from what we’ve seen. Some investors have completely pulled out or put [a] pause on new investments and that’s really damaged projects in the sector. We’ve certainly been affected by that, we’ve been lucky enough to have some investors step in who have been supportive through this time,” says Cheng.



Nevertheless, Cheng notes that his company has had to minimize all possible costs while waiting on emergency funds to get through the crisis.



“We have done our best to preserve our team and keep that together. In terms of relief funding, we have been in discussion with some of these programs but they have been a lot slower than intended&#8230; and so there hasn’t actually been any final stage notices around any of the funding [that we’re seeking]. For the most part, we have done our best to reduce non-personnel costs to be able to retain our team&#8230; that’s been really important to us to keep the business going,” he says.



Delayed financing has had an impact not only on operations but on new projects as well.



“We’ve actually seen a greater demand for large-scale solar battery solutions and I think that’s because grid reliability has been hit by Covid-19 and, generally, corporate ‘greenness’ is a sentiment that’s increasing around the world and [the pandemic] has helped accelerate that discussion and dialogue [globally] so we’re seeing a lot of commercial-scale interest but projects themselves are taking a while to close because financing has been slow.”



The pandemic is also affecting one of the off-grid sector’s innovative service provisions; mini-grids. Independent from the national grid, these installations provide reliable and consistent off-grid electricity for small-scale electricity generation projects usually for communities or businesses.&nbsp;



According to Aaron Leopold, CEO of the Africa Mini-grid Developers Association (AMDA), an industry association initiated by mini-grid companies across the continent, based in Nairobi, even before Covid-19, the sub-sector faced constraints due to its idiosyncrasies.



“The issue with mini-grids is that energy policy, around public sector support, subsidies and also regulation has traditionally been built around approving and monitoring a very small number of very large projects whereas mini-grids are a huge number of very small projects. The burden, the complexity, and the detail of the regulatory requirements are overly burdensome on these small projects. It will be physically impossible to achieve universal energy access on any reasonable time scale without significant improvement in the regulatory environment,” explains Leopold.&nbsp;



As a result, these shortfalls in policy have restricted the region’s mini-grid sub-sector’s access to investment, posits Leopold.



“[It’s] that very same regulatory environment hampers investment. We have investors saying, ‘What? It takes you one year to get approval to electrify a village of 1,000 people? I’d rather put my money somewhere else’! We are really looking to help governments [through our work] think creatively about keeping their citizens safe, because that’s what regulations are for, and also enabling the progress that they are trying to see in technology and rural service provision.”&nbsp;



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/President-of-renewable-energy-firm-PowerGen-Aaron-Cheng-image-supplied-1024x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-48356" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/President-of-renewable-energy-firm-PowerGen-Aaron-Cheng-image-supplied-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/President-of-renewable-energy-firm-PowerGen-Aaron-Cheng-image-supplied-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/President-of-renewable-energy-firm-PowerGen-Aaron-Cheng-image-supplied-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/President-of-renewable-energy-firm-PowerGen-Aaron-Cheng-image-supplied-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/President-of-renewable-energy-firm-PowerGen-Aaron-Cheng-image-supplied-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/President-of-renewable-energy-firm-PowerGen-Aaron-Cheng-image-supplied-2048x2048.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/President-of-renewable-energy-firm-PowerGen-Aaron-Cheng-image-supplied-80x80.jpg 80w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/President-of-renewable-energy-firm-PowerGen-Aaron-Cheng-image-supplied-600x600.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/President-of-renewable-energy-firm-PowerGen-Aaron-Cheng-image-supplied-100x100.jpg 100w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Corporate ‘greenness’ is a sentiment that’s increasing around the world and [the pandemic] has helped accelerate that discussion…” <cite>– Aaron Cheng, President, PowerGen</cite></blockquote>
</div></div>



However, despite the policy blindspots, Leopold does note that there is a crucial part this kind of off-grid technology can play during the present pandemic, particularly for the remote communities the sub-sector serves.&nbsp;



“This year, looking at the Covid-19 situation, mini-grids are the technology that will allow us to electrify thousands of un-electrified health centers across sub-Saharan Africa. There is a huge risk [that] every single city in Africa [may be] overrun because [of the pandemic] with people who need medical care, [who] should have received medical care [within] their rural communities, but there are not adequate facilities. The decentralized nature of mini-grids is going to show its value this year,” he noted at an interview at Future Energy East Africa, in June, considered the largest conference and trade exhibition for the region’s energy sector.&nbsp;



Taking a broader view, Lighting Africa, an initiative of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), has been working on market development for off-grid technologies including solar products and mini-grids in the region for the last 12 years. Program lead, Itotia Njagi, from Kenya, believes that major African alternative energy markets have been severely affected by Covid-19, comparing market performance between 2019 and 2020.



“Across Africa, we’re seeing almost a 30% drop in sales if we compare the first half of this year to the first half of last year. It varies; some [regional] markets have been hit harder than others, but that’s the general pattern we’re seeing. In fact, this is the lowest half year sales we’ve seen since 2014,” he says.



Despite the startling statistics, Njagi is of the mind that government responses have a lot to do with how their corresponding off-grid energy markets fared, particularly in terms of sales volumes.&nbsp;



“Covid-19 has impacted [regional] markets very differently. As an example, the numbers in Kenya were not down so much, maybe at about 15%-20%. Tanzania, much less, because they never really had a lockdown [period]. However, if you look at countries like Uganda that had proper lockdown [measures] then you start seeing those 30% numbers and, I think, with Ethiopia, it’s significantly more than 30%. So, it varies from country to country.”



As in the mini-grid sub-sector, the wider industry has been hindered by reactionary policy measures, across the region, during the pandemic and beyond.



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="694" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/A-street-vendor-uses-a-PayGo-solar-lighting-system-for-his-stall-image-by-Baobab-1024x694.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-48354" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/A-street-vendor-uses-a-PayGo-solar-lighting-system-for-his-stall-image-by-Baobab-1024x694.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/A-street-vendor-uses-a-PayGo-solar-lighting-system-for-his-stall-image-by-Baobab-300x203.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/A-street-vendor-uses-a-PayGo-solar-lighting-system-for-his-stall-image-by-Baobab-768x521.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/A-street-vendor-uses-a-PayGo-solar-lighting-system-for-his-stall-image-by-Baobab-1536x1041.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/A-street-vendor-uses-a-PayGo-solar-lighting-system-for-his-stall-image-by-Baobab-2048x1389.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/A-street-vendor-uses-a-PayGo-solar-lighting-system-for-his-stall-image-by-Baobab-600x407.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>A street vendor uses a PayGo solar lighting system for his stall</figcaption></figure></div>



“Two things have happened in the last six months from the policy-side that have affected the industry. One is that VAT was re-introduced on solar products. On top of that, [excise] duty was introduced. I can relate with the fact that governments have been affected and they are trying to shore up whatever revenues they can and so some of the exemptions that were provided in [the past], they are [currently] revisiting Duty as a common target within East Africa and [at the same time] VAT is being applied. Basically, these products are now more expensive, at a time when disposable incomes are shrinking. We expect that this will have an impact on sales for the second half of 2020 and so that recovery process [for sector businesses] will take much longer,” he explains.



While tidings for the East African energy sector may seem bleak, for now, there is a silver lining for entrepreneurs in the sector. Turning back to Cheng of PowerGen, despite present difficulties, he believes the outlook remains positive for businesses like his, across the region.



