The three countries most affected by Ebola – Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone – are fragile, divided, and uniquely prone to shocks. More broadly, the region’s current crisis should inspire reflection about how the world supports and advances development.
NEW YORK – The Ebola epidemic in West Africa is destroying lives, decimating communities, and orphaning children at a rate not seen since the region’s brutal civil wars ended more than a decade ago. In Liberia, 60% of markets are now closed; in Sierra Leone, only one-fifth of the 10,000 HIV patients who are on anti-retroviral treatments are still receiving them; and Guinea’s government is reporting a $220 million financing gap because of the crisis. If the outbreak is not contained soon, most of the economic and social gains achieved since peace was restored in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and since Guinea’s democratic transition began, could be reversed.
NEW YORK – The Ebola epidemic in West Africa is destroying lives, decimating communities, and orphaning children at a rate not seen since the region’s brutal civil wars ended more than a decade ago. In Liberia, 60% of markets are now closed; in Sierra Leone, only one-fifth of the 10,000 HIV patients who are on anti-retroviral treatments are still receiving them; and Guinea’s government is reporting a $220 million financing gap because of the crisis. If the outbreak is not contained soon, most of the economic and social gains achieved since peace was restored in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and since Guinea’s democratic transition began, could be reversed.