G20 Leaders Urge Governments To Commit More Resources To Ebola Epidemic Reponses In West Africa

News outlets report on the G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia, where leaders released a statement vowing to mobilize resources to end the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Ebola also was addressed in the G20 Leaders’ Communiqué.

Agence France-Presse: World leaders vow to ‘extinguish’ Ebola
“The world’s most powerful economies vowed on Saturday to ‘extinguish’ the Ebola epidemic ravaging West Africa, as the vast desert nation of Mali scrambled to prevent a new outbreak of the killer disease…” (Parry, 11/15).

Agence France-Presse: U.N., aid groups step up pressure on G20 over Ebola
“The United Nations Saturday called on G20 leaders to intensify their response to the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa, warning of a major food crisis if they fail to act. Speaking in Brisbane, where the two-day G20 leaders meeting is being hosted by Australia, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joined with international aid agencies in urging concrete actions to fight the disease…” (11/14).

Bloomberg News: G20 Commits to Extinguish Ebola, Address Economic Costs
“…The G20 leaders urged governments that haven’t contributed to the fight against the disease to provide financial aid, medical staff, equipment, and medicine. The spread of the virus highlights the threat to the global community from infectious epidemics, they said in the statement…” (Scott, 11/15).

The Guardian: David Cameron presses for indemnities to speed Ebola vaccinations
“David Cameron is to put pressure on other G20 countries that have done little or nothing to fight the Ebola epidemic that has claimed 5,000 lives in Africa. In addition, a World Bank emergency pandemic fund is being proposed, to respond more quickly to disease outbreaks in an implicit admission that the world has been slow to tackle the epidemic, and Britain is pressing for pharmaceutical companies to be given indemnities so they can produce life-saving vaccines quickly…” (Wintour, 11/14).

Reuters: G20 statement on Ebola stops short of financial commitments
“The Group of 20 world leaders on Saturday committed to mobilizing resources to combat the Ebola epidemic that has killed some 5,000 people, but stopped short of agreeing to a global pandemic fund. … The G20 statement called on both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to explore new flexible mechanisms to address the economic effects of future comparable crises, but did not specify a particular approach...” (Wardell, 11/15).

The KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report summarized news and information on global health policy from hundreds of sources, from May 2009 through December 2020. All summaries are archived and available via search.

KFF Headquarters: 185 Berry St., Suite 2000, San Francisco, CA 94107 | Phone 650-854-9400
Washington Offices and Barbara Jordan Conference Center: 1330 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005 | Phone 202-347-5270

www.kff.org | Email Alerts: kff.org/email | facebook.com/KFF | twitter.com/kff

The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news, KFF is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California.