Denmark significantly strengthens its response against Ebola

The Danish government has decided to provide an additional USD 19.5 million to strengthen its response against Ebola, including deployment of Danish health care personnel, a base camp to accommodate international health care personnel in Sierra Leone and the setting up of an inter-ministerial task force to coordinate Denmark’s effort.

The Danish government has decided to provide an additional USD 19.5 million to strengthen its response against Ebola, including deployment of Danish health care personnel, a base camp to accommodate international health care personnel in Sierra Leone and the setting up of an inter-ministerial task force to coordinate Denmark’s effort.

"The Danish government has with a broad response acted quickly and comprehensively to help containing the epidemic. With this additional support we hope to contribute to saving thousands of lives in West Africa and to ensure that the epidemic does not get out of control,” states the Minister for Trade and Development Cooperation, Mogens Jensen. “For this reason, we will deploy health care personnel and establish a base camp and training facilities in the most affected countries to help them cope with the extremely urgent situation. In addition, we will provide a substantial contribution to the international efforts to strengthen the Ebola preparedness of national health systems."

Financial support for the Ebola response comes from humanitarian funds and a reallocation of Danish development assistance. The additional Danish financial support will be allocated as follows:

• USD 5.1 million to the establishment of a base camp and training facilities in Sierra Leone and support for awareness raising activities
• USD 5.1 million to the UN Ebola Multi Partner Trust Fund
• USD 5.1 million to the World Bank Ebola Recovery Multi-Donor Trust Fund
• USD 1.7 million to deploy up to 25 Danish health care personnel
• USD 1.7 million to support Ghana’s Ebola Preparedness Plan
• USD 0.8 million to support WHO’s preparedness plan in Mali

In addition, another USD 1.7 million from the budget of the Ministry of Defence has been set aside to the deployment of a Danish Roll On / Roll Off ship to transport relief supplies. The ship is expected to depart from Denmark in the near future in order to pick up the equipment in the Mediterranean before heading for West Africa.

Minister of Defence Nicolai Wammen states: "I am proud that the Danish Defence and the Emergency Management Agency contributes with skilled experts who can help fight the epidemic and save lives. The Danish Defence will have the overall administrative responsibility for the deployment of health care workers, and experts from the Emergency Management Agency will establish accommodation and training facilities for health care personnel."

Denmark will deploy a Danish health team consisting of up to 25 people who will be part of an international operation. More specifically, it will be health care and laboratory personnel to assist treatment facilities / laboratories in Sierra Leone or Liberia under the management of either the UK, the United Nations or the United States; this is currently being clarified. The Ministry of Health and Danish Regions, in cooperation with the Ministry of Defence, will be recruiting health care personnel from the civilian health sector for the Ebola response. The government sets up an inter-ministerial task force led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to coordinate the overall Danish Ebola efforts.

Background
With this new contribution Denmark has altogether donated USD 32.3 million to the response against Ebola. The previously announced contributions include USD 1.7 million to strengthen Ghana’s Ebola preparedness, USD 1.7 million in support to the UN airlift that transports medical personnel and medical equipment in the region, USD 3.4 million to WHO's ebola efforts, USD 1.7 million to accommodation facilities through the Emergency Management Agency, USD 1.7 million to maritime transport of relief supplies, USD 0.7 million to the efforts of Danish NGOs: MSF, the Red Cross in Denmark, Save the Children and the Danish Mission Council in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, as well as additional USD 110.000 to a coordination unit set up by the Emergency Management Agency. In addition, Denmark indirectly supports the Ebola efforts through considerable core contributions to i.e. the UN, WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank, the African Development Bank.