This article is written by Daniel Murenzi, head of information technology at the East African Community, an intergovernmental organisation composed of six countries in the African Great Lakes region in eastern Africa: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.

On July 9, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Commons Project and the design firm IDEO will convene governments, health authorities, airlines, airports and international organisations to design a common framework for safe border reopening.

Members of the Apolitical community are invited and may RSVP via this link.

All countries currently face the same dilemma: how to protect the health of our people while reopening borders. At every border crossing point we must ensure travelers do not import a new deadly wave of the virus. As we re-opened borders to essential trade in East Africa in June, we experienced the logistical challenge of this with kilometres of truck drivers backed up along our borders as they waited for hours to get test results.

Our next challenge is to safely reopen our land, sea and air border crossings

The East African Community partner states responded within weeks by equipping and certifying more laboratories to test travellers and share results electronically with border control and law enforcement. The Regional Electronic Cargo and Driver Tracking System worked off an app and used GPS for real time monitoring of driver compliance to health measures. Supported by TradeMark East Africa, a regional consortium promoting prosperity through trade, this was the fastest co-ordinated change of border protocols accomplished in the history of East Africa.

Opening for trains, planes, boats and automobiles

Our next challenge is to safely reopen our land, sea and air border crossings.

It is widely expected that all countries will initially require travellers to have a recent negative Covid-19 test in order to ensure that they do not spread the infection during the journey and at their destination. To achieve this, we need people to show Covid-19 test results from a certified lab in a way that cannot be falsified or counterfeited. Even as they share this highly personal health information, we want to preserve their personal privacy.

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.

Members of the Apolitical community are invited to join with RSVP via this link.

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

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 COVIDcheck 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. — Daniel Murenzi

(Picture credit: Unsplash)

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