The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to impose heavy human, financial, economic, and social costs on Africa. But the crisis also creates an opportunity to re-examine the continent’s fiscal and economic-policy priorities, build stronger health and social sectors, and establish a global fund to support productive investment.

For years, the economics profession has suffered from a stubborn reluctance to adopt a more multidisciplinary approach. But now that the COVID-19 pandemic is transforming economic life the world over, the profession has no choice but to leave its comfort zone.

In a rare moment of bipartisanship, congressional Republicans and Democrats have found plenty of common ground in designing an economic-policy response to the coronavirus pandemic. But unless that response re-balances the economy toward labor, the recovery will inevitably prove disappointing.