EU aid package to Guinea: An example of the Ebola effect?

In the past year, media reports from Guinea have been far from uplifting. With more than 2,000 reported cases and 1,200 deaths according to the latest statistics published by the World Health Organization, Guinea is one of three countries hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak currently ravaging West Africa — and is still struggling to come to grips with the deadly epidemic. Last week, however, the European Union delivered much-needed good news. During an official three-day visit to Guinea attended by Devex, European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica met with top Guinean officials to sign a 2014-2020 development cooperation framework worth 244 million euros ($304 million). The framework — commonly known as the national indicative program — is an essential step of EU aid programming under the 11th European Development Fund, which covers the bloc’s development cooperation with 78 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries over the 2014-2020 period. After a five-year lapse triggered by a military coup and violent crackdowns on anti-government demonstrators in 2008, EU development assistance to Guinea fully resumed in late 2013. The latest EU aid package is thus seen as a significant step in the normalization of EU-Guinea relations. Negotiations between Brussels and Conakry to define the specific strategies and priorities that will be rolled out in the country are still ongoing. But a closer look at the draft NIP — of which Devex obtained a sample — shows how the Ebola context is influencing EU aid allocations and activities to the West African nation. Health and sanitation Marked by severe economic and social difficulties, Guinea is ranked 179th out of 187 countries on the 2014 Human Development Index. According to the most recent figures from UNICEF, only 18.5 percent of Guinea’s population has access to improved sanitation facilities. And while the country might be on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal on access to improved drinking water sources, major urban-rural disparities persist. As a result, EU development assistance to Guinea has always focused on health, water and sanitation. In 2013 alone, the EU allocated 20 million euros to build the capacity of the Ministry of Health and provide better access to quality basic health services in the upper and forest regions of Guinea. An additional 8.4 million euros was set aside to improve access to water and sanitation in rural and semi-urban areas. Unfortunately, such investments, along with multimillion contributions from other multilateral donors such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Bank or Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, have not prevented the Ebola epidemic to spread like wildfire in the small West African country. Such a sobering realization has however had a real motivating effect on the EU, as the epidemic seems to have managed — in the eyes of the 28-member bloc at least — to make the case for robust health systems strengthening. In Guinea’s new NIP, the EU is set to ramp up its financial assistance for health and sanitation significantly. Over the next seven years, the EU will inject 40 million euros into the Guinean health system, thus doubling the country’s health budget before the Ebola outbreak. Meanwhile, funding for sanitation, which will prioritize urban settings, is set to shoot up to 84 million euros. By focusing on the challenges of Ebola, health and sanitation, the EU is demonstrating its increased willingness to adopt a more comprehensive approach that links emergency response with long-term recovery and preparedness. “We have to increase the complementarity of our health system assistance and the environmental sustainability of urban concentration,” Mimica explained to a select group of reporters, including Devex, during his recent visit to Guinea. “[For example], doing waste collection and recycling programs in conjunction with health systems strengthening programs is mutually reinforcing and we shall continue to go along these lines.” Such synergies are also reflected in an additional 61 million euros financial assistance package recently launched by the EU — of which half will go to Guinea — to link health, sanitation and environmental development programs in West Africa. In spite of all these encouraging efforts, there remains a significant financing gap. Guinea’s finance minister recently estimated needs for strengthening health systems in the country at $700 million dollars — an amount which makes the EU’s contribution look like a drop in the bucket. Transport infrastructure In addition to being based on the partner government’s own assessment of needs, the NIP also has to be in line with the EU’s Agenda for Change — the bloc’s guiding policy for programming EU aid — which calls for resources to be targeted where they are most needed and can be the most effective. Infrastructure is generally not an area of focus for EU development assistance. But Guinea has the lowest road density across the region — a deficiency which not only has a negative impact on economic growth, but also hampers the delivery of basic public services, as demonstrated in the case of the Ebola outbreak. Already the third-largest donor for economic infrastructure in 2012, the EU is expected to spend 20 million euros on the construction of roads over the 2014-2020 period, at the end of which it will phase out. “This seven-year program encompasses an exit strategy for transport and infrastructure, which is an exceptional approach, because in general we do not want to finance these areas in the NIPs,” Mimica said. Budget support With the World Bank projecting growth of Guinea’s gross domestic product to decrease from 4.5 to 3.5 percent, the Ebola outbreak has also had an acute, far-reaching impact on the country’s public services and economy. Such dire predictions have prompted the EU to include a “state-building contract” worth 25 million euros in the country’s programmable aid for 2014-2020. Created to prevent situations of fragility or transition from spiralling out of control, this financing mechanism presents a novelty for Guinea. “The 11th EDF will mark the first time we move into budget support for Guinea,” Gerardus Gielen, EU ambassador to Guinea, told Devex during a news conference in Conakry. “Before Ebola, we had already foreseen budget support as an option in the draft national indicative program. Now with Ebola, we are accelerating that.” Check out more insights and analysis provided to hundreds of Executive Members worldwide, and subscribe to the Development Insider to receive the latest news, trends and policies that influence your organization.