That the world has been awakened by the Ebola crisis in the
West African countries- Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leon-is not
debatable. News channels in all regions of the world have extensively reported
on the intensity of the crisis. The World Health Organization has termed this a
‘global public health emergency’ as the socio-economic systems in the affected
countries are severely disrupted. Governments are keen to put measures in place
to prevent spread of Ebola into their boarders. The World Bank recently pledged
$ 200 million dollars to help contain the crisis. But isn’t this the case of
too little too late?
The world needs to critically think beyond post crisis
response. Most African countries are highly dependent on external resources for
funding- In Liberia, for instance, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation
received 8.2% of the total Government budget in 2011 which is way below the
target of 15% of total government allocation as per the Abuja Declaration. Even
with the looming crisis, these countries do not have enough medical practitioners
to attend to the victims of Ebola.
The right to health is a human right. Article 12 of the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights, clearly
recognizes the right to "the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard
of physical and mental health”. Article 12.2 requires parties to take specific
steps to improve the health of their citizens, including, inter alia, preventing,
controlling and treating epidemic diseases, and creating conditions to ensure
equal and timely access to medical services for all. The right to health
encompasses access to timely and appropriate health care.
Governments need to prioritize health care as a way of
achieving sustainable development. There is need to allocate enough funds to
the health sector, develop and improve the health infrastructure; sufficiently
remunerate the health workers and quickly intervene in any situation that might
be a threat to the health of citizens. The technical capacity of medical
practitioners, health workers and data analysts need to be enhanced. By
building their capacity, the transfer of cutting edge health-related knowledge
and skills can be achieved. Citizens also need to be made aware on matters
related to health as this has the potential to improve their literacy level.
For instance, the World Bank’s rating of the countries’ literacy levels show
that Guinea and Sierra Leon have some of the lowest literacy rates in the World
at 41% and 35.1% respectively. A great deal of investment, therefore, needs to
be directed towards empowering citizen through access to information in all its
forms. Sensitization of citizens on issues relating to prevention and control
of diseases, sanitation and regular medical check-ups, has the potential to
minimize the outbreak and spread of diseases.
Apart from disease outbreaks, attention should also be given
to climate-related disasters as they are closely linked. An effective EWS can
potentially reduce the impact of natural disasters-floods, drought, landslides,
El-Niño, wildfires-across populations. Africa, for instance, is one of the
worst disaster-hit continent yet it has insufficient capacity to deal with
these disasters. The 5th Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) clearly points out that the global surface temperature
will continue to rise to 1.5oC by the end of the 21st Century. There
is also anticipated increase in the rise of sea level, warming of the oceans,
carbon-dioxide production and change in the global water cycle. All these
scenarios point to an increase in climate related extreme events that would
call for an effective EWS. Most of the existing systems, however, are not
timely, more integrated and actionable. Vulnerable communities and sectors
continue to be affected by disasters and more often, get information after the
disasters have occurred. Governments have the responsibility to reduce the
impact of climate change on its citizens by proactively working towards
reducing the risk and addressing the root-causes of climate change.
The Kenya government has a well elaborated climate change
action plan and a number of initiatives have been put in place to deal with
climate change. Vulnerable communities in the interior and more often,
inaccessible regions of the country continue to severely suffer from the
impacts of climate change-drought, famine, floods, water scarcity, etc. More
effort has to be directed towards reversing this trend.
Climate change related impacts and other disasters are here
with us…We need to act now for the sake of our future and that of our
generations. The ability to deal with all forms of disasters solely depends on
functional systems. Could we do better?
We're not equipped to deal with preventive medicine. We are better poorly equipped to deal with damage control
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