By Olivier RogezPosted on 26-07-2019Modified on 26-07-2019 at 20:17

Officially declared on 1 August 2018, the tenth Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo is by far the most serious, with nearly 2,600 cases reported and more than 1,700 deaths. By raising the epidemic to the rank of a global health emergency, on July 17, the WHO (World Health Organization) launched an influx of money. The World Bank has just announced that it will release $ 300 million. How and by what channels are the funds of the international community used? Response elements.

" The Ebola outbreak is a public health emergency , not a humanitarian crisis, so it is normal for the Congolese authorities to be involved in the response, " says a Western humanitarian official. In fact, so far the Ministry of Public Health has played a central role in organizing the fight against the epidemic by setting up teams of medical and paramedical staff in the field, and supervising the work. with UN agencies and NGOs.

The World Bank, which has already pledged $ 100 million over the past year, is preparing to provide $ 300 million to fund the fourth strategic response plan, developed by the ministry and its international partners. The money, made up of eighty percent donations, goes into special accounts of the ministry " as and when needed, " says a source at the World Bank. About half of the money is used by the ministry to fund its work, to pay for staff deployed in the field, doctors, experts, paramedics, nurses, etc. The other half is redistributed by the Ministry to UN agencies and partners, each working in their respective fields, WHO, Unicef, WFP, etc.

► See also: DRC: the Ebola epidemic is gaining ground in Beni

Need for greater transparency

This device is " upstream-controlled, " says a World Bank official, adding that " DRC has long been one of the countries where the World Bank is conducting the most surveys to monitor the use of disbursed funds. , whatever the projects ". This source acknowledges, however, that the World Bank favors for the moment " the speed of the response, because it is about saving lives ", and that " controls on the quality of the projects and the actual use of the sums committed. will be largely a posteriori . Accuracy all the more important that Ebola money is both fantasizing and cringe on the ground in the east of the country. Some of the Ministry's employees have complained of late payments in recent months, while others complain of inexplicable differences in the amount of premiums paid. A humanitarian official, who says he understands these recriminations, recalls, however, that the Ministry of Public Health has begun to restore order in the scale of bonuses and various gratifications affected by staff, caregiver or not, engaged in the field.

Just before resigning on 22 July, Oly Ilunga , the Minister of Health, raised another problem about funding channels, saying " hope for greater transparency and accountability of humanitarian actors in relation to the use of funds ". One way to highlight the annoyance of Congolese vis-à-vis bilateral donors who prefer to directly finance NGOs without going under the caudine forks of the Ministry of Health. This is the case of the United States, which has already released $ 95 million this year. Money managed directly by USAID, the US development agency. Great Britain, which has just announced a new $ 40 million envelope, is doing the same.

In the short term, donors and donors will have to adapt to the new structure put in place by President Félix Tshisekedi. The latter announced last week that the response to Ebola was now headed since the presidency by a committee of experts headed by Professor Jean Jacques Muyambe, which led to the resignation of the Minister of Public Health.

How will the funds of the international community now be managed? How will the work of the commission and the ministry be coordinated? For now, donors are waiting for answers, hoping that the new system will not lead to a flutter at a crucial moment in the fight against the spread of the virus.

► See also: CAR: health authorities say they are ready to face Ebola

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