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Sierra Leone

World Bank Group Ebola Response Fact Sheet (30 Jan 2015)

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 develop the recovery phase. 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.

Another recent study found that Ebola has substantially affected all sectors of employment in the Liberian economy, and that nearly half of those employed in Liberia when the Ebola outbreak began were no longer working as of early November 2014.

To ensure that the world is able to move faster when the next health emergency strikes, the World Bank Group has called for the creation of a new Pandemic Emergency Facility that would rapidly respond to future outbreaks by delivering money to countries in crisis. We must begin to prepare for the next epidemic, which could spread much more quickly, kill even more people and pose major downside risks to the global economy.

At last year’s G20 meeting in Australia, leaders expressed support for a World Bank Group proposal to develop a new, flexible financing mechanism that can disburse money rapidly to countries 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 nearly $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, $283 million, or 55% of the total IDA funds committed, has been disbursed to the three countries and implementing UN agency partners.

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.

The World Bank Group is supporting UN agencies to deliver assistance on the ground. Some examples include: With World Bank Group funding, UNICEF has airlifted shipments of essential supplies to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and delivered new, all-terrain vehicles Guinea, to support treatment, supervision, contact monitoring and burial teams. UNFPA has delivered motorbikes and computers and accessories to affected countries. The World Food Programme has airlifted ambulances and mortuary pickup vehicles to Sierra Leone, which will help improve mobility and shorten the response time to people affected by Ebola; and delivered more than 4,000 metric tons of food to feed people in holding and treatment centers and quarantined communities in Sierra Leone, reaching at least 300,000 households.

The World Bank Group has been supporting other countries in the region to put Ebola preparedness response measures in place, most recently in Cote d’Ivoire and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Contact: Melanie Mayhew, mmayhew1@worldbankgroup.org