UNDP Africa chief confers with President Mahama on Ebola

The UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa Mr. Abdoulaye Mar Dieye has met with H.E. President John Dramani Mahama to discuss the UN support to the Ebola Viral Disease (EVD).
 
Accompanied by the UNFPA Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Mr. Benoit Kalasa, Mr. Dieye commended the president for his leadership role in responding to the Ebola crisis, demonstrated in his offer for Ghana to host UNMEER and also through prioritizing the fight against Ebola in ECOWAS, of which he currently serves as the Chairman.

“Ebola is running exponentially and we are running on a linear track.  The disease has taken the lift and we are taking the staircase”, noted Mr. Dieye to illustrate the gravity of the EVD and its devastating impact on economies, society and people.  

The disease is now threatening to set the worst affected countries back by several years. GDP growth in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia has shrunk by two to three percentage points. The countries are now projected to lose a total of $13 billion as a result of Ebola. People’s livelihoods are shrinking from lost wages and decreased productivity.

The outbreak has also had an impact on social services across the region. In Guinea, primary and secondary schools and universities are closed. In Liberia, vaccine coverage shrank by 50 percent in the first few months of the epidemic. Food security has also been affected, with fewer women and men able to plant and harvest. As a result, the price of rice has risen by at least 30 percent in Sierra Leone, and in Guinea national rice production is already down 10 percent.

“If we do not stop the outbreak of the disease in the next 60 to 90 days, come January 1 2015, up to 1 million people could be infected by the disease, with disastrous effect not only on the economies of West Africa but the whole world”, iterated Mr. Mar Dieye, citing statistical projections from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

The UNDP Africa Chief also noted that UN Country Teams are supporting the development of prevention and contingency plans at national levels in the non-affected countries and commended the President of Ghana for having developed an integrated national preparedness plan, which the UN Country Team in Ghana is also supporting.
 
On his part, President Mahama welcomed the support and cooperation of the UN Country Team in setting up the United Nations Mission on Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), highlighting the need to scale up rapid emergency response to the most affected countries - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. He commended the UN System’s support to early recovery strategies aimed at safeguarding the development gains and peace dividends in these countries and also highlighted the need to support the strengthening of public health institutions in the recovery phase and not to isolate countries hit by the disease.  

Speaking in his capacity as the ECOWAS Chairman, the President highlighted the concerted efforts of the ECOWAS member states to support the most affected countries and hinted on plans to organize a donor conference to mobilize additional resources to fight the disease, stressing “development partners must trust African leaders to spend donor resources on Ebola wisely”.  In this regard, Mr. Mar Dieye pledged the support of the regional UN Development Group to ECOWAS in coordinating assistance to the affected countries.

President Mahama also expressed his appreciation to the UN system in Ghana for the support to the Government and the people of Ghana toward the progress the country is making in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, especially on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.  
 
At the end of September, the United Nations stepped up its effort to end the epidemic, by establishing the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), a single structure that will aim to stop the spread of the disease and prevent it from appearing in unaffected countries, as well as treat and care for the infected.

Prior to meeting with the President of Ghana, Mr. Mar Dieye in the company of Mr. Benoit Kasala met with Mr. Tony Banbury, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the UNMEER to discuss his perspectives of his just ended visits to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The meeting also discussed how UNDP, the UN Country Teams and the Regional Director’s Team can support the UNMEER in implementing its mandate.

UNDP’s efforts toward the fight against the Ebola crisis are focused on early recovery - containing the disease and protecting peace dividends and development gains. The agency is realigning its programmes in the three most-affected countries to focus on the crisis, deploying an extra 47 staff, and working closely with the governments to bolster their ability to cope with the crisis.

UNDP’s mandate is three-fold: to boost community information and engagement; to improve access to basic services and conduct impact assessments and recovery plans; and to train police and security services to prevent further spread of the disease. UNDP is also working with partners at the highest level to negotiate humanitarian access and mobilize attention and resources around the crisis.

UNDF