A United Nations (UN) Ebola recovery conference wrapped up its work on Jul 11, with the international community pledging more than $5 billion to help Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone rebound from the outbreak.
The initial goal of the meeting, held at UN headquarters in New York, was to raise $3.2 billion over the next 2 years. Rebuilding the health systems of the three countries is considered a key part of helping them drive cases down to zero and quickly identify and snuff out any future infectious disease outbreaks.
Each country has its own needs in challenges, but the World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that between them, the countries need about $696.2 million to shore up their health systems.
Encouraging response
Helen Clark, UN Development Program (UNDP) administrator, who led the conference, said in a Jul 10 statement that that the response from the international community was very encouraging. She said the preliminary amount for pledges announced on the ending day of the meeting amounted to $3.4 billion, which puts the total resources promised for the Ebola-hit countries to about $5 billion.
David Nabarro, MD, the UN's secretary-general's special envoy on Ebola, said in the statement that the amount pledged is a "tremendous springboard for recovery."
"The world is going to stand by these countries as they recover and help them get back on the track of equitable economic and social development," he added.
Last week the humanitarian group Oxfam released its analysis of pledging events for three other recent crises, which found that rich countries have a weak record of delivering on their pledges. The organization found that countries delivered only 47% of what they promised.
The UN organized the economic recovery event with the African Union, the European Union, the World Bank, and the African Development Bank. On the first day of the conference, a technical meeting was held to spell out the recovery plans and articulate the needs, and the pledging portion of the meeting took place the following day.
Health securities meeting
In other global health developments, the WHO today kicked off a 3-day meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, to address broader global health security issues in the wake of West Africa's Ebola outbreak. According to a statement from the WHO, about 200 high-level experts from governments, development agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and international organizations are expected to attend.
The meeting's goals are to identify strategies for accelerating health system development and capacities articulated by the International Health Regulations (IHRs) that that cover the prevention, detection, and response to public health emergencies.
A recent review of the WHO's Ebola response found that many countries haven't met their IHR core capacities, which an expert panel said was one of the factors that contributed to the rapid spread of the virus and the slow response.
In today's statement, the WHO said it hopes that the meeting can strengthen coordination among stakeholders. The agency proposes that an initial phase of preparedness should focus on ensuring that all African countries have an effective surveillance system that uses proven information management systems, a centralized national emergency operation center, sustainable and well-resourced community engagement plans, and critical lab capacity with quality assessment.
See also:
Jul 10 UNDP press release
Jul 9 Oxfam report
Jul 13 WHO press release
