ADDIS ABABA - The COVID-19 pandemic has regressed key aspects of democracy in Africa and the Middle East, including the disruption of electoral processes, restrictions on civil liberties like freedom of expression, and increasing persecution of opposition leaders and parties. The pandemic has hit the region at a time in which the significant advances of democracy in the last decades were coming to a halt.
These are the findings from the
The major challenges brought about by the pandemic involve the management of elections, restrictions on civil liberties, worsening gender equality, deepening social and economic inequalities, disruption to education, deterioration of media integrity, disruption of parliaments and an amplified risk of corruption. These challenges have exacerbated and accelerated long-standing problems in the region.