The 2014 Ebola Crisis in West Africa has been the largest of its kind in recorded history. The crisis with 26,611 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of Ebola Virus Disease reported in the three most affected countries has claimed 10,611 lives, according to a 15th April 2015 report by the UN Mission. With the crisis now receding and the nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone struggling to get back on their feet, there are lessons to be learnt to ensure that such tragedy does not claim numerous lives again. In a detailed and conclusive report submitted by United Nations, The World Bank, European Union and African Development Bank as a contribution to the formulation of national Ebola recovery strategies, the crisis was analysed in-depth and recommendations given that will help the West African region recuperate. Many of these recommendations can also be considered by all Africa to stay the hand of Ebola in their own regions.

The report noted that ‘The epidemic’s unprecedented escalation is linked to the region’s lack of experience with the virus, combined with a host of factors including culture, history, geography, weak health systems, over-centralized governance with inadequate accountability systems, fear, mistrust of state institutions, poor infrastructure and a much-delayed international response.’ This could be referring to any of the regions of Africa seeing that there are similar conditions across the continent; that is why the recommendations given to West Africa can very well be implemented by any of the other regions.

Selected Key Recommendations

• Strengthen epidemiological surveillance subsystems and response capacity at national, community and district levels;
• Strengthen governance and accountability of the sector in particular at prefecture/district level, including through adequate funding by the government, capacity-building in health management, communication and social mobilization, and popular participation;
• Equip health facilities with medical and industrial equipment in accordance with minimum national standards by level of care, ensuring that maintenance services are put in place to prolong the operational use of the equipment;
• Strengthen the framework for consultation and dialogue at the local/community level with the effective participation of women and youth;
• Strengthen formal and informal civic and citizenship education;
• Increase transparency in the management of land and natural resources.
• Ensure that all schools (formal and non-formal) are safe through investment in school water and sanitation facilities such that teachers and pupils have access to clean water for hand-washing; also, systems of temperature screening to monitor students’ health need to be introduced and referral mechanisms established with local health centres;
• Carryout good local awareness campaigns and community engagement
• Convey well-developed, harmonized and clear health crisis prevention messages to critical target groups including supervisors, teachers, learners and parents;
• Invest in youth employment and skills-building schemes, in particular through employment-intensive infrastructure programmes, to ensure that loss of employment does not further alienate a youth population
• Ensure that women are able to access information about how to prevent and respond to the epidemic,
• Integrate gender equality and women’s participation, including building the capacity of women’s groups, associations and traditional leaders to strengthen response mechanisms;
• Promote the establishment of an all-Africa Youth Corps along the lines recommended by the African Union;
• Actively promote labour-based infrastructure projects to reduce the high levels of unemployed and unskilled youth;
• Employment-intensive investment programmes should be designed for job-friendly and youth-friendly environments.
• Joint border management should be enhanced especially for disaster management; because unsupervised movement across borders aided the spread of the epidemic.

If East Africa, along with the rest of Africa, established these protocols we would have a system to abate the recurrence of such a tragic crisis hence saving thousands of lives. The recommendations given in the report go beyond Ebola-proofing the continent but also improving the economies and education systems of the nations.

Read full Report here:Recovering From The Ebola Crisis