To restart travel and trade amid the Covid-19 pandemic, all countries around the world face the same challenge of protecting their populations’ health while reopening borders.
virus. In East Africa, we saw the logistical challenge of this with kilometers of truck drivers backed up along our borders as they waited for hours to get test results.
To address the challenge, the East African Community is working with The Commons Project, a Swiss-based non-profit public trust that builds digital services for public good.
Using an app called CommonPass, travellers will share their recent test in a way that ensures authenticity of results and the privacy of the traveller.
CommonPass is being implemented through a collaborative design sprint that starts on July 9 with national, regional and global stakeholders that include the design firm IDEO and The World Economic Forum, with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation.
Travellers begin their journey using CommonPass by taking an accredited lab test that can be shared electronically to their mobile phone. That certificate is a digital analogue to the widely used “yellow card”, an international certificate of vaccination.
This digital health passport will start with lab results, but eventually include vaccination records when a Covid-19 vaccine becomes available.
By using CommonPass, test results and authenticity can be assessed by authorised healthcare, airlines or immigration authorities.
A crucial part of the system is the fact that – apart from the specific test result selected by the user – no personal health information ever leaves the traveller’s phone without their consent.
The CommonPass initiative builds on work already done by the East African Community, including the CommonHealth Map, which tracks Covid-19 cases across the region, and the coronavirus check risk assessment tool, which is available in Swahili, Kinyarwanda, English, French and many other languages.
Moving forward, our major priority is to ensure that Covid-19 does not disrupt implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, which will improve so many lives by removing trade obstacles between 28 African countries.
This is a major achievement, which must be protected and progressed further.
We may not have a vaccine yet, but East Africa has shown how digital services for public good can combat the pandemic, protect lives and preserve privacy. Opening borders is our next challenge and opportunity.
The writer is the head of information technology at the East African Community.
The views expressed in this article are of the author.
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