Brussels, 02/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - The international high-level conference on Ebola, which is being hosted by the EU in Brussels on Tuesday 3 March, will not be a conference of the donors, but will nonetheless be decisive. It aims to take stock of the situation to centre the collective response to this epidemic on two fronts: eradicating the disease and supporting the countries of Western Africa which have been the hardest hit to recover economically, senior EU officials told the press on Tuesday (see EUROPE 11255).
The harmonised Ebola response and economic recovery plan for Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea will be presented at this event to be co-chaired by these countries, by Togo in its capacity as coordinator of the fight against the virus within ECOWAS, the United Nations and the African Union.
'Zero infection' objective: extremely difficult. Although the weekly number of new infections has fallen from 300 at the peak of the epidemic to fewer than 30 today, there are still regions at risk, such as coastal Guinea, where isolated cases have called for vigilance and a decentralised intervention model, allowing “more personnel to be sent to these areas”.
“The number of infections per week has dropped significantly, but achieving zero infection will be very difficult. We have to remain focused on the zero objective. The idea is to send the virus back to its animal reservoir, to stop transmission between people”, a senior official announced. It will therefore be necessary to identify whether funding is lacking, but also to guarantee the best possible transition of emergency development aid. “The countries have lost 12% of their GDP and 58% of their healthcare sector resources have been deployed to tackle Ebola, neglecting Aids and other diseases”, the official went on. Support to reinforce the capacities of the long-term healthcare systems of these countries will be decisive.
Reinforcing the healthcare systems. Meeting in Brussels for the second time on Thursday 26 February, the health ministers of the ACP (Africa/Caribbean/Pacific) countries themselves stressed that the governments and development partners need to step up their support to reinforce the healthcare systems of the vulnerable states - a necessity which has been clearly demonstrated by the devastating effects of the Ebola epidemics.
The EU has pledged more than €1.2 billion in aid. Of this amount, the Commission has paid out €414 million (including more than €210 million in development aid and early rehabilitation aid via the direct budgetary support mechanism). “The EU has provided aid in accordance with the timetable. The announced contributions have been respected and the contracts correctly implemented. This will be our message tomorrow”, the senior officials announced.
Internationally, promises of donations of €4.9 billion have been made and the amount disbursed so far stands at €2.4 billion. “It will not be a fundraising conference, but the countries which pledged money will be called upon to stand by their commitments. In April, at the meeting of the World Bank in Washington, we hope that there will be further fundraising”. (Aminata Niang)