Fact Sheet: Emergency Response to the Ebola Crisis.

With funds from the World Bank Group, UNICEF delivers essential supplies to Sierra Leone on September 5, 2014.

Background

The Ebola epidemic continues to spread rapidly in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, with the World Health Organization (WHO) projecting that the virus could infect more than 20,000 people. More people have died in the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa than in all previous outbreaks combined. If the virus continues to surge in the three worst-affected countries, its economic impact could deal a potentially catastrophic blow to these already fragile states. Economic costs can be limited if swift national and international responses succeed in containing the epidemic and mitigating fear resulting from people’s concerns about contagion, which is fueling the economic impact.

The World Bank Group’s emergency response to the unfolding Ebola crisis is to help contain the spread of infections, assist countries in coping with the economic impact, and improve public health systems throughout West Africa. The World Bank Group is supporting country responses in line with the WHO Roadmap, and is coordinating assistance closely with the United Nations (UN) and other international and country partners.
Where we stand now

• The World Bank Group is mobilizing a $400 million financing package for the  countries hardest hit by the crisis, including $230 million toward the emergency funding previously announced in August 2014 and an additional $170 million announced on Sept. 25. Of the $230 million in emergency funding, $117 million is already in the countries, including $58 million for Liberia, $34 million for Sierra Leone, and $25 million for Guinea.
• Most of the $117 million ($105 million) was approved by the World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors on Sept. 16, and was new money provided in grants from the World Bank Group’s IDA Crisis Response Window.  The other $12 million in the emergency financing was reallocated in August 2014 from existing health projects in Liberia and Sierra Leone ($6 million per country) to make some funds immediately available and take advantage of the existing implementation capacity set up for these projects. The World Bank Group also transferred $6 million in a project preparation advance for Guinea. The World Bank Group announced on Sept. 25 that it had shifted $113 million in funding to the emergency response, bringing total emergency funding to $230 million.
• These funds are paying for essential supplies and drugs, personal protective equipment and infection prevention control materials, health workers training, hazard pay and death benefits to Ebola health workers and volunteers, contact tracing, vehicles, data management equipment, and door-to-door public health education outreach.
• The WBG’s Board of Executive Directors will consider the $170 million in new funding in the coming weeks.
• UN agencies–particularly UNICEF, WHO, UNOPS, UNFPA and WFP–are implementing some of the activities financed by the World Bank Group’s emergency project.
• World Bank Group funds have already financed a first shipment of 100 tons of essential health and hygiene supplies (worth $1.6 million), which were procured and delivered by UNICEF to Liberia on Aug. 26. Among the items in the shipment were hundreds of sets of personal protective equipment, latex gloves, thermometers, syringes, and other medical supplies to restock depleted stores at many of the country’s health facilities.
• On Sept. 5, UNICEF procured and delivered 48 tons of  materials and essential drugs for Ebola treatment centers (antibiotics and other essential medicines, cannula, coveralls to protect health workers, 7,440 pairs of latex gloves, and body bags) to Sierra Leone (worth $850,000), also financed by the World Bank Group. On Sept. 17, also with World Bank Group financing, UNICEF airlifted a second delivery to Sierra Leone (worth $1.7 million), of 100 tons of drugs and equipment, including personal protective equipment, antibiotics, intravenous fluids, and chlorine.
• On Sept. 9, UNICEF procured and delivered 28 new, all-terrain vehicles to the Guinea Ministry of Health (worth $880,000). These vehicles will provide much-needed ground logistics support to treatment, supervision, contact monitoring, and burial teams working in Guinea. A second lot of vehicles will include ambulances for patient transfers and motorbikes for contact monitoring in remote, hard-to-reach villages. 

We are at a dangerous moment in these three West African countries, all fragile states that have had strong economic growth in recent years after decades of wars and poor governance. It would be scandalous to let this crisis escalate further when we have the knowledge, tools and resources to stop it. Tens of thousands of lives, the future of the region and hard-won economic and health gains for millions hang in the balance.