Although there are signs that the Ebola epidemic is being contained in West Africa, it is much too soon to slow down the response—zero cases is the goal.
The World Bank Group’s response to the Ebola crisis is to help stop the spread of infections, improve public health systems throughout West Africa, and assist countries in coping with the economic impact—including by enabling trade, investment and employment in the countries. The World Bank Group is supporting country responses in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) Roadmap, and is coordinating assistance closely with the United Nations (UN) and other international and country partners.
As we continue to focus intensely on the immediate response, we are also working closely with the affected countries to plan for recovery. As soon as possible, we need to get children back in school, farmers back to their fields, businesses back up and running, and investors back to the countries. We must help countries reignite their economies, and rebuild and improve their health systems, and get development back on track.
The primary cost of this tragic outbreak is in human lives and suffering—but the crisis also is wiping out hard-earned development gains in the affected countries, and will worsen already entrenched poverty. On January 20, 2015, the World Bank Group issued an economic update showing the Ebola crisis continues to cripple the economies of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, even as transmission rates show significant signs of slowing. The Bank Group estimates that these three countries will lose at least US$1.6 billion in forgone economic growth in 2015 as a result of the epidemic.
Other recent studies found that the socioeconomic impacts of Ebola in Liberia and Sierra Leone have been far-reaching and persistent—including job losses—and that many households have been forced to take short-term actions to cope, which can have substantial long-term effects on welfare.
To ensure that the world is better prepared and respond much more quickly to future disease outbreaks, the World Bank Group is developing a plan for a new Pandemic Emergency Facility that would enable resources to flow quickly when outbreaks occur..
The World Bank Group also has established an Ebola Recovery and Reconstruction Trust Fund to address the urgent and growing economic and social impact of the crisis in the region.
Where we stand now
The World Bank Group has mobilized about $1 billion in financing for the countries hardest hit by the crisis. This includes $518 million from IDA, the World Bank Group fund for the poorest countries, for the emergency response, and at least $450 million from IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, to enable trade, investment and employment in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The $518 million is helping Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone provide treatment and care, contain and prevent the spread of infections, help communities cope with the economic impact of the crisis, and improve public health systems. This includes:
Paying for essential supplies and drugs, personal protective equipment and infection prevention control materials, health worker 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.
Helping to set up a coordination hub in close cooperation with the three countries, WHO, the UN’s main Ebola coordination body in Ghana, and in coordination with the African Union and other partners to recruit, train and deploy qualified foreign health workers. Thus far, more than 1300 foreign medical personnel have been deployed or are in the process of deploying to existing Ebola care facilities and at the district level.
Providing budget support to help the governments of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone cope with economic impact of the outbreak, and financing the scale-up of social safety net programs for people in the three countries.
Of the $518 million, $390 million is comprised of new money provided in grants from the World Bank Group’s IDA Crisis Response Window; $110 million is from national IDA and Crisis Response Window funds for development policy operations; and $18 million was reallocated from existing health projects in the three affected countries. To date, $340 million, or 66% of the total IDA funds committed, has been disbursed to the three countries and implementing UN agency partners.
To revive agriculture and avert hunger in Ebola-affected countries, the World Bank Group also is mobilizing emergency financing to provide a record 10,500 tons of maize and rice seed to more than 200,000 farmers in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in time for the April planting season.
Of the at least $450 million from IFC in commercial financing that is enabling trade, investment and employment in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, $250 million is for a rapid response program, which is helping to ensure continued operations of business and supplies of essential goods and services. An additional $200 million is for an Ebola recovery program, which will finance medium- and long-term projects post-crisis. IFC is also providing advisory services to 800 small and medium enterprises on health, security and environment issues related to Ebola.
Contact: Melanie Mayhew
mmayhew1@worldbankgroup.org