WORLD BANK(IBRD) Nearly Double Funding in Ebola Crisis to $400 Million

Following the alarming evidence of the spread of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the World Bank Group
today announced that it will nearly double its financing to $400 million to help the worst-affected countries address the emergency and
build stronger health systems for the years ahead
This represents $170 million in new funding.
With today's announcement, the Bank will put
$230 million toward the emergency response
and $170 million for medium- and long-term
projects. The new resources – which the World
Bank’s Board of Executive Directors will
consider in the coming weeks – will be
targeted at rapidly increasing the health care
workforce and purchasing needed supplies in
order to bring care and treatment to all parts
of the affected countries. The funding also is
aimed at building a stronger health care
system because it will aim to train cadres of
health workers to bolster care at a community
level throughout the affected region
“The global community is now responding with
the urgency and the scale needed to begin to
turn back this unprecedented Ebola crisis,”
said World Bank Group President Jim Yong
Kim, who was speaking today at a special
session on the Ebola crisis at the United
Nations. “The real challenge now is to bring
care and treatment to the most remote areas
as well as the cities and then to build a
stronger health care system. This funding will
help the countries start a massive scale up of
training of community health workers and
bring needed supplies and equipment.
The World Bank Group previously announced
that it was mobilizing $230 million for the
three countries hardest hit by the crisis—
Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone—including a
$117 million emergency response. This
support – coordinated closely with the World
Health Organization, the United Nations, the
United States, and other international and
country partners – has assisted countries in
treating the sick, cope with the economic
impact, and improve their public health
systems
The additional planned support will make
$113 million that had been earmarked in the
earlier package for longer-term help
immediately available for the emergency
response. The new package will have $170
million set aside in medium- to longer-term
assistance for the countries’ health systems.