“There still remains about 600 million people without power, and that hasn’t changed. Through Covid-19, and the slump of 2020, there still isn’t a much cheaper grid extension model and there hasn’t been a radical improvement in energy access. You still have high diesel costs and high grid unreliability and that’s actually driven commercial clients to alternative energy solutions. Now, it’s just a matter of continuing to execute and using good economics in these projects and ultimately using the end of 2020 or 2021, if Covid-19 ever slows down, to rebuild investor confidence and get back to the levels we were at in 2019 but we do believe we can get there because the fundamentals remain in the market.”&nbsp;



-By Marie Shabaya

A rural classroom uses a solar powered light, a key product of East Africa’s off-grid energy sector; image by FINCA International [A. Wright]

Powering Through The Pandemic: East Africa’s Energy Sector

When Houston was gripped by a severe Covid-19 wave in June, a mutated form of coronavirus that developed elsewhere in the world and which is known to be especially contagious grew to eventually dominate the city’s infected patients, according to a <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.22.20199125v1" target="_blank">study released Wednesday</a> that could raise new questions about how quickly the virus evolved as it spread around the world.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h5>



The study, which was not peer-reviewed and was first reported by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/09/23/houston-coronavirus-mutations/?arc404=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Washington Post</a>, looked at virus samples from two different Covid-19 waves in the Houston area over the spring and summer.



Many different strains of the virus entered Houston initially, but when the city moved from a small initial wave in March to a much larger outbreak in late June, almost every coronavirus sample contained a particular mutation on the virus’ surface that had previously been found in cases in Europe.



Patients with that strain of coronavirus carried more virus particles than other people, meaning they were probably more infectious, the study found.



Researchers say the rise of this contagious strain of the virus may have driven up the infection rate in the Houston area, which&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tmc.edu/coronavirus-updates/infection-rate-in-the-greater-houston-area/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">jumped</a>&nbsp;from an average of around 200 new Covid-19 cases per day to more than 2,400.



The mutation did not appear to make the virus more dangerous or change patients’ outcomes, according to the study.



A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.31.20166082v2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">similar study</a>&nbsp;from earlier this month found evidence that the United Kingdom was also overtaken by the same virus strain over the spring.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h5>



Scientists are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/18/mutant-virus-should-we-be-worried-sars-cov-2-changing-covid" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">not surprised</a>&nbsp;that coronavirus has evolved over time. Mutations take place when a virus replicates and, after infecting more than 30 million people, coronavirus has had plenty of opportunities to mutate. Most mutations have no impact, but this process sometimes changes the virus’ behavior or makeup, and if that change helps the virus spread, a mutated version of the virus can eventually dominate through&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02544-6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">natural selection</a>. This study from Houston is the latest evidence that coronavirus is changing as it moves around, possibly becoming slightly more infectious in the process.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h5>



&nbsp;If coronavirus is evolving over time, that process could impact the effectiveness of a vaccine. The virus rarely infects the same person twice, but some research shows that reinfection is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/coronavirusfrontlines/2020/09/22/can-you-get-a-covid-19-infection-twice-an-infectious-disease-doctor-discusses-new-evidence/#130382fd7b09">more possible</a>&nbsp;if a patient gets two different strains of coronavirus. For that reason, as the virus changes, a vaccine might need to change along with it.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h5>



“We’ll have to chase the virus and, as it mutates, we’ll have to tinker with our vaccine,” David Morens, a virologist and advisor at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the&nbsp;Washington Post.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h5>



<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/09/23/houston-coronavirus-mutations/?arc404=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Massive genetic study shows coronavirus mutating and potentially evolving amid rapid U.S. spread (Washington Post)</a>



<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/18/mutant-virus-should-we-be-worried-sars-cov-2-changing-covid" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mutant virus: should we be worried that Sars-CoV-2 is changing? (The Guardian)</a>



<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02544-6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The coronavirus is mutating — does it matter? (Nature)</a>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/coronavirusfrontlines/2020/09/22/can-you-get-a-covid-19-infection-twice-an-infectious-disease-doctor-discusses-new-evidence/#130382fd7b09">Can You Get A Covid-19 Infection Twice? An Infectious Disease Doctor Discusses New Evidence (Forbes)</a>



-By Joe Walsh, Forbes Staff

Coronavirus blood test in hospital laboratory

Coronavirus May Have Mutated To Become More Contagious, Study Finds

Airbus SE, now the world’s largest planemaker, could take more strict measures to cut more jobs because of a continued fall in demand for travel fuelled by the coronavirus pandemic, CEO Guillaume Faury <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezSjYXSbsDw" target="_blank">told</a> French radio station RTL Tuesday morning.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h4>



The European planemaker is already committing to cutting 15,000 jobs as air travel and orders from airlines have been ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic, with a number of layoffs made through a voluntary redundancy scheme.



But on Tuesday, Faury warned that voluntary redundancies may not be enough to reach that goal.



He added that he could not guarantee that compulsory redundancies would not happen in a bid to cut costs.



The CEO said that while airlines were not cancelling orders, they were delaying them as demand for air travel stays at a fraction of activity before the coronavirus and with many travel bans still in place, and lockdown restrictions returning to regions facing a second wave.



Faury said that had left airlines “in a more difficult situation after the holidays than what we were hoping.”



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h4>



Faury told RTL on Tuesday: “The situation is so serious, and we are faced with so much uncertainty, that I think no one can guarantee there won’t be compulsory redundancies if we’re to adapt to the situation, especially if it evolves further.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“On the other hand, what I say clearly is that we have a lot of work to do, we will do everything we can to avoid arriving at that point.” </blockquote>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h4>



<a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-airbus-ceo/airbus-close-to-slashing-jobs-as-ceo-confirms-40-output-drop-idUKKBN2400I5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">40%</a>. That’s how much Airbus is dropping its production by for the next two years, to offset the effects of the pandemic.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h4>



Air travel has been one of the industries most severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with a number of global firms slashing orders from the world’s biggest planemakers including Airbus, and Boeing. In June, Airbus committed to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/30/gravest-crisis-as-airbus-plans-to-cut-15000-jobs-1700-in-uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cutting</a>&nbsp;15,000 jobs—or 15% of its global workforce—citing the coronavirus pandemic as the “gravest crisis” in the firm’s history. The extent of the impact on the aerospace giant was made clear in July, when it posted a nearly $2 billion loss in the first half of 2020, while new orders in the second quarter plummeted to just eight, compared with nearly 300 in the first three months of the year. While governments have doled out some&nbsp;<a href="https://www.iata.org/en/iata-repository/publications/economic-reports/cash-may-run-out-for-some-airlines-during-tough-winter-season/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$161 billion</a>&nbsp;in aid to airlines around the world, according to IATA, the next challenge will be keeping struggling airlines afloat during the winter months, which will likely be compounded by a second wave of the coronavirus and a likely repeat of some stringent lockdown measures.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h4>



<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/30/gravest-crisis-as-airbus-plans-to-cut-15000-jobs-1700-in-uk" target="_blank">&#8216;Gravest crisis&#8217; as Airbus plans to cut 15,000 jobs</a> (The Guardian)



by Isabel Togoh,Forbes Staff

FRANCE-AIRBUS-AEROSPACE-RESULTS

Airbus, The World’s Largest Planemaker, Warns Of More Job Cuts Because Of The Pandemic

If it hadn’t been for the pandemic, Miss Universe Zozibini Tunzi would have been traveling the world on assignments. The South African relates how her reign has been diffferent, as she works from her current home in New York, continuing to advocate for gender equality. A special read as her home country celebrates Women’s Month.



What have the last few months of being a Miss Universe been like, with the hovering pandemic?&nbsp; My reign as Miss Universe has been a different one from the usual. Like everyone else, I have also had to social distance and work from home, which is very out of the norm for a Miss Universe.



What has been the best moment of your reign so far? It was getting to go home for the first time after winning. I had a whole week of ‘welcome back’ celebrations. To see the faces of young girls and women when they looked at me and seeing a possibility that their lives too can change in an incredible way was heart-warming. Before I won, I had said I wanted to win because I want young girls to look at me and see their faces reflected in mine, for them to see that their dreams too are valid. To actually go home finally and see it happening is a blessing I will never forget nor take for granted.



As Miss Universe, what are some of the main aspects of your job? The biggest part of the job is traveling the world doing different work, from charity work to entertainment and speaking engagements. Every Miss Universe has a different social cause close to her heart. We take the year to address those issues, be it educating or raising awareness.With the travel ban all over the world due to the pandemic, I have not been able to travel. My last trip was to Indonesia in March. Even though I have not been able to travel, I have still done most events virtually. I have used all my social media platforms to continue championing gender equality and issues of race and racism using a hashtag we created #UniverseUnited. With this hashtag, we have been able to open conversations about different social issues, we have been able to educate and entertain each other from every corner of the world.



