Thursday 18 September 2014

WORLD BANK, US STEP UP EBOLA RESPONSE



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.
A delivery of medicines and other essential supplies funded by the
World Bank for Ebola-hit Sierra Leone.
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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