Ebola – årsager og konsekvenser her et år efter

Ebola and development – The reality of causes and consequences of Ebola in West Africa

Event no. 314459 – Register at http://ida.dk/event/314459?utm_source=apsis-anp-3&utm_medium=email&utm_c…

Register before 25. May at midnight.

The repercussions of “Vanguard of Death” (Dødens fortrop)

For more than a year, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has attracted international media, donor and relief organizations’ attention.

The primary focus has been on containment and treatment. This is somehow understandable as the disease is highly infectious and fatal. About half of those infected will develop the disease and die shortly after being infected.

It is estimated that more than 10,000 have died until now in what is considered an unprecedented outbreak in terms of magnitude, duration and spatial spread.

However, now that the epidemic appears to level off, it might be time to ask some questions, including:

* Why did it attract such international attention, when the number of death after all is relatively small compared, e.g., to the about 6,500 children dying every day from vaccine-preventable diseases?

* Why now and why there? What is the ‘natural’ evolution of an epidemic? What are the possible social, economic, ecological and environmental drivers underlying the Ebola epidemic experienced in West Africa?

* Given these factors, what are the lessons learned from the outbreak and how might future threats from Ebola across the complex urban and rural landscapes that now define modern Africa be managed?

The meeting, co-organized by IDA Global Development, Engineers without Borders and Architects without Borders will seek to throw light on and answer these questions.

Programme:

17:00-17:05 Welcome and opening of meeting.

17:05-18:00 Snapshots from the field:
— Stine Skøtt Thomsen, IBIS – “How Ebola affects education” – will give a presentation on the effects of Ebola on school attendance in Liberia with a point of departure in IBIS’ educational programmes.

— Bauke van Weringh, Engineers Without Borders – “How Ebola affects EWB projects” – a presentation on how Ebola has shaped development efforts in Sierra Leone.

— Patrick Kogler, Architects Without Borders – “The Environmental Learning Centre” – a presentation on how a project designed and built to raise awareness about sustainable building and landscaping, problems with deforestation, sand mining, gold mining and clean water became non-functional due to the Ebola crisis.

— Questions and answers.

18:00-18:45 Prof. Morten Sodemann, Odense University Hospital – “Epidemiology and social determinants of Ebola”. Prof. Sodemann will contextualize the recent Ebola outbreak within the overall public health picture in Africa, the international health regulations and the social determinants of the disease. Q&A.

18:45-19:15 Sandwiches and Networking.

19:15-20:00 Tommy Garnett, The Environmental Foundation for Africa – “Why does the Ebola crisis in West Africa present a need for improved natural resource protection across Africa?” 

Mr Garnet will present the emerging evidence that one of the underlying causes of the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa is altered land use and that as many as 22 million people in West and Central Africa could be at risk from future outbreaks. Q&A.

20:00-20:15 Buzz groups generating proposals for how to manage future threats of Ebola from a developmental perspective.

20:15-20:55 Discussions with and reflections by the panel (Thomsen, van Weringh, Kogler, Sodemann and Garnett) on the proposals from the buzz groups.

20:55-21:00 Close of meeting.