When you won the crown, there were some negative comments about the win. How have you been able to rise above them? When you challenge the status quo and go against the grain, people will always have mixed comments and emotions so I cannot say I did not expect some resistance. For me, the most important thing was, and is still today, to fight for inclusion and representation. I want to live in a diverse, inclusive world. When I won, that was a victory and a win for representation and inclusion. That is what helps me rise above the negativity; knowing that there is a bigger picture that matters, and not focusing my time on non-entities that have no contribution to progress in this world.



People, particularly here in South Africa, are still celebrating your victory as Miss Universe especially because you advocate ‘natural beauty’. Why do you think it is important for representation of people of color in media and business? It has been said many times before that we can’t be what we can’t see. For me, this is one example of many on why representation is important. If the media continues presenting horrible stereotypes of black people or people of color, there is no progress happening. We need more positive messages and images of black people out there, for young people to see a possibility of what they can become. Seeing a black, natural-haired Miss Universe as a young black girl growing up in a rural area is enough to spark a fire inside someone to want to strive for more and be more. To see a black president is enough to steer a young black man to the direction of his incredible dream to influence and change the world in a beautiful way. To see a woman leading a nation or company is enough for women to recognize the power that they have within them, it is enough for them to not be scared to step into their power and take up space.



Given everything happening in the world where society is highlighting racial and gender inequalities across organizations, platforms and sectors, what would you as Miss Universe like to see changed before your reign is over? Conversations have been heard. I would now love to see more action and implementation. Companies and platforms have tweeted, and they have said amazing things about progress when it comes to systemic racism, now, I would like to see more of them actually doing something. Most of the world is functioning on systemic racism, I would like to see in the future [beyond my reign], the dismantling of these problematic systems from the ground-up.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="796" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Zozibini-Tunzi-796x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47067" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Zozibini-Tunzi-796x1024.jpg 796w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Zozibini-Tunzi-scaled-300x386.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Zozibini-Tunzi-scaled-600x771.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Zozibini-Tunzi-233x300.jpg 233w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Zozibini-Tunzi-768x987.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Zozibini-Tunzi-1195x1536.jpg 1195w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Zozibini-Tunzi-1593x2048.jpg 1593w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Zozibini-Tunzi-scaled.jpg 1991w" sizes="(max-width: 796px) 100vw, 796px" /></figure>



What do you say to people who regard pageants like Miss Universe as ‘anti-feminist’? We are all entitled to have different views and opinions about things. Miss Universe started as a swimsuit competition, which some may regard as objectifying women, so it’s not far off or shocking that some people feel this way. However, just like everything else, the pageant has evolved and is continuing to evolve every day. I have seen women come on this platform and champion a variety of social issues. I have seen them being empowered and empowering other women. As a Miss Universe, I have been able to amplify my message of gender equality and gender-based violence through incredible partnerships and relationships. I have been able to challenge and open conversations about beauty stereotypes that have been pushed on to women for many years. For me, it has always been about what I can do with this platform to influence positive change, not only in my community, but throughout the world.



Female empowerment is something you champion; can you tell us why this is so important to you? And also draw on how you would like to continue to empower women even beyond your reign as Miss Universe. I believe in the empowerment of every different kind of woman, regardless of gender or race. It is important because we need to get to a place where every gender is equal, one where we are not bound by patriarchy and inequality. Not only is it killing our future, but it is killing countries and economies. Women are just as capable as anyone else to get the job done, so let them do the job. It’s also not asking for special treatment — just equality.



Miss Universe is about sisterhood. Have your predecessors given you any advice during your reign and who has given the best advice (and what was the advice)? Yes, absolutely. The former winners have given advice whenever I speak to them. I think the one common advice they have given me is to focus on things that matter and what I want to achieve during my time as Miss Universe and to cancel out all the noise. Pageant fans can be brutal and toxic so it’s important to know why you are there and not lose focus.



You currently live in New York City, how has it been? What do you miss most about South Africa? It’s quite unfortunate I have not been able to experience New York extensively due to the pandemic, but the little that I have experienced has been great. What I miss the most about South Africa is my family, the diversity of my people and the food.



Looking at your recent partnership with 1st for women, what attracted you to the brand? It is the belief that 1st for women has in women; the belief in our resolve and power, and that we have space in this world to thrive just like everyone else. I also share these beliefs, and so that is why this is the perfect partnership.



Finally, what next after Miss Universe? Most of my plans I cannot disclose yet. What I can say though is that I will always champion gender equality and women’s rights even beyond my years as Miss Universe.

Empire State Building Hosts Miss Universe 2019 Zozibini Tunzi

Miss Universe In The Time Of Covid-19: Zozibini Tunzi On Influencing Positive Change

Jeff Skoll has been funding pandemic preparedness for more than a decade, even longer than Bill Gates. In recent months, he’s increased his philanthropic giving to help combat Covid-19.



Nine years ago, Jeff Skoll’s film company Participant Media partnered with Warner Brothers to put out Contagion, a movie about a global pandemic that started with a virus from a bat. An American businesswoman (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) came home from a trip to China and unknowingly spread a novel, and at times, deadly disease. While many viewed the film as pure science fiction, Skoll had ulterior motives. He hoped the movie would help build support for funding the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and also warn the world about the potential dangers of a global pandemic.



Skoll, 55, became a billionaire just over two decades ago as a result of stock he received as eBay’s first president. He left eBay in 2001 and has since co-produced more than 100 films and TV programs, all with socially relevant themes including the climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth featuring Al Gore, factory farming documentary Food Inc., the miniseries When They See Us and the 2016 Academy Award best picture winner Spotlight, about The Boston Globe’s investigations into child sexual abuse by Catholic priests. 



While his impassioned film-making pretty much ground to a halt temporarily with California’s shelter-in-place orders, his 2011 movie&nbsp;Contagion&nbsp;has become the must watch-at-home hit of the pandemic—it’s the number one selling title to date this year, according to Warner Brothers, the distributor. (It won’t disclose the number of times it’s been rented or sold.) In late March, Participant,&nbsp;Contagion&nbsp;screenwriter Scott Z. Burns and director Steven Soderbergh worked with Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne and other cast members to produce public service announcements about washing your hands and staying home.



Beyond backing a movie about a pandemic, Skoll has been funding pandemic preparedness and prevention since 2009 — six years before Bill Gates’ now well known TED talk warning about them &#8212; through the Skoll Global Threats Fund, to which he pledged $100 million. (The other threats: climate change, water scarcity, nuclear weapons and conflict in the Middle East.)



Since the start of this year, Skoll has contributed an additional $200 million to his charitable foundation—$100 million of which was announced in late April and will go toward fighting Covid-19. He put the other $100 million in earlier this year, he tells Forbes, adding that he hadn’t bothered to publicize it. “I don’t see this as a money squirt,” Skoll explains. “This is a resource allocation to an area we know well. And this is an emergency.”



Newly bulked up, the Skoll Foundation promised to quadruple its grantmaking this year to $200 million. New beneficiaries in 2020 include some of the poorest folks in Los Angeles and the contact tracing program being launched across California.“This is the rainy day we’ve all been saving for,” Skoll says of his charitable giving. “If not now, when?” 



