Ambulance depot near an emergency response centre, in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Ambulances and drivers have to be disinfected after each trip carrying suspected Ebola cases. UN Photo/Martine Perret
Response workers battling the Ebola outbreak in West Africa will receive “hazard pay” for the first time in Sierra Leone using mobile money because “unless there is a certain element of incentives, or danger pay, it’s very difficult to attract and retain people,” the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announced today.
“One of the most difficult things about tackling the Ebola crisis is in the area of human resources,” said Sudipto Mukerjee, UNDP’s Country Director for Sierra Leone. “You can construct a treatment centre in a couple of months. You can construct a community care centre in two to three weeks. But getting trained people to come and run them has been a major challenge.”
The transition from direct cash to an electronic solution will help to improve overall efficiency, timeliness and security of payments for Ebola response workers, Mr. Mukerjee said.
“We cannot afford to lose a single minute where people have put their tools down and refuse to work,” he said. “That is why reliable and predictable mobile payments are so significant.”
“These people are working on the front lines. They could be alive today and dead tomorrow,” he said. “If they’re not paid on time, if they’re not paid the right amount of money, they get frustrated and they tend to protest, which means that whatever Ebola care is being provided will no longer be available. We cannot afford a strike. We have to keep the whole system going.”
Working under the umbrella of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response
(UNMEER), UNDP provided technical assistance and brokered a harmonized mobile payment platform, according to a press release issued today.
The current cycle of hazard payments is being made from December 15 to 19, and approximately 16,000 workers who are being paid by the Sierra Leonean National Ebola Response Centre, and 13,000 are targeted to receive their pay through mobile money.
“Ebola is known as a caregiver’s disease. If you are a clinician in the red zone, you are possibly at much greater risk than the average person. Unless there is a certain element of incentives, or danger pay, it’s very difficult to attract and retain people.”
In addition to the cash transfer development in Sierra Leone, in Liberia, a hotline has been established and a target has been established to make all back payments by the end of the year. And in Guinea, UNDP and its partners are harmonizing payment scales across paying organizations and improving the quality of payroll lists.
Also today, UNMEER reported that Liberia has begun treating Ebola patients with serum therapy, which is a form of treatment made from the blood of recovered survivors, and that an Australian-run, British-built medical centre for Ebola patients has opened in Sierra Leone near the capital, Freetown.
UNMEER also said Liberia is scheduled now to hold delayed senatorial elections on December 20, based on its Supreme Court ruling the vote should go ahead despite the Ebola outbreak.
In Geneva today, Christophe Boulierac, spokesperson for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), who just returned from Ebola-affected countries in West Africa, underlined the specific challenges confronting the fight against the virus in Guinea.
Guinea was the biggest and the most populated of the three Ebola-affected countries where neither a peacekeeping mission nor military contingents were present, unlike Liberia, the UNICEF spokesman noted, and it was a country with poor infrastructure and few partners and non-governmental organizations present.
Several rapid response teams had been sent there to provide swift and flexible response wherever needed, he said, outlining the challenges in raising awareness that was being resisted in some communities as well as insecurity that complicated the work being carried out by Ebola response teams
FRENCH VERSION
« Nous ne pouvons nous permettre de perdre une seule minuteoù les gens ont mis leurs outils vers le bas et de refuser detravailler, » dit-il. « C’est pourquoi il est fiable et prévisiblespaiements mobiles sont tellement importants. »
« Ces gens travaillent sur les lignes de front. Ils pourraient être envie aujourd’hui et demain morts,”dit-il. “Si ils ne sont pas payés àtemps, si ils ne sont pas payés la bonne quantité d’argent, ils sesentent frustrés et ils ont tendance à protester, qui signifie quequelque soin d’Ebola est fourni ne pourront plus être disponible.Nous ne pouvons pas nous permettre une grève. Il faut entretenirle système tout entier. »
Travaillant sous l’égide de la Mission de l’ONU pour EbolaEmergency Response
Le cycle actuel de paiements risque fait du 15 décembre à 19 etenviron 16 000 travailleurs qui sont payés par le Centre Nationald’intervention Ebola Sierra-Léonais, et 13 000 sont ciblés pourrecevoir leur salaire grâce à l’argent mobile.
“Les virus Ebola est connu comme maladie d’un fournisseur desoins. Si vous êtes un clinicien dans la zone rouge, vous êtes peut-être au risque beaucoup plus grand que la moyenne. Sauf s’ilexiste un certain élément d’incitations, ou rémunération dedanger, c’est très difficile d’attirer et de retenir les gens”.
Outre le développement de transfert d’argent en Sierra Leone, auLibéria, une ligne téléphonique a été établie et une cible a étécréée pour rendre tous les arriérés de paiement à la fin de l’année.Et en Guinée, le PNUD et ses partenaires sont harmoniser lesbalances de paiement à travers les organismes de paiement etaméliorer la qualité des listes de paie.
Aussi, UNMEER a annoncé aujourd’hui qu’au Libéria a commencéà traiter des patients Ebola avec thérapie de sérum, qui est uneforme de traitement du sang des survivants récupérés, et qu’uncentre médical australien-run, construits pour les patients Ebola aouvert en Sierra Leone, près de la capitale, Freetown.
UNMEER a également dit Qu’au Libéria est prévu maintenant àtenir des élections sénatoriales retardées le 20 décembre, basé sursa décision de la Cour suprême, que le vote devrait aller de l’avantmalgré l’épidémie d’Ebola.
Plusieurs équipes d’intervention rapide avaient été envoyés làpour fournir une réponse rapide et flexible dans la mesure dunécessaire, dit-il, expliquant les enjeux de la sensibilisation qui a été été déjouée dans certaines communautés, mais aussil’insécurité qui a compliqué les travaux en cours menées par deséquipes d’intervention Ebola.
