• To use digital testing certificates and vaccination e-certificates backed by machine learning and blockchain systems.
• This will increase the capacity of governments to screen inbound travellers quickly, securely, efficiently, and in a manner that respects human dignity and rights.
Image: WILFRED NYANGARESI
The United Nations Development Programme has entered a new partnership seeking to support the safe re-opening of Africa to travel and trade in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The partnership with PanaBIOS Consortium, represented by AfroChampions will enable the use of tools such as digital testing certificates and vaccination e-certificates, often backed by machine learning and blockchain systems, to increase the capacity of governments to screen inbound travellers quickly, securely, efficiently, and in a manner that respects human dignity and rights.
The partnership announced on December 1 also seeks to realise an international multi-stakeholder platform to disseminate technologies to help countries in Africa and around the world restore social life.
“It is hoped that this platform will resonate globally by building on existing initiatives, such as the ‘saving lives, Economies and livelihoods’ campaign launched by the African Union and spearheaded by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention- Africa CDC,” Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator said.
Steiner said the initiative involves a bridge to an international system called Global Haven at the base of which is a standardised and harmonized testing platform.
This enables international cross-border travel and trade, as well as business continuity in the face of health and similar catastrophes thereby creating resilience into the future.
“Since travel is highly international with intercontinental hubs tightly connected around the globe, the initiative anticipates the participation of many global actors within the Global Haven compact,” Steiner said.
He added, “PanaBIOS and its promotion of trusted testing will play an important role in promoting the safe reopening of Africa to advance some of the objectives of enhanced intra African trade through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) – which is a key recovery stimulus from the ravaging impacts of COVID-19”.
Within the context of SDG 17, support shall be extended to initiatives that bring governments, industry and citizens together around the use of universally accessible digital applications for travel screening, creating safe bubbles in cities, and supporting safe public health corridors.
These measures have considerably reduced the prospect of infection through a combination of testing, vaccination and the technological means to verify and ascertain negative infection status.
To ensure that such digital tools remain rights-compliant and empower citizens as ‘public digital goods’, Steiner said UNDP will make a series of investments in standardisation, public awareness, human rights compliance, government sensitisation, and algorithmic transparency.
He said recovery from the effects of the worldwide pandemic could be significantly accelerated if international travellers can be screened quickly and cost-effectively without the risk of fake and forged testing and vaccination certificates.
“One of the ways forward from the devastation wrought on the planet by the pandemic is for the global community to harness modern technology’s power to reimagine and transform partnerships for development. The PanaBIOS-UNDP initiative is an excellent example of the forces for good we can wield if we put our minds to it,” he said.
His sentiments were echoed by Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for Africa Ahunna Eziakonwa who said in its purest form, Global Haven is disruptive digitalisation for good and Africa has blazed the trail in a way the rest of the world can take inspiration from.