Briefing: Ebola

Thank you Madam President.

We congratulate Nigeria for its initiative in arranging this briefing. Ebola was and remains a truly global threat. It is fitting that this Council was and remains involved in dealing with the threat and ensuring international preparedness to deal with any occurrence, whether of Ebola or any other deadly disease of similar proportions. We thank all of the briefers for their statements, which among other things, have described the range and depth of the international, regional, national and community level responses to last year’s outbreak.

The establishment by the Secretary General of the Mission for Ebola Emergency Response was a new and appropriate reaction as the first-ever UN emergency health mission. Its establishment was partially in response to this Council’s call in Resolution 2177 for a comprehensive response to the epidemic. We want to acknowledge the leadership of United States in the passage of that Resolution and in the mobilisation of the international response. We also want to acknowledge the terrible human toll wrought on the affected states of West Africa and the enormous work done by them and their peoples to bring this outbreak under control.

New Zealand joined the international response, giving to the Trust Fund and deploying medical personnel to Sierra Leone, to work alongside British and Australian counterparts. We also worked with Pacific nations to enhance their preparedness to respond to an Ebola outbreak.

Thankfully, the outbreak in West Africa has now been contained and rolled back. That is rightly a cause of considerable satisfaction. However, the Council should not miss the opportunity to learn from the UNMEER experience, both its successes and mistakes. Others have spoken extensively on the crisis and the global response. We endorse their views and assessments. There are four additional points I would like to emphasise:

First, preparations should be made to ensure rapid, focused reactions to future health threats. International responses, drawing on all relevant frameworks, such as the International Health Regulations must be coordinated across regions, particularly where cross border transmission is occurring. The speed with which the UN Trust Fund was mobilised in this instance (and its lower administration costs) should be a benchmark for future establishment of funds where urgent action is required. The Interim Report on the WHO response provides a positive step in ensuring that we learn as many lessons as possible from the Ebola outbreak, so that future health responses are quicker, more effective and better coordinated.

Secondly, the rapid and ranging nature of the outbreak caused widespread fear across the globe. We should remind ourselves that this fear, though understandable, need not drive states to impose unhelpful and ultimately counterproductive restrictions on movement during pandemics, other than in line with the IHR, the International Health Regulations. While a crisis can be intense for a number of countries, or even a sub-region, in a continent as large and diverse as Africa – calibrated approaches to restrictions are often called for. We applaud those countries that took steps to re-open borders and reinstate air links as safely and quickly as possible.

Third, we recognise that the logistical burden of mounting a large international response in a short space of time can be heavy, and severely strain local systems. Close coordination between responding countries is vital. Our own experience demonstrated the value of country responses being led by a single donor as part of the wider WHO coordinated response. At the same time the roles of ECOWAS and the African Union were vitally important in coordinating between states within the sub-region most affected by the outbreak.

Fourth, the international community, and the UN system in particular, must maintain support to affected areas to avoid further resurgence. Progress in developing vaccines is very encouraging, but we also must acknowledge that the next health crisis could come from a yet unidentified threat. In our region, preparedness undertaken in the context of the Ebola outbreak to respond to infectious diseases will have long lasting effects for the Pacific’s ability to combat other emerging health threats.

Lastly, let me again commend Nigeria for taking this initiative to arrange for this briefing. You have done us a great service both in marking a situation that posed a very real threat to regional and potentially global security, and in providing an opportunity for reflection on how we, the international community, both dealt with that challenge, and how we can do better in the future.

Thank you.