Abstract
While the research output on policy responses in many African countries has sufficiently captured numerous country cases, experiences, and challenges encountered, almost all of it falls short in explicating the role of policy design challenges in packaging social policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper deploys the policy design lenses to explain the ineffectiveness of Africa's policy responses to the pandemic. Built from a scoping literature review, the paper's point of departure is the realisation that policy responses to the pandemic constituted 'policy-making in a crisis context', which explains policy design missteps committed in the typically fire-fighting mode prompted by the emergency. Observed key design blunders in the formulation of responses include flouting the diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI) principles, limited compatibility of the selected policy instruments, and, most importantly, misjudgment of the context-capability/ capacity trade-offs in addressing the pandemic-induced social vulnerabilities. The paper's conclusion makes a case for increasing attention to the policy design phase of policy-making as a critical prerequisite for successful policy action in a crisis of the magnitude of a pandemic.