Jeddah, KSA-09.11.2014: Donors to the joint Conference of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Islamic Development Bank, held in Jeddah, have announced an urgent financial aid package to countries suffering from the threat of Ebola epidemic. In addition to the financial pledges, the assistance also included material resources, equipment and supplies, as well as trained heath workers and associated work force

The IDB announced two agreements of US$45 million signed with the Government of Guinea which consists of two aid packages, a of US$10 million to fight poverty, and US$34 million to support health programs, including US$6 million to fight Ebola. H.E. Ahmad Mohamed Ali, President of the IDB, and H.E. Ambassador Mohamed Shareef, Ambassador of Guinea to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, signed the two agreements on the sidelines of the Conference.

The IDB also announced at the Conference a grant of US$10 million as seed money for mobilization of additional resources from NGOs and philanthropists to support efforts to fight EVD. The Saudi Fund for Development on its part contributed US$30 million for Donka Hospital in Guinea.

In their welcoming remarks at the opening session of the Conference, the Secretary General of the OIC, Mr. Iyad Ameen Madani and the President of IDB, Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali, conveyed their sympathy with and support for the peoples and governments of the affected countries and recounted the efforts exerted by the OIC and the IDB since the start of the EVD outbreak earlier this year.

The organizations, institutions and individuals who attended the Conference expressed their readiness to provide financial and technical assistance to advance the health systems and structures in the affected countries.

The Conference reiterated the need for effective, coordinated and speedy response to the EVD epidemic. It also noted the necessity of community mobilization, creating public awareness and educating people in dealing with situations resulting from this epidemic.

A large number of philanthropist organizations and individuals, NGOs and representatives of World Health Organization (WHO) and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) attended the conference, which was chaired by the Deputy Health Minister of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, H.E. Dr. Mansour Nasser Alhowasi.

In addition to high-level delegations from the two EVD-affected states, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the minister of health of Turkey and Uganda, the Deputy Minister of Health of Malaysia, advisors to the health ministers of Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire, and high-level delegations from OIC member states also participated in the Conference. Representatives of the Office of the US President’s Special Envoy to the OIC and the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) attended.

As a part of OIC’s efforts to mobilize support for Ebola-affected countries, a meeting of OIC member states was held in Geneva on 29 September 2014. The meeting was chaired by the honorable Minister of Health of Indonesia, and attended by the WHO Director General Dr. Margaret Chan. The Resource Mobilization Conference in Jeddah was held as a follow-up to the Geneva meeting.

The assistance package announced during the Conference is in line with the priorities and objectives outlined in the WHO Ebola response roadmap, and takes into account the latest assessment of the situation provided during the meeting by representatives of the affected countries, WHO, MSF and other organizations and NGOs, which have been actively involved on the ground in the fight against EVD.

The participants in the Conference appreciated the OIC and IDB for their timely initiative, expressed the hope that the assistance package put together would meaningfully, and effectively contribute to the international effort to control Ebola Virus Disease.