He’s been working up to 20 hours a day in his kitchen in Beverly Hills — on a call in early June, he jokes that it’s his “command center,” equipped with a couple of iPads, a MacBook and some bluetooth devices — talking to people around the globe, taking the pulse of the pandemic and searching out individuals, organizations and companies with new ideas. “Just the science, the learnings of the virus — almost every day there’s some revelation that we didn’t know,” says Skoll.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The pandemics research that Skoll started funding through the Skoll Global Threats Fund spun off into a nonprofit called Ending Pandemics in January 2018, with a seed grant from Skoll. “It’s all about early detection and rapid response,” says Ending Pandemics President Dr. Mark Smolinski.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Skoll has been funding pandemic preparedness and prevention since 2009 — six years before Bill Gates’ TED talk warning about them — through the Skoll Global Threats Fund, which he spun off into Ending Pandemics in 2018.</h2>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



Skoll got wind of the novel coronavirus early on, back in December —where it started. “We had colleagues on the ground in Wuhan. We had an idea that a zoonotic disease had jumped to humans,” he says. By January he and his team began to be concerned about countries with trade ties to China — particularly in Africa, where some of the social entrepreneurs that the Skoll Foundation has supported are operating.&nbsp;



In early February, the Skoll Foundation made its first Covid-19 related grant: $3 million to the African Field Epidemiology Network, a group working with the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (the Africa CDC) to help coordinate African countries’ response and to boost surveillance and detection. The Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation donated to the same group around the same time. Beginning with those two grants, says Africa CDC Director Dr. John Nkengasong, “we were able to rally rapid responders to Addis Ababa [for training] and send them to Nigeria and Cameroon. We were able to scale up diagnostics.” Funding from others then followed, including the MasterCard foundation, Germany, Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S.  



In &nbsp;March&nbsp; it made a grant to the Southern African Center for Infectious Disease Surveillance Foundation (SACIDS) and a similar group in East Africa. One outcome: Mozambique, which had the infrastructure to test for Covid-19 but limited money to buy tests, got the needed funds and ramped up testing four-fold, according to Smolinski.&nbsp;



The Skoll foundation’s next move was to quickly create a fund for both its current and past grantees — mostly social entrepreneurs. Sixty-four organizations were given $50,000 grants. “We figured they would need emergency funding,” Skoll explains.



Though the Skoll Foundation has traditionally supported social entrepreneurs who work in lower income countries, in the past few months it has made some donations closer to home. Because Los Angeles County has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic, Skoll reached out to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to offer assistance. In late April, his foundation made a $2 million gift to the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, which is providing cash assistance to families hit hardest by Covid-19. 



Skoll also connected with California Governor Gavin Newsom and his senior advisor on social innovation, Kathleen Kelly Janus. The Skoll Foundation is donating $8 million to support California’s response to Covid-19, starting with $4.1 million for the public awareness campaign around contact tracing, which Janus says “will be really critical to preventing a second wave of Covid-19.”&nbsp;



Smolinski’s team, which had already partnered with Harvard and Boston Children’s Hospital to build a crowdsourced symptom reporting tracker called Flu Near You in 2012 to show flu trends in neighborhoods and cities, rolled out Covid Near You in early March. The app lets people anonymously report if they’re feeling healthy or not, with zip code info, as  a way to track current and potential hotspots. 



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Skoll’s Ending Pandemics has partnered with governments and public health authorities in 36 countries — 11 of which have surveillance systems tracking Covid-19 and other infectious diseases.</h2>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



Ending Pandemics has partnered with governments and public health authorities in 36 countries — 11 of which have surveillance systems that Smolinski says are “up to speed.” One is Cambodia, a country of 14 million people, where all four telecom companies support a free mobile app that both receives info about disease and provides information. Calls have gone from 600 a day before the pandemic to 15,000, and the vast majority of the Covid-19 cases in the country were first identified through the hotline, Smolinski says. Cambodia, the country that took in a cruise ship no one else wanted, so far has just 129 cases and no deaths, he adds.



Through the Audacious Project, a philanthropic group with about 30 members launched by TED conference curator Chris Anderson with Jeff Skoll and Richard Branson, Skoll and others are supporting Boston-based Partners in Health, which responded to the Ebola crisis in 2014. The multi-million dollar grant from the Audacious Project enables Partners in Health to share its contact tracing expertise over the coming year with roughly 19 public health departments across the U.S. “We started by helping the state of Massachusetts put together a contact tracing system, and everyone else wanted to know what we were doing,” says Joia Mukherjee, Chief Medical Officer of Partners In Health. “This funding has allowed us to expand our team. What we are hoping is that state and federal money will be forthcoming.” 



Mukherjee applauds Skoll’s approach to philanthropy. “Jeff has always been a systems thinker, and that has been transformative for Partners In Health,” she says.&nbsp;



Skoll also contributed funding to an ambitious global project called the Global Infectious Disease Epidemiology Network — GIDEoN for short —being spearheaded by Columbia University epidemiologist Ian Lipkin, who directs the university’s Center for Infection and Immunity. Lipkin has lined up the equivalent of the National Institutes of Health in 12 countries including India, Brazil and China and together they’ll share information about outbreaks and disease samples. With GIDEoN,&nbsp; Lipkin explains, “we’re trying to upgrade the capacity for detecting infectious agents and toxins, particularly in the developing world.”&nbsp;



While Skoll has been involved in global philanthropy for nearly two decades, he now has an even more personal reason for being involved in the fight against deadly diseases. While working on Ebola in 2014, he contracted a rare tropical disease that took two years to diagnose. He took an 18 month medical leave of absence and is feeling better now.



Despite many challenges, Skoll is an optimist, even about pandemics. Yes, the number of cases will likely increase as U.S. states open back up, he says. But he’s hopeful that a treatment for Covid-19-an existing drug—can work and be scaled up for distribution sometime this summer. “I hope we can get the solutions in place in the next few months. I see a path to it,” he says.



As for future pandemics, Skoll sees a silver lining.  “There are so many zoonotic viruses that jump over from animals to humans. Most of them peter out and turn into something less lethal. I don’t think it’s likely that we’ll see any terrible new pandemic any time soon, says Skoll.  “If anything, the world is on watch now.”



&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/">Kerry A. Dolan</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/worlds-billionaires">Billionaires</a>

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How The Billionaire Behind The Movie ‘Contagion’ Is Working To Stop This Pandemic—And The Next One

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="720" height="405" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/WHO.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-46685" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/WHO.jpg 720w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/WHO-300x169.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/WHO-600x338.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px" /><figcaption>Flags fly at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Photo Eric Bridiers/ <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/us-mission/14195612051" target="_blank">U.S. Mission Geneva</a>/ <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/" target="_blank">CC BY-ND</a></figcaption></figure>



The World Health Organization (WHO) has been under attack- efforts being made to defund it, ridicule it, undermine it. The world is fighting a major pandemic which rivals the flu of 1918, which killed over 50 million people.



The Coronavirus pandemic may well be a precursor of what is to come in the future. This for sure is not the last pandemic the world will grapple with, <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/opinion/2020/05/13/without-universal-health-coverage-we-are-sitting-ducks-when-the-next-pandemic-strikes/">so let’s brace for impact</a>, as the velocity and virulence of the next contagion may be far more fierce and destructive than COVID-19.



A recent remark that “WHO has been bought by China” is painful to hear. Coming from a senior leader of a country which is the beating heart of the UN’s multilateral system, and has been at the vanguard of improving lives and livelihoods of populations all over the world, is puzzling.



Words matter, and by promoting a number of incorrect and insinuating statements, such language may damage the overall pandemic response and undermine an organization that is doing its best – under the extraordinary circumstances – to save lives across the globe.&nbsp;



I live in Kenya, and on a day to day basis I see the WHO working with countries across the continent to strengthen health systems and tackle health crises. These African countries, like many others especially in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, rely on WHO for guidance, expertise and often for human resources, particularly around disease responses like Ebola, Marburg, Zika or the plague.&nbsp;



I myself have been a beneficiary of the organization’s work, having been immunized as a child through one of the WHO immunization programs, and <a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/09/qa-we-need-a-decisive-win-against-polio/">surviving polio</a> thanks to these efforts. Small pox would not have been eradicated without WHO. Billions more have benefited from WHO’s work, and humanity as a whole stands to gain from a well-funded, highly operational institution not only during this pandemic, but for years to come to prevent the next pandemic and build robust health systems.



Currently, there have been more than 15 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 600,000 deaths around the world. But this tiny microbe has impacted far more than just the global health system. It has pressure tested our political, economic, social and cultural institutions, attacking not only our bodies but the very threads of humanity that hold us together. What’s clear already is that the virus mercilessly exploits any chinks in national unity or global solidarity, making it an enemy far more formidable the modern world has seen in recent history.&nbsp;



At a pivotal time for tackling the pandemic, the global response needs solidarity, not politicization. The attacks against WHO threatens to derail global efforts to bring this pandemic under control.



