Previously, the United Nations announced that $3.2 billion was needed to support the three countries’ national recovery plans for the next two years, and Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf estimated $4 billion was required to cover a separate sub-regional plan.
Following a preliminary tally of pledges taken on Friday, Helen Clark, head of the U.N. Development Programme, estimated the total amount now allocated for Ebola recovery is more than $5 billion thus far, which she described as “a great start,” according to the report.
Additionally, President Johnson-Sirleaf appealed for international donors to cancel debt owed by the West African nations in a press conference, saying, “The world as a whole has a great stake in how we together respond to this global threat. Diseases, just like terrorism, know no national boundaries.”
Some of the largest pledges made at the meeting came from:
- The African Development Bank — $745 million
- The World Bank — $650 million
- The European Union — $500 million
- Britain — $381 million
- The Islamic Development Bank — $360 million
- The United States — $266 million; and
- Germany — $220 million
The U.N. meeting and pledges followed the re-emergence of Ebola in Liberia last week.
More articles on Ebola:
10k people monitored for Ebola in the US during height of scare
3 hospitals chosen to form National Ebola Treatment & Education Center
2 new Ebola cases reported in Liberia, ending country’s Ebola-free status
