The leaders of the 3 worst hit countries of the Ebola crisis have been in Brussels for an international conference on how to combat the disease - involving officials form the US, EU, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone are still struggling to rid themselves of the disease but the focus is now shifting on how to repair the damage to their economies which have been hard hit by the epidemic.
Jack Parrock reports.
IN: "For the Presidents..."
OUT: SOC
DUR: 1 min 57 secs
-----------------------------
SCRIPT
REPORTER VO:
For the Presidents of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the conference in Brussels is about pressing on their international partners to deliver 5 billion dollars worth of aid pledges.
The World Bank has been one of the most forthcoming providers of aid - giving around a billion dollars already.
The bank will host a conference in April where the costs of recovery plans will be outlined.
BITE: Keith Hansen - The World Bank
"It's not about abstract numbers, this affects livelihoods, it affects futures and opportunities, it affects trade, it affects the abilities of a country to make the investments that they need. If you're growing at ten percent a year, your economy doubles in seven years. If you're shrinking point three percent a year, obviously you're shrinking tax base, shrinking set of opportunities. We actually have seen ripple effects all across the continent already in economic terms and we estimate that it could be as high as 6 billion dollars this year outside the Ebola affected countries."
REPORTER VO:
New infections in all three nations are decreasing - but so are economic forecasts. Collectively the countries are seeing around 5 per cent drop in overall GDP.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf called for a so-called marshall plan to help the west african countries - like was given to Europe following the second world war countries.
BITE: Mr. Abebe Selassie, International Monetary Fund - Africa Department
"What our support does basically is makes room for the government to be able to spend more money on health services and also make up for the loss of revenues so that it continues with regular operations, pays civil servants salaries, all of these things that the government undertakes, our financing goes directly to the budget."
REPORTER VO:
The outbreak has killed nearly 10 thousand people. There are now only around 100 new cases per week detected, at the height it was around 900.
Despite a spotlight being shone on the economic effects of the outbreak, everybody here knows that the most important way to counter the negative effects of the Ebola virus is to reduce the new cases to zero.
Jack Parrock, Brussels