Over the course of the next few months, governments will determine not only how they tackle COVID-19, but they will set a precedent that will guide the world for tackling future global threats.&nbsp;No country can overcome this pandemic on its own, no matter how advanced its economic systems are or how mighty its military is.



This pandemic is threatening lives, livelihoods, social and economic systems that have taken decades to build. It is an enemy that is threatening to reverse the gains the world has made in healthcare, education, poverty reduction, eradicating hunger and strengthening political unity.



For the sake of humanity, we must stand united against it, and this means supporting institutions that are playing a key role in the pandemic response.



From the climate crisis to inequality, antimicrobial resistance to the threat of a meteor hit, global challenges need global solutions, and these solutions cannot be developed if we focus on demonizing institutions rather than addressing the real issues at hand.



In terms of COVID-19, we have seen examples from around the world that clearly show that no matter how bad the outbreak, leaders can get a grip on the virus. By working with a whole of government and whole of society approach, the virus can be brought under control. Countries that have done this successfully, including New Zealand and Vietnam, which stand out as exemplars of how to tackle the pandemic, have shown us that a singular focus on preventing transmission and keeping their populations safe – not engaging in politics, blame games and blatant denial of science – is what is needed to ultimately flatten the curve.



WHO continues to provide valuable leadership in navigating the pandemic, helping the world deal with this crisis by distributing much-needed Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and diagnostics, providing technical guidance for health workers, leading efforts to find a vaccine and disseminating&nbsp;information that is playing a critical role in keeping people safe. Reducing support for WHO at this time is therefore tantamount to saying that we are all on our own. But we are not.



At the conclusion of the 73rd World Health Assembly on 19 May 2020, the WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “COVID-19 has robbed us of people we love. It’s robbed us of lives and livelihoods; it’s shaken the foundations of our world; it threatens to tear at the fabric of international cooperation. But it’s also reminded us that for all our differences, we are one human race, and we are stronger together.”



Let’s take a moment to look at the value WHO brings to the world. It may not be a perfect institution, but it is providing global leadership at a time when it is needed most.



What WHO has achieved in 72 years is remarkable, and undeniable. To accelerate the science, find solutions to the COVID-19 challenges and build global solidarity; now more than ever, the world needs WHO.



Siddharth Chatterjee, is the United Nations resident coordinator to Kenya. He has served with the UN and the Red Cross Movement in various parts of the world affected by conflicts and humanitarian crisis. He is also a decorated Special Forces veteran and a Princeton University alumnus. Follow him on Twitter&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/sidchat1?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">@sidchat1</a>



The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.​​​​​

Attacking WHO is Unhelpful-Let’s Focus on Defeating The Virus

<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/UN-Avenue-1024x460.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-45196" width="902" height="404" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/UN-Avenue-1024x460.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/UN-Avenue-300x135.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/UN-Avenue-600x270.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/UN-Avenue-768x345.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/UN-Avenue.jpg 1179w" sizes="(max-width: 902px) 100vw, 902px" /><figcaption>UN Kenya/Newton Kanhema The usually busy UN Avenue in Nairobi, Kenya where traffic is bumper to bumper on the best of days, is almost empty as people stay at home to avoid spreading the coronavirus. March 2020</figcaption></figure></div>



We live in a different world to the one we inhabited six short months ago.



With more than 4 million people infected and over 290,000 dead globally by mid May 2020, Covid-19 has ruthlessly exposed the vulnerability of a globalised world to pandemic disease. People are slowly coming to terms with the frightening and heartbreaking death toll, and we are still not out of danger.



The Greek philosopher Herophilus said, “When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless and intelligence cannot be applied.”&nbsp;



The bio-threat has already upended our notions of community interaction, with face masks, latex gloves and physical distancing becoming the new normal. Science has been challenged and experts in various fields struggle to understand the short and long-term consequences of the pandemic.



Lack of robust global public health systems has proven to be a chink in the world’s armour. It has also revealed a truth that we ignore at our peril: healthcare systems around the world have been sorely tested in managing this outbreak, and without substantial reprioritisation of investment in health and research globally, we will be no better equipped when the next pandemic strikes.



Describing&nbsp;<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/05/1063022">COVID 19 as a threat multiplier</a>, the UN Deputy Secretary General, Ms Amina Mohammed said, “We have a health emergency, a humanitarian emergency and now a development emergency. These emergencies are compounding existing inequalities”.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/AJM.Tedros-1024x461.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-45200" width="672" height="302" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/AJM.Tedros-1024x461.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/AJM.Tedros-300x135.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/AJM.Tedros-600x270.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/AJM.Tedros-768x346.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/AJM.Tedros.jpg 1178w" sizes="(max-width: 672px) 100vw, 672px" /><figcaption>UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe Leading UN reforms &amp; ensuring the UN is fit for purpose in the countries they serve, the Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed (centre), at the first-ever high-level meeting on the fight against tuberculosis. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (left), Director- General of World Health Organization (WHO) and María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés(right), President of the 73rd&nbsp;Session of the UN General Assembly. September 2018, New York, USA</figcaption></figure>



While no country has been spared, the impact upon families and individuals has varied around the world, exposing huge global and local inequalities.&nbsp;



The consequences of high uninsured rates and high out-of-pocket health costs are being revealed. Even before the Covid-19 outbreak,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/health_financing/topics/financial-protection/key-policy-messages/en/">more than 100 million people per year risked being plunged into poverty by a ‘shock’</a>&nbsp;in terms of unanticipated expenditure on medical treatment.



World Food Programme analysis shows that, due to the Coronavirus, an additional 265 million people are marching towards the brink of starvation by the year end because of the virus’s effects on jobs and family finances.



The social and economic upheaval we face today has changed the world and will go on changing it for many years. Behind the headlines of an economic decline that might rival the&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.imf.org/2020/04/14/the-great-lockdown-worst-economic-downturn-since-the-great-depression/">Great Depression of the 1930s</a>&nbsp;are families separated by closed international borders, some mourning relatives they never managed to see and comfort and millions who no longer have jobs.



What must we do to prevent the next pandemic striking the world.



Like rain that exposes a leaking roof, the coronavirus crisis has revealed unanticipated problems inherent in our dependence on global supply chains and amplified longstanding structural deficiencies in health systems around the world. We can see now that under-investment in public health in one country is a threat to global health security everywhere. Responses to health emergencies cannot succeed if any part of the world is left behind.&nbsp;



The central importance of universal health coverage and&nbsp;ensuring healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages, as manifested in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/sdg/targets/en/">Sustainable Development Goal 3</a>,(SDG3) by 2030, is clear.



With Africa&#8217;s population expected to grow to 2.3 billion by 2050, for Africa to reap a <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20170810142204-j0nwd/">demographic dividend,</a> as well as prevent disease outbreaks, Governments should:



<ol class="wp-block-list" type="1"><li>Reassess policy priorities and direct greater funding to health.</li><li>Invest more in disease prevention.</li><li>Improve working conditions for medical staff.</li><li>Offer fit-for-purpose health insurance to their people.</li><li>Harness big data, technology, and innovation to <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20180209112650-s1njv/">leapfrog universal health coverage.</a></li><li>Forge public private partnerships to <a href="http://daghammarskjold.se/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/UNDG-CountryStudy-Kenya.pdf">address the gaps to attain SDG 3.</a></li><li>Create an army of community health workers.&nbsp;</li></ol>



The WHO Chief, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a public health champion, who as Minster of Health in Ethiopia, a country once notorious for the highest maternal and child mortality in Africa, ensured the country achieved the health related&nbsp;<a href="https://www.afro.who.int/news/making-ethiopian-people-healthier-through-mdgs">Millennium Development Goals</a>,&nbsp;by unleashing the full potential of community health workers. He said that, “By fully harnessing the potential of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/hrh/community/guideline-health-support-optimize-hw-programmes/en/">community health workers</a>, including by dramatically improving their working and living conditions, we can make progress together towards universal health coverage and achieving the health targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.”



