Wall Street Journal: Ebola Funds Pledged for Recovery Are Slow to Come
“Less than a third of the $4.5 billion pledged in 2015 to help three countries in West Africa recover from a devastating Ebola epidemic is reported to have been disbursed, according to a new tracking initiative developed by the United Nations and their three governments. The U.S., World Bank, African Development Bank, and at least 17 other donors had committed funds to help Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone stabilize their economies and strengthen their health systems to prevent another epidemic. … As of late January, those donors had disbursed $1.32 billion of the total amount pledged, according to the Ebola Recovery Tracking Initiative, formed by the office of Paul Farmer, the U.N. secretary general’s special adviser on Community-Based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti. … A U.S. Agency for International Development official said that as of six months ago, the agency had disbursed more than $310 million for recovery and rebuilding, exceeding the pledged amount. … Dr. Farmer’s office said it was unable to obtain any disbursement data from six donors, which pledged a total of $1.36 billion…” (McKay, 3/20).