MONROVIA, February 16 (LINA) - The Heads of State and Government of the Mano River Union (MRU) have endorsed the Post-Ebola Socio-Economic Frameworks prepared by their Ministers to mobilize required resources for the period after the Ebola epidemic.
They noted that emphasis be placed on instituting sustainable healthcare delivery systems, reopening of educational institutions, revitalizing the agriculture sector, addressing the needs of women, children, youth, orphans, survivors and persons with disability.
The MRU leader also stressed on the implementation of the Mano River Union-African Development Bank Initiative on critical infrastructure needs and improving governance in the MRU zone.
According to an Executive Mansion release, the endorsement was contained in a Declaration of MRU Heads of State on the Eradication of Ebola and Post-Ebola Socio-Economic Recovery at an Extraordinary Summit held in Conakry, Guinea on Sunday.
The meeting was intended to adopt common strategies to end the Ebola virus disease epidemic in the sub-region, and address the post-Ebola socio-economic development recovery needs.
It brought together host President Alpha Condé of Guinea, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Representative of President Alassane Ouattara of Côte d’Ivoire, Mr. Charles Koffi Diby.
They directed their Ministers to harmonize and consolidate the regional and country-specific documents, including the costs of intervention to be presented at the Brussels meeting on March 3rd, 2015 with the aim of mobilizing the regional support.
They also welcomed the World Bank’s proposal to establish a Post-Ebola Recovery Marshall Plan with dedicated resources and agreed that this is the best way forward, urging development partners to utilize country systems for disbursements and implementation of Post-Ebola Recovery activities.
The MRU leaders called on the international community to provide direct budget support and debt cancellation for the affected countries.
They called on partners to renew their commitments to Mutual Accountability and ensure full disclosure of all resources committed to the fight against Ebola; as well as renew their commitments to the New Deal Principles and country-specific Mutually Accountability Frameworks as the main levers to guide post-Ebola recovery interventions.
The leaders agreed that in support of post-Ebola recovery, member states will allocate a proportion of their public investment to local Small and Medium Scale Enterprises.
They believe that this decision will improve the resilience of their economies by supporting national production and creating employment opportunities.
LINA