As the Ebola virus continues to ravage
West Africa on an unprecedented scale, the world’s largest multilateral and
bilateral donors have heightened their response.
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A delivery of
medicines and other essential supplies funded by the
World Bank for
Ebola-hit Sierra Leone.
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The World Bank announced
Tuesday a $105 million
grant — with additional financing expected to come — to
contain the disease in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as bolster
struggling public health systems in those countries to prevent future
outbreaks.
The grant,
to be managed by a unit of the International Development Association tasked
with helping poor countries recover from severe natural disasters or economic
crises, is part of the $200 million Ebola emergency mobilization approved in
August and will give $52 million for Liberia, the country with the highest
number of Ebola infections, $28 million to Sierra Leone and $25 million for
Guinea, based on the World Health
Organization’s assessment of the relative severity of the epidemic
in each country. Up to 40 percent of the money from the new grant can be
directed to retroactive financing of eligible Ebola containment efforts in
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Makhtar
Diop, the World Bank’s vice president for Africa, said the funds will help give
hazard pay to health personnel — including volunteers — who work in emergency
treatment centers and referral centers, dispense in-country medical care to
exposed health workers and death benefits to their families, as well as
recruit, train and deploy international medical doctors and nurses.
The grant does not explicitly
contemplate paying the salaries of local health workers, but part of the funds
can be used for that purpose if their governments “come under financial
pressure as a result of the economic impact of the Ebola outbreak.”
Obama: ‘We can’t dawdle on this one’
In addition
to those funds committed by the World Bank, the U.S. Agency
for International Development on Tuesday also detailed plans to
spend $75 million on
supporting the development of Ebola treatment units, as well as provide 50,000
home health care kits to improve treatment and containment of the disease.
The Obama
administration has also pledged to build a staging base, send 3,000 troops to
assist relief efforts on the ground and train up to 500 health workers per
week, among other commitments featured in the latest fact sheet published
by the White House. USAID deployed in August a Disaster Assistance Response
Team to coordinate the U.S. response to the outbreak while the Department of
Defense has requested Congress to channel $500 million in funds originally
earmarked for overseas contingency operations to the fight against the disease.
After
visiting on Tuesday the Centers for
Disease Control headquarters in Atlanta, U.S. President Barack
Obama admitted in a speech that
the response has been slow, but it’s not too late to wipe out the virus and to
assist the affected countries.
“International
organizations just have to move faster than they have up until this point. More
nations need to contribute experienced personnel, supplies and funding that’s
needed, and they need to deliver on what they pledge quickly,” Obama said. “We
know that if we take the proper steps, we can save lives. But we have to act
fast. We can’t dawdle on this one.”
Other
notable donors to the Ebola response in West Africa include the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation, which last week pledged $50 million for
containment and relief efforts.
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