Frequently Asked Questions

The Ebola Recovery Tracking Initiative is a partnership between the governments of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the United Nations Office of the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Community Based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The objective of the initiative is to track official development assistance (ODA) toward Ebola recovery efforts in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, as well as toward the plan developed by the Mano River Union. The tracking places an emphasis on how much funding is aligned with the recovery plans presented at the 2015 United Nations International Ebola Recovery Conference.

2. About the Outbreak

2a. What is Ebola Virus Disease?

The Ebola virus is what is known as a zoonosis, meaning it is transmitted from animal hosts to humans. It was first described in 1976 in rural Congo, not far from the Ebola River. The virus is transmitted through contact with the bodily fluids of infected patients. The fatality rate has varied from 25 percent to 90 percent in past outbreaks occurring throughout several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.¹

2b. The Ebola Outbreak in West Africa

The largest Ebola outbreak recorded was reported to have begun in early 2014 in southern Guinea. The virus soon spread to neighboring countries in the region. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) as of March 2016, approximately 28,646 people were reported to have contracted the virus resulting in 11,323 fatalities, the vast majority of cases occurring in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.²

2c. Reported Cases and Fatalities by Country (as of March 2016)³

Country	Number of reported cases	Number of reported fatalities	Fatality rate
Sierra Leone	14,124	3,956	28.0%
Liberia	10,675	4,809	45.0%
Guinea	3,811	2,543	66.7%
Incidences outside of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone⁴	36	15	41.6%
Total	28,646	11,323	39.5%

2d. Economic Impact

In 2013, Sierra Leone was the second fastest growing economy in the world with a GDP growth rate of 20.7 percent annually. Liberia and Guinea also experienced notable economic gains at 8.7 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively.⁵

The outbreak significantly hindered private sector growth due to lower investment, declines in agricultural output, and restrictions on the movement of cross-border goods and services.⁶The World Bank estimates that the GDP growth in 2015 was 0.3 percent for Liberia, 0.1 percent in Guinea, and -21.5 percent for Sierra Leone. This amounts to a loss of $2.8 billion in total ($600 million for Guinea, $300 million for Liberia, and $1.9 billion for Sierra Leone).⁷

3. Official Development Assistance to the Region Prior to the Ebola Outbreak

In 2005, donors and recipients of official development assistance (ODA) came together to set forth principles of aid effectiveness in what became known as the Paris Declaration. Six years later, the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, Korea, reaffirmed the commitments made in Paris. The agreements both place a strong emphasis on aligning ODA with the national priorities of recipient countries by working with local institutions and, when possible, channeling ODA through public sector institutions. In countries defined as “least developed” (LDCs), approximately 76 percent of ODA bypasses the public sector.⁸

In 2007 and 2010, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) facilitated two monitoring surveys of progress made toward the Paris Declaration. Both Liberia and Sierra Leone were included in this process which provided insight into how ODA was invested. In Liberia, donors disbursed close to $8 billion in ODA between 2003 and 2013. In 2008, among LDCs with ODA in excess of 8 percent of gross national income (GNI), Liberia was by far the most ODA dependent country in the world, with an ODA to GNI ratio exceeding 185 percent.⁹In 2007 and 2010, years in which data is available through the 2011 Survey on Monitoring the Paris Declaration, and the 2008 Survey on Monitoring the Paris Declaration, Liberia received an average of approximately 2.9 percent through its national systems.¹⁰

Least Developed Countries with Official Development Assistance in Excess of 8 Percent of Gross National Income (2008)^11*

libe

*The template for the chart above was created by UNDP.

Sierra Leone has experienced a similar situation. In 2007, five years after the civil war ended and the democratically elected government was leading the recovery process, donors disbursed 5.4 percent of ODA through Sierra Leone’s national systems, with most funds bypassing the public sector. By 2010, progress had been made with an estimated 25 percent of ODA channeled through national systems.¹²

According to UNDP, 73.8 percent of Guinea’s population lives in multidimensional poverty.^{13, 14}(In comparison, 70.1 percent of Liberia’s population is living in multidimensional poverty; in Sierra Leone the figure is at 77.5 percent.)¹⁵ Guinea has a population of more than Liberia and Sierra Leone combined. Despite the greater population, Guinea received $2,062 million less ODA than Liberia and $1,008.1 million than Sierra Leone in 2007 and 2010.¹⁶

4. International Response

4a. About the International Ebola Recovery Conference

In July 2015, the United Nations hosted the International Ebola Recovery Conference, convening governments, multilateral and philanthropic partners to solicit their support to both end the Ebola outbreak and to implement the national recovery strategies presented by all three affected countries and the Mano River Union. At the conference, donor governments, multilateral organizations, and private foundations pledged $4.5 billion.¹⁶

4b. How much funding was pledged at the conference?¹⁷

$4,513.3 million

4c. How much funding has been committed since the conference?¹⁸

$1,797.6 million

4d. How much funding has been disbursed since the conference?¹⁹

$1,352.0 million

4e. What percentage of the total pledges has been disbursed?

