{"title":"Are the Covid-19 Pandemic and Public Procurement ‘Strange Bedfellows’? An African Perspective","authors":"I. A. Changalima","doi":"10.57054/ad.v48i2.5085","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this article is to provide insights into how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected public procurement operations, and the role of public procurement during the pandemic. The article synthesises relevant literature on Covid-19 and public procurement in the African context. A review of literature from 2020 to 2022 was done to enrich the findings of the current article, which shows that the Covid-19 pandemic affected public procurement in the form of delays, malpractice, budget reallocations and supply disruptions. Furthermore, during the Covid-19 pandemic it was recommended that public procurement practices be more strategic through collaboration, and respond more quickly in obtaining vaccines and health supplies, which were critical in the prevention and treatment of related illnesses. The article provides several practical implications in terms of ensuring good governance, implementing regulatory frameworks for emergency procurement, improving collaboration among members of comparable regional organisations, and implementing Covid-19 preventative measures. Finally, because the current study’s scope is limited in terms of the selection of published articles and other relevant literature that give insights about the African continent during this period, future studies could be conducted to include literature from outside the African continent in order to broaden the scope of this current study.","PeriodicalId":39851,"journal":{"name":"Africa Development/Afrique et Developpement","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Africa Development/Afrique et Developpement","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.57054/ad.v48i2.5085","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"Social Sciences","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to provide insights into how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected public procurement operations, and the role of public procurement during the pandemic. The article synthesises relevant literature on Covid-19 and public procurement in the African context. A review of literature from 2020 to 2022 was done to enrich the findings of the current article, which shows that the Covid-19 pandemic affected public procurement in the form of delays, malpractice, budget reallocations and supply disruptions. Furthermore, during the Covid-19 pandemic it was recommended that public procurement practices be more strategic through collaboration, and respond more quickly in obtaining vaccines and health supplies, which were critical in the prevention and treatment of related illnesses. The article provides several practical implications in terms of ensuring good governance, implementing regulatory frameworks for emergency procurement, improving collaboration among members of comparable regional organisations, and implementing Covid-19 preventative measures. Finally, because the current study’s scope is limited in terms of the selection of published articles and other relevant literature that give insights about the African continent during this period, future studies could be conducted to include literature from outside the African continent in order to broaden the scope of this current study.
期刊介绍:
Africa Development (ISSN 0850 3907) is the quarterly bilingual journal of CODESRIA published since 1976. It is a social science journal whose major focus is on issues which are central to the development of society. Its principal objective is to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas among African scholars from a variety of intellectual persuasions and various disciplines. The journal also encourages other contributors working on Africa or those undertaking comparative analysis of developing world issues. Africa Development welcomes contributions which cut across disciplinary boundaries. Articles with a narrow focus and incomprehensible to people outside their discipline are unlikely to be accepted.