The World Bank pledged $100 million in additional funding to the Ebola crisis in late October, part of which will be used to establish a coordination hub that could hopefully address bottlenecks in the recruitment of international health professionals — and jumpstart a permanent global health security reserve corps.
The hub will be established in close coordination with David Nabarro, senior U.N. system coordinator for Ebola, and the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response led by Anthony Banbury; with technical support from the World Health Organization and other partners. It aims to tackle issues ranging from pay and benefits to “provision of urgent medical care and/or medical evacuations for any infected staff.”
Lack of guarantee for the latter has been among the biggest reasons why many health workers refuse to volunteer in West Africa, Oxfam humanitarian policy adviser Debbie Hillier told Devex earlier this week. To alleviate health workers’ concerns on this front, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen apportioned a significant share of his $100 million pledge this month to the medical evacuation of international aid and health workers.
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
