Global Futures Initiative

Not surprisingly, in his inaugural lecture at Georgetown University's Global Futures Initiative, World Bank Group's president, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, identified underfunded healthcare systems in Ebola affected countries as a major challenge.

And the challenge has been consequential. Healthcare systems lack scale and credibility among communities to achieve needed behavior modification. Dead bodies—often the most potent source of Ebola virus—were still washed by relatives. In part due to distrust of government, many of the sick avoided health centers, believing them to be death centers. And rural dwellers inclined to seek treatment often lived too far from health centers.

The international community also faces growing pains. Ebola outbreak began in December 2013, but the World Bank Group did not fully appreciate the severity until August 2014, when it committed US$ 200 million. Initial response strategy focused on containment and isolation to stop transmission. But additional emphasis on quality treatment would have projected health centers as places of treatment, rather than death.

Fortunately lessons have also been learned. Both Liberia and Sierra Leone have replaced their health ministers with more competent appointees. According to Dr. Kim, behavior modification in affected communities has been as much a driver of successful outcomes as improved healthcare infrastructure.

Moving forward, Dr. Kim also acknowledges a moral commitment for a preferential option for the poor in health. But there's also an economic case. According to former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers’ led Lancet Report, 24 percent of growth in full income in developing countries resulted from improvements in health. Demonstrably, economic benefit exceeds costs of investing in healthcare for the poor. 

A rapidly deployable standing pandemic emergency facility from the capital markets is now under consideration. There's now also a realization that while containment is paramount, experience demonstrates that without high-quality treatment, health centers become places to go to die. Dr. Kim suggests that outcomes in the U.S. demonstrate that quality treatment can result in "80-90 maybe even 100 percent survival if we catch the cases early and provide intensive treatment."

Dr. Kim concludes that perhaps, the overarching lesson is that pandemic policy simply can't be: "I am sorry but it is inconvenient for us to treat you, you are all dead."

O. Felix Obi is an Alumni Board Member at Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy. His professional background is in economic and international trade development in Africa, especially innovation and entrepreneurship.