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Global Future of Development

Global Future of Development

January 30, 2015

Week 2: The Ebola Epidemic Highlights Practical and Moral Challenges for Global Institutions

This week the commentary drew on World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim's inaugural address on January 27, where he took the Ebola epidemic as both an urgent and immediate challenge demanding timely, creative responses and as an illustration of flawed traditional approaches (mental models) that block action to achieve the goal of ending world poverty by 2030.

Dr. Kim's remarks and PowerPoint slides are now available online. Highlights from his Global Futures lecture are captured in an animated video produced by Global Futures Fellow Manny Fassihi.

  • John Monahan, global health expert at Georgetown University, responded warmly to the lecture and to the bold path Kim traces for public-private partnerships and new roles for the World Bank. He outlines specific questions to keep in mind as the proposed new public private insurance is developed.
  • Jemila Abdulai leads with a personal witness from an ill-prepared Ghanaian hospital that highlights how broadly the Ebola challenge affects poor communities. She dissects and explores aspects of Dr. Kim's "mental models" that lead institutions and people to accept inadequate outcomes. The vital lessons, she argues, are the imperative of inclusiveness as a core principle of health delivery and greater urgency in responding to human needs.
  • Global Futures Fellow Tasmia Rahman highlights the potentially catastrophic consequences of infectious disease in a global era, seconding Dr. Kim's central argument that the world is ill-prepared. She concludes that the "mental models" that block bold action need to be altered, both to strengthen basic health infrastructure and to develop a nimble global capacity to respond swiftly to the next health challenge.
  • Wilmot Allen drew inspiration from the links Dr. Kim made to liberation theology. A first lesson centers on communications and the need and potential in this era of globalization to use the resources that are available creatively to help change behaviors that encourage the spread of infectious disease. A second is the strong "business case" for solidarity with the poor. New partnerships are truly "preferential options."
  • Kailee Jordan zeros in on health inequalities as the root of the problem that the Ebola epidemic exposed. "We need to understand how fear and mistrust were compounded by slow response times and poor treatment, and we need to start looking at how long-term socioeconomic effects will have an impact on different sectors of the communities." Capacity for urgent response is vital, but it is equally urgent and perhaps more important to strengthen health systems.
  • Global Futures Fellow Jonas Bergmann responded enthusiastically to Dr. Kim's lecture, focusing on Kim's appeal to focus on the preconceptions ("mental models") that block action in the face of seemingly intractable challenges. The lesson is to acknowledge and defy patterns of thought that blind us to potential solutions and the benefits they can bring.
  • Felix Obi acknowledges that underfunded health systems explain in large measure why West Africa's Ebola epidemic spun out of control. He also, however, draws lessons from the community behaviors, like washing dead bodies and fear and distrust, that caused the disease to spread. Obi echoes Dr. Kim's "lesson" that both a moral imperative ("a preferential option for the poor") and economic benefits from delivering good healthcare justify investments in health.

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