Международная помощь Африке в борьбе с COVID-19: опыт ЕС

Исследуются усилия ЕС по содействию странам Африки Южнее Сахары в борьбе с COVID-19. На основе финансовых вложений (система смешанного финансирования: GAVI COVAX, Team Europe и др.), а также посредничества в поставках вакцин выявляется степень асимметричности взаимозависимости между ЕС и странами Африки Южнее Сахары. Автор заявляет об отсутствии конфликта интересов.

The problem of cooperation between developed and developing countries is one of the key issues at the present stage of international relations. Despite the fact that the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa are the most dynamically developing, they still need assistance from donors: China, Russia, the USA, the EU. International assistance can take different forms: from financial to socio-humanitarian. It is designed to help fight poverty and other threats to the region. In 2020, the issue of the spread of the new COVID-19 virus, which launched a general pandemic, was on the agenda. To a greater extent, it has affected the developed countries of the world, which have close ties with each other. For Africa, it has become no less a challenge. It’s not only about a poorly developed health care system, but also about the economic downturn that was provoked by COVID-19, and the corresponding increase in the public debt of a number of African countries. In this regard, the assistance of partners to Africa in the fight against the pandemic is an urgent issue. The theory of complex interdependence, which has an asymmetric character, is proposed as the theoretical basis of the study. If the interdependence is asymmetric, then there is a kind of exchange of interests. For economic assistance from recipient countries, loyalty is expected in relation to a number of international disputes, support on international platforms, for example, in the UN. This can be regarded as manipulation of the economic and social vulnerability of those countries that receive assistance. That is why we can talk about moving away from double interdependence, where the priority of force and economic issues dominated, to interdependence, within which non-power instruments of involving the parties in dependence prevail. The choice of theory is also explained by the purpose of the study, which consists in identifying the main directions of EU assistance to African countries in connection with COVID-19 and the dividends that they receive from their investments as a result. The study is conditionally divided into 2 large parts. The first of them is devoted to the financial component of EU assistance to Africa. The main funding channels of ACP, the Pan-African Program, GAVI COVAX, Team Europe and others are analyzed. The second part includes a number of non-financial instruments of assistance from the EU: the purchase of a vaccine, as well as information support and support for the fight against the pandemic. It was revealed that by purchasing a non-certified vaccine in the EU, the access of the African population to the European region is artificially restricted. And with the help of the fight against fakes in the media and social networks, there is a direct intervention in the formation of information content in African countries that is beneficial to the EU. As a result, conclusions are drawn regarding the coupling of asymmetric interdependence and European aid to Africa. The author declares no conflicts of interests.