Doctors, nurses, carers and paramedics around the world are facing unprecedented workload in overstretched health facilities. The heroism, dedication and selflessness of medical staff allow the rest of us a degree of reassurance. In fact health workers are the frontline soldiers battling the pandemic.&nbsp;They deserve the same recognition and respect as women and men from the Armed Forces who are sent into battle in service of their country.



Additionally, the creation of robust health surveillance infrastructure in low-income countries will benefit the whole world in terms of early warning of disease outbreaks, and the ability to focus resources where and when they are needed.



To achieve this,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/coronavirus/2020/04/17/multilateralism-through-public-private-partnerships-are-key-to-flattening-the-covid-19-curve/">new models of multilateral and public private partnerships&nbsp;must develop</a>, as well reform, invest and give greater power to the&nbsp;World Health Organisation to protect the world from disease.



As citizens of the world we depend on one another. We are linked by trade and migration and the fact of our humanity as much as we are sometimes divided by politics and faith.



Consider this. Maria Branyas is a 113 year old <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/spains-oldest-woman-113-year-old-maria-branyas-beats-coronavirus-sbjtjc6z3">COVID 19 survivor from Spain.</a> It means she has lived through the flu pandemic of 1918-19, the two World Wars, the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War and now the coronavirus. When asked what was the secret of her long life, she said, “good health”.



In a post-Covid-19 world, global health must be seen as a key component of national and global security as well as of the global economy.



SDG 3 must become pivotal in our post COVID 19 response or we may be sitting ducks,&nbsp;when another pandemic&nbsp;strikes, whose velocity and virulence could surpass what we are witnessing now.



Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations resident coordinator to Kenya. He has served in various parts of the world with UNFPA, UNICEF, UNDP, UNOPS, UN Peacekeeping and the Red Cross Movement. A decorated Special Forces veteran, he is an alumnus of Princeton University. Follow him on twitter-<a href="https://twitter.com/sidchat1?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">@sidchat1</a>



The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.​​​​​

WITHOUT UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE WE ARE SITTING DUCKS WHEN THE NEXT PANDEMIC STRIKES

A small percentage of the world’s richest people have publicly disclosed financial gifts to help fight COVID-19. Others are using their money to help support their own companies.



 As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across the globe,&nbsp;billionaires are donating to the fight against it—with some giving more than others.&nbsp;Since&nbsp;mid-March,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;has been tracking how much this ultra-rich set has been donating to COVID-19 causes. While most of the world’s 2,095 billionaires have yet to give, or won’t disclose how much they’ve spent, at least 77 of them have reached into their wallets. Of those, 54 have disclosed at least part of their giving while another 23,&nbsp;such as Alibaba’s Joseph Tsai, gave unspecified amounts of cash or provided assistance in the form of medical supplies or equipment that&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;was unable to value.



Of these billionaires, Jack Dorsey has emerged as the most generous giver&nbsp;so far,&nbsp;after&nbsp;announcing on April 7 that he was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2020/04/07/jack-dorsey-pledges-1-billion-to-fight-coronavirus/#13789a511ba3">moving $1 billion</a>&nbsp;of his Square stock—about a quarter of his $3.9 billion net worth—into an LLC to support COVID-19 relief efforts and other causes. It’s unclear how much of this $1 billion will go&nbsp;toward&nbsp;the coronavirus pandemic (so far he has given out about $5 million combined to four organizations), but&nbsp;even if it ends up being just&nbsp;20% of his pledge, he will still have far outspent his peers.&nbsp;The second-largest pledge comes from Bill Gates and his wife Melinda, whose foundation has committed $255 million,&nbsp;much of it to be spent on vaccines, treatment and diagnostic development.&nbsp;Indian tech magnate Azim Premji comes in third,&nbsp;planning to give&nbsp;$132 million&nbsp;to&nbsp;humanitarian aid and health interventions to curb the spread of COVID-19.



Donald Trump, America’s first billionaire president,&nbsp;also makes&nbsp;Forbes’&nbsp;&nbsp;roundup,&nbsp;following a&nbsp;$100,000&nbsp;donation—one quarter of his salary—to the&nbsp;Department of Health and Human Services. The check represents 0.005% of his $2.1 billion net worth.&nbsp;



One Oklahoma billionaire who has committed $10 million so far was critical of President Trump, not because of his paltry gift but because of his administration’s response thus far. “It’s unfortunate that private charity has to assume the role of primary safety net and even supply chain and logistics manager because of the failure of government to perform its function,” said George Kaiser.



Here are the billionaires who disclosed gifts, sorted by contribution amount and then measured by gift as percentage of their net worth. (It does not include&nbsp;the 30-plus billionaires, including Ralph Lauren and Mukesh Ambani, whose companies have given aid or who&nbsp;have promised to use personal funds to help their companies weather the storm.)



Billionaire Contributions To Pandemic Relief



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-1-1024x536.png" alt="" class="wp-image-44746" width="716" height="374" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-1-1024x536.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-1-300x157.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-1-600x314.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-1-768x402.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-1.png 1072w" sizes="(max-width: 716px) 100vw, 716px" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-2-1024x499.png" alt="" class="wp-image-44747" width="714" height="347" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-2-1024x499.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-2-300x146.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-2-600x292.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-2-768x374.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-2.png 1073w" sizes="(max-width: 714px) 100vw, 714px" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-3-1024x535.png" alt="" class="wp-image-44748" width="710" height="371" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-3-1024x535.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-3-300x157.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-3-600x314.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-3-768x402.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-3.png 1069w" sizes="(max-width: 710px) 100vw, 710px" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-4-1024x568.png" alt="" class="wp-image-44749" width="708" height="392" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-4-1024x568.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-4-300x166.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-4-600x333.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-4-768x426.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-4.png 1070w" sizes="(max-width: 708px) 100vw, 708px" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-5-2-1024x499.png" alt="" class="wp-image-44752" width="704" height="343" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-5-2-1024x499.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-5-2-300x146.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-5-2-600x292.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-5-2-768x374.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-5-2.png 1071w" sizes="(max-width: 704px) 100vw, 704px" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-6-1024x291.png" alt="" class="wp-image-44753" width="703" height="199" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-6-1024x291.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-6-300x85.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-6-600x170.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-6-768x218.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-6.png 1071w" sizes="(max-width: 703px) 100vw, 703px" /></figure>



Some of the figures above are pledges. Net worth and giving data was last updated April 27, 2020.



