Ebola Conference: From Emergency to Recovery

The international conference “Ebola: from emergency to recovery” brought together around 900 participants in Brussels on 3 March 2015. The conference aimed to sustain international mobilisation and plan the next steps in the fight both against the current outbreak and the Ebola virus in general. 

Ebola from emergency to recovery poster at high-level international conference on Ebola

While international efforts have reduced the number of Ebola infection in West Africa in recent months, it is critical to maintaining the momentum to prevent a sharp increase in new cases.  To date, the EU has committed €1.2 billion in cash and kind to the international response. This has ranged from the ship of supplies that reached West Africa in November 2014 to the arrangements for medical evacuation for health workers that enabled international volunteers to arrive in numbers.

69 Countries represented

At the conference, there were over 150 delegations, including 69 countries contributing to the fight against Ebola, 4 presidents from African countries, more than 50 ministers, together with international and Non-Governmental Organisations, the private sector and the scientific community.  The Ebola affected countries were represented by their three Presidents who remained engaged in discussions throughout the day.

The Conference was co-chaired by the European Union, the Presidents of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the United Nations, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

It brought together all key international players to prepare the actions needed to bring the number of Ebola infections down to zero – and the measures to help the affected countries recover from the severe blows that the epidemic had dealt their people and economies.