The Democratic Republic of Congo’s 10th Ebola Response: Lessons on International Leadership and Coordination

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Author(s)
Crawford, N., K. Holloway, J. Baker, A. Dewulf, P. Kaboy Mupenda, E. Kandate Musema, A. Mushagalusa Ciza, and R. Southgate
Publication language
English
Pages
62pp
Date published
01 Mar 2021
Type
Lessons papers
Keywords
Epidemics & pandemics, Response and recovery

On 1 August 2018, the Ministry of Health (MoH) of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) declared the country’s 10th outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in North Kivu – an outbreak that would last until June 2020. It became the largest Ebola outbreak the DRC had experienced, and the second largest in the world. Overall leadership and coordination of the EVD response rested with the Government of DRC, with significant financial, technical and operational support from the international community, led by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The government and its partners successfully controlled the outbreak after 22 months – much later than originally expected and only after significant, and belated, corrections to the response’s leadership and coordination model, as well as recalibrations to the response strategy. Combatting an Ebola outbreak in densely populated areas, among a highly mobile population with no previous experience of the disease, and in a context characterised by decades of violence and armed conflict and ongoing acute humanitarian needs was a major challenge.