30 percent of total amount pledged

5. National Recovery Plans Presented at 2015 United Nations International Ebola Recovery Conference

5a. How much did the governments of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Mano River Union request?

Guinea: $2,577.2 million
Liberia: $1,257.2 million
Sierra Leone: $1,283.2 million
Mano River Union: $4,000 million
Total: $9,117.6 million

5b. How much was pledged at the conference?

Guinea: $1,018.44 million (39.5 percent of requested funding)
Liberia: $1,278.09 million (100 percent of requested funding)
Sierra Leone: $1,352.9 million (100 percent of requested funding)
Mano River Union: $836.3 million (20.9 percent of requested funding)
UN Funds and Programmes: $27.57 million
Total: $4,513.3 million (49.5 percent of requested funding)

5c. How much of the pledged funding has been committed?

Guinea: $404.5 million (39.7 percent of total amount pledged)
Liberia: $863.3 million (67.5 percent of total amount pledged)
Sierra Leone: $521.1 million (38.5 percent of total amount pledged)
Mano River Union: $8.7 million (1.0 percent of total amount pledged)
UN Funds and Programmes: $0.0 million
Total: $1,797.6 million (39.8 percent of total amount pledged)

5d. How much of the pledged funding has been disbursed?

Guinea: $214.34 million (21.0 percent of total amount pledged)
Liberia: $402.77 million ( 31.5 percent of total amount pledged)
Sierra Leone: $680.8 million ( 50.3 percent of total amount pledged)
Mano River Union: $32.1 million (3.8 percent of total amount pledged)
UN Funds and Programmes: $22.02 million (79.9 percent of total amount pledged)
Total : $1,352.0 million (30.0 percent of total amount pledged)

5e. What is the percentage of disbursed pledges in relation to the amount requested?

Guinea: 8.3 percent ($214.34 million disbursed out of $2,577.2 requested)
Liberia: 32.0 percent ($402.77 million disbursed out of $1,257.2 million requested)
Sierra Leone: 53.1 percent ($680.8 million disbursed out of $1,283.2 million requested)
Mano River Union: 0.8 percent ($32.1 million disbursed out of $4,000.0 million requested)
UN Funds and Programmes: No amount formally requested ($22.02 million disbursed)
Total: 14.8 percent ($1,352.0 million disbursed out of $9,117.6 million requested)

1. World Health Organization. Ebola Fact Sheet. Updated January 2016.

2. World Health Organization. Ebola Situation Report. Updated March 2016.

3. Ibid.

4. Other incidences occurred in Italy (1 case, 0 fatalities); Mali (8 cases, 6 fatalities); Nigeria (20 cases, 8 fatalities); Senegal (1 case, 0 fatalities); Spain (1 case, 0 fatalities); United Kingdom (1 case, 0 fatalities); and United States of America (4 cases, 1 fatalities).

5. World Bank Data Bank. GDP Growth (annual %). Accessed March 27, 2017.

6. Center for Disease Control. Cost of the Ebola Epidemic. February 28, 2016.

7. World Bank. 2014-2015 West Africa Ebola Crisis: Impact Update. May 10, 2016.

8. Estimates of the Office of the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Community Based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti using data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Paris Declaration Survey.

9. UNDP. “Towards Human Resilience: Sustaining MDG Progress in an Age of Economic Uncertainty.” 2011. Pg. 160

10. Op cit. 8.

11. Op cit. 9.

12. Op cit. 8.

13. Developed by UNDP, the Multidimensional Poverty Index is made up of several factors that constitute people’s experience of deprivation – such as poor health, lack of education, inadequate living standard, lack of income (as one of several factors considered), disempowerment, poor quality of work and threat from violence.

14. “Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).” Human Development Reports. United Nations Development Programme. November 8, 2017.

15. “Multidimensional Poverty Index: Developing Countries.” Human Development Reports. United Nations Development Programme. November 8, 2017.

16. All figures pertaining to contributions from the 2015 International Ebola Recovery Conference were obtained by the Office of the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Community Based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti using data provided from donors participating in the conference.

17. A pledge is a general promise to provide assistance and is usually made for a particular time frame, though not always.

18. Committed (or obligated) funds are those for which projects have been approved or agreements/contracts have been signed or are in the process of being transferred or disbursed. Committed funds are exclusive of disbursed funds.

19. Disbursement is the transfer of funds from a donor to implementing partners (which could be governments, non-governmental organizations, UN entities, or private contractors, among others).