Business leaders commit $28.5 million initial emergency fund towards Africa's Ebola response

Abstract

A historic Roundtable of business leaders comprising CEOs from a range of sectors such as banking, telecommunications, mining, energy, services and manufacturing joined forces with the African Union, the African Development Bank and the Economic Commission for Africa to create and support an emergency funding mechanism to deal with the Ebola outbreak and its consequences. Attending business leaders pledged over $28 Million to kickstart the fund. This first wave of pledges will go towards logistical support and in kind contributions, such as support to an African medical corps of doctors, nurses and lab technicians to care for those infect with Ebola. There will also be a focus on strengthening the capacity of local health services and staff Ebola treatment centres in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Presenting an economic perspective to the situation, Mr. Lopes said an impact assessment by the ECA stresses that the West African sub region represents close to one third of Africa’s GDP, whereas the three affected countries are less than 1%. “If all the three countries were to register zero growth, it would dent only 0.19% of Africa as a whole," said Mr. Lopes.