THE world’s most powerful leaders must band together at the Brisbane G20 before time runs out to address the Ebola epidemic in west Africa, aid agencies say.
TO illustrate their point, a group of Oxfam and Save the Children staff donned full personal protective equipment on the banks of the Brisbane River on Saturday, just streets away from the heart of the G20 meeting at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The crisis has already claimed 5000 lives and affected 14,000 more, Oxfam Australia chief executive Helen Szoke said. “But more than that, the economic implications of the Ebola crisis could reach $32 billion,” she said. “We want the G20 leaders to act. “They need to commit to their pledges, we need to make sure there are medical staff on the ground to contain the virus, and we need to understand that these countries will need some help to rebuild when the crisis is actually under control.” More than 165,000 people have signed a petition calling for G20 leaders to act, Save the Children’s Tim Norton said. “We have the world’s richest nations in Brisbane right now and they have the power to do something about this,” he said. Inequality and inclusive growth also needed to be addressed, Ms Szoke said. “If ever there was an example of how this can be so tragically played out, we need to think about the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone,” she said. “(It is) a country that’s still recovering from war, where there is no public health infrastructure, and yet where 59 per cent of the GDP is paid out to multinational companies as tax incentives.” There were only 15 days remaining in the UN’s 60-day window for the international community to scale up its response and curb the humanitarian disaster, Ms Szoke said. “This is a call for urgent action.” Media reports say a draft G20 communique has listed Ebola as a global issue.