New York: "We must ensure a healthy future"
At a meeting held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Chancellor has called for an extensive reform of the World Health Organization (WHO), to ensure that the international community is better equipped in future to address crises like the Ebola outbreak.
2 min reading time
Germany, Ghana and Norway are working to ensure better management of crises like the Ebola epidemic in future
Photo: picture alliance / dpa / Palitza
"Last year’s Ebola epidemic was a very clear warning. In this globalised world, infectious diseases can spread incredibly fast," said Chancellor Angela Merkel in New York. It is time we had better crisis management to help us deal with epidemics and it is time for a radical improvement in health systems," she declared.
To achieve this, Angela Merkel, along with her Norwegian counterpart Erna Solberg and Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama, has launched the initiative "Ebola - Lessons Learned" with a view to improving international crisis management in the health sector.
Learning from the crisis – information must be passed on swiftly
Two things are essential, said Angela Merkel. "Firstly, when a disease breaks out anywhere in the world, how can we find out not only about the threat posed by the disease within that country, but about how it could also spread at transnational or global level? This information must be provided as swiftly as possible, and it must be communicated worldwide in a transparent manner. Secondly, when we receive information of this sort, we should not try to sweep it under the carpet and be afraid. We should use it effectively to launch a system to tackle the threat."
Rebuilding health systems
Following humanitarian emergency aid, the major challenge now is to rebuild health systems and stabilise the affected countries in the long term. Germany will make available another 600 million euros by 2019 to strengthen health systems in developing countries. Robust health systems are an essential precondition for social and political stability in every country, and thus also for economic success.
United Nations experts are investigating the system in place to respond to health emergencies, so that the human, logistical and financial resources of the international community can be better focussed and dovetailed in future, enabling a more effective response to health emergencies.
Committed to helping with G7 partners
"We are supporting the World Health Organization with its reform process. We need a effective WHO at the centre of the global health system. The World Bank is working on the Pandemic Emergency Facility to establish an insurance facility for health emergencies. With our G7 partners we undertook at the Schloss Elmau Summit to help 60 countries implement international health standards over the next five years," said Angela Merkel in New York.