Economic and Social costs of Ebola-

By Retlaw Matatu Matorwa

I have not blogged for a while because of wasting time debating which issues are topical before penning my thoughts. Unfortunately, juicier or more serious issues emerge before settling on what to write. The circle goes on and on.

I watch news every morning to get an update on world events. As I was flipping through news channels this morning, Oscar Pristorius occupied my mind. Immediately, switched to e-TV - my interest was to get an update on Oscar Pristorius.

Far from it, a report on the effects of Ebola epidemic on Japanese and Hong Kong Stock Exchange caught my attention. I struggled to link Ebola and Stock exchange. What has Ebola got to do with investment decisions, buying and selling of shares? Those infected and affected may not be linked to activities of (Japanese Stock Exchange) JSSE and (Hong Kong Stock Exchange) HKSE? From a laymen point of view- the news item did not make sense. Hence, I decided to just do a research on the subject.

 Let’s take Sierra Leone for example. According BBC; twelve out of thirteen districts are affected by Ebola. The epicenters are in the Eastern provinces near Liberia and Guinea. Agriculture and mining sector are heavily affected. Majority of people in Sierra Leone are farmers. Approximately, Sixty six percent (66%) of the population are gainfully employed or derive their subsistence from agriculture related activities. Since the outbreak of Ebola, capacity utilization of farm lands decreased. Farmers abandon their lands fearing contracting Ebola.

This state of affairs affects food availability: demand increases whilst production declines causing an upsurge of food costs. Once inflation occur it exerts pressure on national currency creating demand for foreign currency.  World food Program (WFP) recently estimated its food and emergency relief aid for Sierra Leone to be around US$70 million.

Conglomerates such as Rio-Tinto evacuated their team and the rest of workforce in the area on leave.As a result  exports are negatively affected reducing foreign currency earnings. Implicitly, investors and strategic business partners abroad are not spared from these effects.

On the other hand, Sierra Leone was navigating towards middle income status of 11.3% annual growth, but could see growth of only 8% and zero in 2015 (World Bank 2014).  Closing of markets, disruption of farming activities, international travel restrictions and slow down in critical mining operation as a result of foreign workers fleeing the country for fear of contracting the virus has caused devastating effects on the country.

Guinea, a major producer and exporter of Cocoa and Palm oil is helplessly loosing exports earnings. An exodus of farm workers from the countryside has resulted in low production of Cocoa and Palm Oil. On the world market, the price of Cocoa and Palm oil is affected.

Whilst Liberia is suffering the same economic effects, it is imperative to note that Liberia is the most affected, and it has registered highest deaths rates. According to Huffington Post, of the 4249 deaths so far Liberia suffered 2458 deaths- which is highly unfortunate and worrisome.

Just as the world battles finding a cure and sending emergency relief. The lives of those affected by this scourge will never be the same again. Long after this outbreak has been contained the psychological trauma may weigh heavily on these societies.

In addition of widow and orphans, the trauma of not burying your loved ones and not knowing where their remains are, and worse not seeing a grave- has serious psychological consequences for many Africans.

In African tradition, people meticulously ensure their departed ones are afforded a decent burial, with rituals and prayers in their name, preparing their acceptance with ancestors and God.

In most cases, such rituals and procedures involves bidding the dead person last respects, giving out his remains such as clothes and other personal belongings- and passing on the button to the next generation.

The psychological trauma of not seeing how, your relative is buried is traumatizing.

This is just a tip of an Iceberg, Liberia, is a young nation just came out of civil war, and the nation was beginning to walk the path towards reconciliation and reconstruction. However, the outbreak of Ebola has disrupted the progress, people are suspicious of each other, no longer attending church which is important for social cohesion, gatherings are not encouraged- there is fear of establishing contact with an individual unknown. The whole community, sharing and love for each other is disrupted- everyone is living in total fear.

But seriously, what needs to be done about this epidemic:

Watching the world reacting to this outbreak and the time it’s taking to tackle it- Institutions such as World Health organization, African Union, ECOWAS must step up their efforts to deal with this epidemic. Three issues-prevention- cure and provision of psycho- social support must form part of their response.

Prevention- involves the use of community health group agents to provide accurate and detailed information on the epidemic. Have noticed that in countries affected there seem to be no adequate information. Myths and superstitions are influencing the way people understand this epidemic. In Liberia- some are even looking at the epidemic as a fundraising conspiracy.

More efforts must be invested to find a cure. With more collaboration, it is very possible for the cure to be found in less than a year- this is an emergency situation requiring expediency.

Also, learning from countries who have dealt with this scourge before- Uganda is on recording for successfully containing the Ebola virus with a rate of 75% (WHO-1999) treated cases. Why not build upon the mechanism implemented by Ugandans?

Considering, the traumatic experiences in these countries, a comprehensive Psycho- social support system has to put in place- a response mechanism to the affected communities.

Above all, Africa must take center stage and lead in this process; it must not wait for the United Nations, World Health Organizations to come up with solutions. African organs such as African Union, ECOWAS and SADC amongst others must be on the forefront of mapping out strategies to combat this disease- Most importantly, Africa must be proactive and not reactive through investing resources in research and development and health infrastructure amongst other priorities. Look beyond today………

However, the Ebola outbreak, will to a larger extend   destroy the brand image of Africa. It has exposed the continent’s shortcoming feeding into the trap of negative stereotypes. Once, again the world is relating Africa and Africans to poverty, dilapidation, a place of diseases and hopelessness.

Anyway, that’s my thinking!

Black September.