The 2014 Ebola crisis in West Africa is a global emergency and a set of personal tragedies. But beyond the urgent headlines and struggles to control the epidemic, what deeper stories should be told?
This paper, originally presented as a Sussex Development Lecture, asks how the Ebola crisis might offer a lens to reflect on interlaced challenges around curbing inequalities, accelerating sustainability, and building inclusive, secure societies, and why these matter so much. And it discusses why addressing these interactions must become central to a renewed vision of development for all.
In August of this year, when the Ebola outbreak escalated in Liberia and a state of emergency had been declared for the country, Fatu Kekula, a young Liberian nursing student, improvised personal protective equipment (PPE) to care for her father, mother, sister, and cousin.
After three of the relatives survived, her method was featured prominently in the international news media as the “trash bag method”. The reports were meant to ignite a spark of hope in the Ebola epidemic in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.
Being caught in a humanitarian crisis with a disability can lead to abandonment and neglect. How can we make humanitarian response more inclusive?
hen the shooting started Simplice Lenguy told his wife to take their children and run. It was 5 December 2013, and the war in Central African Republic (CAR) had arrived on his doorstep. “I couldn’t go fast with my canes and I didn’t want them to wait for me,” says Simplice. “All our friends and relatives had already fled in fear.”