The Politics of Plague

Last updated:

2 November 2015

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The scale of the Ebola crisis in West Africa in 2014 and 2015 challenged the national governments and international development and humanitarian agencies on multiple levels.

An observer from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) watches as a short graveside ceremony takes place at Kingtom cemetery in Freetown. Photo: Kieran McConville / Concern Worldwide.

It reverberated around the world, caused huge suffering for those affected, gripped the media and ultimately forced us all to examine how we responded, what we did well, and how we can do better.

Concern was at the forefront of the response to the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone and Liberia during 2014 and 2015. In this paper, we reflect on how politics affected our response as a medium-sized INGO and the national and international response.

We examine primarily politics with a small ‘p’, which is about people on the ground trying to do the best they can in a difficult situation and the challenges and obstacles that impede their progress.

We also touch on the big ‘P’ politics where the national and international governments and multilateral institutions are all thrown together with a common goal but often different and competing agendas where an initial lack of leadership and decisiveness transformed into a situation with arguably too many leaders.