German aid too slow

More than half a year after the beginning of the outbreak, Germany's aid to the Western African nations affected by Ebola is now in full swing. According to the government's Ebola commissioner, Walter Lindner, Germany is supporting several international relief efforts; one example of which is a daily airlift from neighboring countries to Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Germans are also helping to expand a pre-existing Ebola station in the town of Kenema in Sierra Leone, while the German Army and the German Red Cross are building a treatment center in the Liberian capital Monrovia, Lindner told the DW television program Journal. He's just seen for himself how things are going in the region.

Better late than never?

Lindner admitted that although the German aid mission was late in coming - with the exception of helpers from a few private organizations like Doctors Without Borders - you could make this reproach to any stakeholder involved, including the affected countries themselves. "It's no use [to reproach one another]. What's important is that we are there now," Lindner said. Many private German organizations are also there working with local helpers.

The current Ebola epidemic is the most severe since the discovery of the virus 40 years ago. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it has claimed more than 5,000 lives to date. Because the already inadequate healthcare systems of the countries concerned have collapsed under the weight of the epidemic, aid agencies are also reporting an increasing number of victims of other diseases, such as malaria. In August, WHO declared the Ebola outbreak an "international health emergency."

Turf wars

On October 1, Lindner was appointed as a special representative of the federal government and given the task of coordinating the Ebola aid efforts of various ministries and agencies. The career diplomat was formerly, among other things, the German ambassador to Kenya and spokesman of former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.

In total, the federal government has pledged aid worth 100 million euros to the fight against Ebola. This should go directly to aid projects, as well as to the work of WHO. Lindner reported that the German commitment was received with "a feeling of gratitude" in the region. It shows the affected countries that they won't be abandoned in their time of need. The leaders of all three nations received him as a guest during his trip to West Africa, where Germany is viewed as a friend.

However, the political opposition in parliament and private aid workers in Germany do not share this rosy assessment. The aid has been delivered much too slowly and completely unsystematically, Green parliamentarian, Kordula Schulz-Asche, told DW. "In none of the projects initiated by the federal government has a single patient actually been treated," she added.

Schulz-Asche welcomed the appointment of Commissioner Lindner, but it seems that no improvement in the coordination of the German effort is yet visible. Anne Jung, who is in charge of Ebola aid for the organization Medico International, shared a similar lament with DW. "For too long there has been in-fighting between the ministries over jurisdiction," said Jung. This is not only a problem in Germany. Similar criticism could be applied to other European countries.

Moving slowly costs lives

Local staff working for partner organizations in Sierra Leone told Jung that they are indeed grateful for international assistance. But, as before, there is still a lack of basic necessities for the fight against the epidemic: "You can see that everything moves slowly, and this slowness costs lives every day."

Schulz-Asche thinks one of the biggest holes in the German relief effort is the way the federal government is trying to attract volunteers. In two weeks, says Lindner, the first volunteers should begin to treat patients in the stations set up by the German government. Those aid workers that accept the difficult working conditions in West Africa were described by Lindner as "true heroes."

According to reports, however, both the German Army and the German Red Cross are having trouble finding enough qualified personnel for the mission. Schulz-Asche also blamed the federal government in this regard for, among other things, not having provided a clear framework for the volunteers to work in. Also, the question of insurance is unclear, as well as how doctors might be temporarily released from their duties by their employers at home.

Anne Jung also demanded that a broad discussion be initiated on what mistakes led to the disastrous spread of the Ebola virus. "We need a fundamental paradigm shift in international health policy," says Jung. The epidemic brings to mind that health policy is an increasingly global issue. Germany and other EU countries, says Jung, could have contributed more to WHO, which suffers from inadequate funding and thus was unable to get the current crisis under control.