Table: Forbes  <a href="data:application/octet-stream;charset=utf-8,NAME%2CRESIDENCE%2CCONTRIBUTION%20PURPOSE%2CCONTRIBUTION%20VALUE%20(M%20USD)%2CNET%20WORTH%20(M%20USD)%2C%25%20OF%20NET%20WORTH%0AJack%20Dorsey%2C%22San%20Francisco%2C%20California%22%2C%22relief%20efforts%2C%20other%20causes%22%2C%22as%20much%20as%201%2C000%22%2C%224%2C000%22%2Cas%20much%20as%2025%25%0A%22Bill%20Gates%2C%20Melinda%20Gates%22%2C%22Medina%2C%20Washington%22%2Ctreatment%20and%20vaccine%20development%2C255%2C%22104%2C400%22%2C0.24%25%0AAzim%20Premji%2C%22Bangalore%2C%20India%22%2C%22humanitarian%20aid%2C%20healthcare%22%2C132%2C%226%2C000%22%2C2.20%25%0AGeorge%20Soros%2C%22Katonah%2C%20New%20York%22%2C%22relief%20for%20vulnerable%20populations%20and%20low-income%20workers%2C%20other%20causes%22%2C130%2C%228%2C300%22%2C1.57%25%0AAndrew%20Forrest%2C%22Perth%2C%20Australia%22%2C%22medical%20supplies%2C%20testing%20development%22%2C100%2B%2C%228%2C100%22%2C1.23%25%2B%0AJeff%20Skoll%2C%22Palo%20Alto%2C%20California%22%2C%22testing%2C%20contact%20tracing%2C%20relief%20efforts%20in%20developing%20countries%22%2C100%2B%2C%225%2C100%22%2C1.96%25%2B%0AJeff%20Bezos%2C%22Seattle%2C%20Washington%22%2Chunger%20relief%2C100%2C%22142%2C600%22%2C0.07%25%0AMichael%20Dell%2C%22Austin%2C%20Texas%22%2C%22vaccine%20development%2C%20other%20causes%22%2C100%2C%2227%2C300%22%2C0.37%25%0AMichael%20Bloomberg%2C%22New%20York%2C%20New%20York%22%2C%22relief%20efforts%20in%20developing%20countries%2C%20other%20causes%22%2C74.5%2B%2C%2255%2C900%22%2C0.13%25%2B%0A%22Lynn%20Schusterman%2C%20Stacy%20Schusterman%22%2C%22Tulsa%2C%20Oklahoma%22%2Ceconomic%20relief%2C70%2C%223%2C400%22%2C2.06%25%0AAmancio%20Ortega%2C%22La%20Coruna%2C%20Spain%22%2Cmedical%20supplies%20and%20equipment%20purchase%2C68%2C%2261%2C100%22%2C0.11%25%0ANicky%20Oppenheimer%2C%22Johannesburg%2C%20South%20Africa%22%2Ceconomic%20relief%2C54.5%2C%227%2C500%22%2C0.73%25%0AJohann%20Rupert%2C%22Cape%20Town%2C%20South%20Africa%22%2Ceconomic%20relief%2C54.5%2C%224%2C700%22%2C1.16%25%0APatrice%20Motsepe%2C%22Johannesburg%2C%20South%20Africa%22%2C%22medical%20supplies%2C%20water%20access%22%2C43.5%2C%221%2C500%22%2C2.90%25%0A%22Mark%20Zuckerberg%2C%20Priscilla%20Chan%22%2C%22Palo%20Alto%2C%20California%22%2C%22testing%2C%20treatments%2C%20scientific%20research%22%2C37%2C%2269%2C400%22%2C0.05%25%0AAlisher%20Usmanov%2C%22Moscow%2C%20Russia%22%2Cmedical%20supplies%20and%20equipment%2C33.2%2C%2214%2C600%22%2C0.23%25%0AReed%20Hastings%2C%22Santa%20Cruz%2C%20California%22%2Cvaccine%20development%2C30%2C%224%2C700%22%2C0.64%25%0ABidzina%20Ivanishvili%2C%22Tbilisi%2C%20Georgia%22%2Caid%20to%20government%2C30%2C%224%2C800%22%2C0.63%25%0ADavid%20Tepper%2C%22Miami%20Beach%2C%20Florida%22%2C%22community%20organizations%2C%20hunger%20relief%22%2C22%2B%2C%2212%2C000%22%2C0.18%25%2B%0ALeon%20Black%2C%22New%20York%2C%20New%20York%22%2Cfood%20and%20other%20supplies%20for%20hospital%20staff%2C20%2C%227%2C700%22%2C0.26%25%0AJack%20Ma%2C%22Hangzhou%2C%20China%22%2C%22vaccine%20development%2C%20medical%20supplies%22%2C14%2B%2C%2241%2C700%22%2C0.03%25%2B%0ALi%20Ka-shing%2C%22Hong%20Kong%2C%20Hong%20Kong%22%2Ccommunity%20organizations%2C13%2B%2C%2226%2C100%22%2C0.05%25%2B%0AVladimir%20Potanin%2C%22Moscow%2C%20Russia%22%2Cnon-profit%20aid%2C13.1%2C%2223%2C800%22%2C0.06%25%0ADenise%20Coates%2C%22Stoke-on-Trent%2C%20United%20Kingdom%22%2Chospitals%2C12.6%2C%227%2C100%22%2C0.18%25%0ALeonardo%20Del%20Vecchio%2C%22Milan%2C%20Italy%22%2Chospitals%2C11%2C%2218%2C000%22%2C0.06%25%0ASilvio%20Berlusconi%2C%22Milan%2C%20Italy%22%2Cbuilding%20ICU%20units%2C11%2C%225%2C800%22%2C0.19%25%0AGeorge%20Kaiser%2C%22Tulsa%2C%20Oklahoma%22%2C%22economic%20relief%2C%20food%2C%20medical%20supplies%22%2C10%2B%2C%225%2C800%22%2C0.17%25%2B%0AOprah%20Winfrey%2C%22Montecito%2C%20California%22%2C%22hunger%20relief%2C%20other%20causes%22%2C10%2C%222%2C600%22%2C0.38%25%0ARobert%20Kraft%2C%22Brookline%2C%20Massachusetts%22%2C%22medical%20supplies%2C%20meals%20%22%2C7%2B%2C%226%2C900%22%2C0.10%25%2B%0AViktor%20Rashnikov%2C%22Magnitogorsk%2C%20Russia%22%2C%22education%2C%20medical%20supplies%2C%20other%20causes%22%2C6.8%2C%228%2C700%22%2C0.08%25%0ANaguib%20Sawiris%2C%22Cairo%2C%20Egypt%22%2C%22economic%20relief%2C%20aid%20to%20government%22%2C6.4%2C%223%2C000%22%2C0.21%25%0ALen%20Blavatnik%2C%22London%2C%20United%20Kingdom%22%2Chospitals%2C6.2%2C%2218%2C100%22%2C0.03%25%0AArthur%20Blank%2C%22Atlanta%2C%20Georgia%22%2Ccommunity%20organizations%2C5.8%2C%225%2C300%22%2C0.11%25%0ADiego%20Della%20Valle%2C%22Sant%22%20Elpidio%20A%20Mare%2C%20Italy%22%2Caid%20to%20government%2C5.5%2C%221%2C100%22%2C0.50%25%0AEnnio%20Doris%2C%22Tombolo%2C%20Italy%22%2Caid%20to%20government%2C5.5%2C%222%2C400%22%2C0.23%25%0AAliko%20Dangote%2C%22Lagos%2C%20Nigeria%22%2Caid%20to%20government%2C5.2%2C%228%2C000%22%2C0.07%25%0ABrian%20Roberts%2C%22Philadelphia%2C%20Pennsylvania%22%2Ceducation%2C5%2B%2C%221%2C700%22%2C0.29%25%2B%0ABrian%20Chesky%2C%22San%20Francisco%2C%20California%22%2C%22economic%20relief%2C%20housing%20for%20first%20responders%22%2C5%2C%224%2C100%22%2C0.12%25%0AJB%20Pritzker%2C%22Springfield%2C%20Illinois%22%2Ccommunity%20organizations%2C4%2C%223%2C400%22%2C0.12%25%0AMike%20Adenuga%2C%22Lagos%2C%20Nigeria%22%2Caid%20to%20government%2C3.9%2C%225%2C800%22%2C0.07%25%0AUday%20Kotak%2C%22Mumbai%2C%20India%22%2Caid%20to%20government%2C3.3%2C%2211%2C100%22%2C0.03%25%0ABenetton%20family%2C%22Treviso%2C%20Italy%22%2Chospital%2C3.2%2C%227%2C400%22%2C0.04%25%0ANathan%20Blecharczyk%2C%22San%20Francisco%2C%20California%22%2Ceconomic%20relief%2C3%2C%224%2C100%22%2C0.07%25%0A%22Andrew%20Cherng%2C%20Peggy%20Cherng%22%2C%22Las%20Vegas%2C%20Nevada%22%2C%22hunger%20relief%2C%20medical%20supplies%22%2C3%2C%223%2C000%22%2C0.10%25%0AJoe%20Gebbia%2C%22San%20Francisco%2C%20California%22%2Ceconomic%20relief%2C3%2C%224%2C100%22%2C0.07%25%0AAbdulsamad%20Rabiu%2C%22Lagos%2C%20Nigeria%22%2Ccentral%20bank%20fund%2C2.6%2C%222%2C600%22%2C0.10%25%0AGiorgio%20Armani%2C%22Milan%2C%20Italy%22%2Chospitals%2C2.2%2C%226%2C700%22%2C0.03%25%0APenny%20Pritzker%2C%22Chicago%2C%20Illinois%22%2Ccommunity%20organizations%2C2%2B%2C%222%2C700%22%2C0.07%25%2B%0AJimmy%20Haslam%2C%22Knoxville%2C%20Tennessee%22%2Ccommunity%20organizations%2C1.5%2C%222%2C800%22%2C0.05%25%0AFrancesco%20Gaetano%20Caltagirone%2C%22Rome%2C%20Italy%22%2Chospitals%2C1.1%2C%222%2C200%22%2C0.05%25%0AJames%20Irsay%2C%22Carmel%2C%20Indiana%22%2C%22food%20bank%2C%20schools%2C%20masks%22%2C1%2B%2C%223%2C000%22%2C0.03%25%2B%0AGayle%20Benson%2C%22New%20Orleans%2C%20Louisiana%22%2Ccommunity%20organizations%2C1%2C%223%2C200%22%2C0.03%25%0AStephen%20Bisciotti%2C%22Millersville%2C%20Maryland%22%2C%22community%20organizations%2C%20hospitals%22%2C1%2C%224%2C200%22%2C0.02%25%0AJay-Z%2C%22New%20York%2C%20New%20York%22%2C%22aid%20for%20frontline%20workers%2C%20other%20causes%22%2C1%2C%221%2C000%22%2C0.10%25%0AKylie%20Jenner%2C%22Hidden%20Hills%2C%20California%22%2Cmedical%20supplies%2C1%2C%221%2C000%22%2C0.10%25%0AJeffrey%20Lurie%2C%22Wynnewood%2C%20Pennsylvania%22%2Cmedical%20research%2C1%2C%222%2C700%22%2C0.04%25%0ASheryl%20Sandberg%2C%22Menlo%20Park%2C%20California%22%2Chunger%20relief%2C1%2C%221%2C600%22%2C0.06%25%0AStephen%20Ross%2C%22New%20York%2C%20New%20York%22%2Chunger%20relief%2C0.5%2C%227%2C600%22%2C0.01%25%0AJanice%20McNair%2C%22Houston%2C%20Texas%22%2Ccommunity%20organizations%2C0.5%2C%224%2C000%22%2C0.01%25%0ADonald%20Trump%2C%22Washington%2C%20D.C.%22%2Caid%20to%20government%2C0.1%2C%222%2C100%22%2C0.005%25">Get the data</a><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.datawrapper.de/_/hOeXa/" target="_blank">Created with Datawrapper</a>



