Via The New Humanitarian: Aid community raises highest alert on Ebola. Excerpt:
UN and leading aid groups on Wednesday took the step of formally declaring that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo needs a major scale-up from the humanitarian community.
A spokesperson for the UN’s emergency aid coordination body, OCHA, confirmed the decision of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, which it chairs. The move can unlock stronger leadership and more funding, but “it’s not a panacea”, according to a top Red Cross official.
The IASC includes the major UN agencies and international NGOs, and it agreed on Wednesday to activate a range of special measures to respond to the Ebola epidemic in Congo – a move analogous to the former “L3” designation the IASC gave to only the most critical crises.
The OCHA spokesperson said the “scale-up” activation will “help optimise coordination and response capacity in affected and at-risk areas, strengthen engagement with communities, and bolster preparedness actions.” A World Health Organization spokesperson also confirmed the decision, saying it was “good news”.
Ten months since the second-largest Ebola outbreak in history was declared, response operations face an uphill battle. The number of cases is approaching 2,000 – with a two thirds death rate – and insecurity is hampering vaccinations and tracing contacts of those infected.
The virus has so far stayed within Congo’s northeastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, but officials have warned that spread to bigger cities and across borders is entirely likely.
Chronic neglect, political resentments, and underlying ill health have fuelled suspicion towards the response, which has led to direct attacks on health centres, as well as both international and local health workers. After a spike in cases, WHO experts recommended a change in strategy on 7 May that included vaccinating a wider group of at-risk people.
Measures that may be taken under the short-term “Humanitarian System-wide Scale-Up Activation” package include new plans and priorities, funding appeals, and coordination arrangements for an initial three-month period. Under the guidelines, new funding could also be released quickly from the UN-managed Central Emergency Response Fund.
Emanuele Capobianco, director of health at the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said the decision was a “welcome signal politically” and could improve coordination and funding and support shifts in the way the response is carried out. “We need all the attention we can get,” he said in a telephone interview.
