ILO at the High Level Conference on Ebola in Brussels

ADDIS ABABA/BRUSSELS (ILO News) – Ms Sina Chuma-Mkandawire, Director of ILO Country Office for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia, and Ms Anne Drouin, from the ILO Social Protection Department, took part to the High Level Conference on Ebola under the theme “From Emergency to Recovery”.

The meeting – organized by the European Union, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, ECOWAS, the African Union and the United Nations – was an opportunity to take stock of the on-going emergency response to the outbreak and to plan and support the recovery of the affected countries, including the development of their health systems.

More than 80 delegations were invited, including Ministers from all West African countries and EU Member States, as well as other countries that are contributing to the fight against Ebola, and international and multilateral institutions, such as UN agencies, the IMF, the World Bank, NGOs, the private sector and research institutes.

The Brussels Conference focused mainly on sustaining the current Ebola response and preventing the spread of the virus; identifying short-term actions to remedy the immediate consequences of the epidemic; and examining longer-term social and economic reconstruction needs.

Participants also discussed the “Ebola Recovery Assessment” (ERA), carried out by the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the United Nations system.

The ILO was part of the ERA which was organized around four thematic working groups: health and water and sanitation (WASH) led by WHO and the World Bank; Infrastructure and Basic Services (IBS) led by UNICEF and ILO; Socio-economic revitalization (SER) led by the World Bank with AfDB, UNDP, ECA as co-leads; and Peace building and Core Government functions co-led by UNDP and the EU.

The ILO has also been an essential constituent of the fight against Ebola from the onset, working with local and international partners, including WHO, to support health care workers and providing key life-saving information to minimise health risks for workers.

The UN-specialized agency also supported the draft national recovery plans for Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, which have been presented during the Conference.

With over 23,000 people infected, and close to 10,000 deaths, the current outbreak in West Africa is unprecedented and most complex, leading the UN Security Council to define the Ebola crisis as a "threat to international peace and security".

For further information, please contact:
ILO Office for the European Union and the Benelux countries; [email protected]

ILO Country Office for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia; [email protected]