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/hayleycuccinello/">Hayley C. Cuccinello</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/worlds-billionaires">Billionaires</a>

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Jack Dorsey, Bill Gates And At Least 75 Other Billionaires Donating To Pandemic Relief

Bill Ackman panicked about the coronavirus early on.



The billionaire investor had a nightmare about COVID-19 in late January, which might as well have been the plot of the pandemic thriller&nbsp;Contagion. When he woke up, he started prepping.



He began arranging for his firm’s fifty employees to abandon their midtown Manhattan offices. He put on doomsday hedges. And then he pulled an enormous amount of cash from an ATM. By the time the Dow Jones Industrial Average was plunging seemingly a thousand points a day, Ackman’s $5.6 billion firm was making money amid the chaos.



So when he woke on Wednesday morning, Ackman didn’t have a pleasant message for America. He took to Twitter to recommend <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2020/03/18/hedge-fund-billionaire-bill-ackman-calls-for-30-day-shutdown-of-country-closing-of-borders-to-curb-covid-19-spread/#4d6686425571">a shutdown of the country</a>.



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Mr. President, the only answer is to shut down the country for the next 30 days and close the borders. Tell all Americans that you are putting us on an extended Spring Break at home with family. Keep only essential services open. The government pays wages until we reopen.&mdash; Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) <a href="https://twitter.com/BillAckman/status/1240244507246919681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Then he called into&nbsp;CNBC&nbsp;around noontime to elaborate. And it was bad.



“Hell is coming,” said Ackman, in a frenzied 28-minute interview. “Shut it down now,” he said of the economy, “There is a tsunami coming.”



Ackman recommended President Trump effectively close the country for 30 days and shut the borders to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Yes, it would mean an economic disaster, so Ackman recommended that Trump call a national ‘Spring Break’ and have the government pay wages, halt foreclosures, and help with other monthly bills like rent to tide people over.



This way Americans will stay at home and the virus will stop spreading.



If not, Ackman warned in an emotional interview that verged on panic, the country will experience a prolonged pandemic, which will put many industries ranging from hotels, to restaurants, to real estate out of business.



“What’s scaring the American people and corporate America now is the gradual roll-out,” said Ackman, of containment and distancing measures. “Capitalism does not work in an 18-month shutdown, capitalism can work in a 30-day shutdown.”



The hedge fund manager, turned amateur health expert, said the contagiousness of the virus may mean millions will die without drastic measures. He choked up when talking about the risks of the disease to his elderly father, and revealed that some of his employees may have the virus.



“The only shared sacrifice that is going on right now is the healthcare community, the nurses, the doctors, the people taking care of patients,” said Ackman. “The president is not saying storm the beaches of Normandy,” he said, hypothetically, of his 30-day shutdown proposal. “He’s saying go home, spend a month with your family.”



When Ackman turned to his portfolio and the rest of Wall Street, his warnings were dire.



“Hilton is the canary in the coal mine,” said Ackman of the hotelier, which is one of his larger holdings. Without quicker action, “it’s going to zero along with every other hotel company,” he predicted. Though, he did say his Pershing Square was buying shares of Hilton as markets plunged on Wednesday morning.



“I have enormous respect for KKR and Blackstone,” Ackman added of the two illustrious private equity firms, before predicting their leveraged deals would be toast if there isn’t a quick solution within the next 18-months. “[E]very one of their companies goes bankrupt,” he said.



After the interview,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;has learned Ackman called Blackstone and said he’s buying the firm’s shares.



His ideas were boundless: He recommended Elon Musk convert Tesla’s car-making factories into ventilator-making factories.



As he spoke, the market plunged, tick-by-tick.



The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down over 1,000 points when he went on air. It hit a circuit breaker as he spouted dark doom and gloom, then closed for 15 minutes. When it reopened, it was down 2,000-plus.



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Ackman just halted the market.&mdash; Nathan Michaud (@InvestorsLive) <a href="https://twitter.com/InvestorsLive/status/1240321527024844804?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Some on Twitter took Ackman’s dire warnings as necessary.



His “shut it down now” idea, increasingly, is becoming the pandemic playbook for cities either implementing or considering “shelter-in-place” laws. And, in recent days and weeks, health experts have responded positively to market-tanking warnings by public officials about the virus.



Many commended President Trump for talking about the gravity of the pandemic earlier in March, even though it was the catalyst for a sudden market drop. Before Ackman went on air, Dr. Deborah Birx, the head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said many people, particularly young people, are not taking the pandemic seriously enough. Her message to millennials? You can die from this.



However, others saw a panicked billionaire investor talking down the market and inciting fear.



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Please get Ackman off CNBC before people start jumping off bridges. <a href="https://twitter.com/CNBC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CNBC</a>&mdash; Mike Novogratz (@novogratz) <a href="https://twitter.com/novogratz/status/1240321462621351936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Ackman then went back on Twitter to clarify his intentions. “These are the bargains of a lifetime if we manage this crisis correctly,” he said.



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Some investors have been confused by remarks. To clarify, I am confident the president will do the right thing in temporarily shutting down the country and closing the borders. If that happens, we can win the war against the virus and the markets and the economy will soar.&mdash; Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) <a href="https://twitter.com/BillAckman/status/1240351178933895169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



 You can watch Ackman’s CNBC interview in full here. (Pershing Square declined to comment further.)



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Watch the full interview with Bill Ackman on the coronavirus threat to economy — &#39;Shut it down now&#39; <a href="https://t.co/nSDK8lwKec">https://t.co/nSDK8lwKec</a>&mdash; CNBC (@CNBC) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/1240339659709915138?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/">Antoine Gara</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/banking-insurance">Banking &amp; Insurance</a>

Tag: Pandemic

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