UK Aid has announced £1.5m backing the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) Regional Preparedness Plan to support nine countries at high risk of receiving cases of Ebola from their neighbour, the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC).
The new funding support is taken from DFID’s Crisis Reserve, and is being provided immediately to the World Health Organisation’s response plan for at least the next three months. This new funding will help stop the immediate spread of the current DRC outbreak as well as build longer term resilience and follows significant support already committed by the International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt in May.
Minister for Africa, Harriett Baldwin said, “The UK continues to act decisively to stop this outbreak of Ebola, an horrific contagious disease which has the potential to cause devastating loss of life. By supporting the WHO’s Regional Preparedness Plan, UK aid will help to scale up preparedness to ensure sustainability. We are not just waiting for the next outbreak to come along, but are actively working in partnership around the world to strengthen health systems. This is keeping us all safe from current and future global health emergencies.”
The Crisis Reserve funding is in addition to £1 million which DFID made available from its joint research initiative on epidemic preparedness with Wellcome. Wellcome has also made a further £2 million available to deal with the Ebola outbreak, which is being used to help roll out the vaccine campaign.
WHO’s Regional Preparedness and Readiness Plan aims to fill gaps identified by recent assessments. The estimated budget for the plan (June 2018 – February 2019) is US$15.5m over nine months.
