Economics of Ebola researchers’ conference

In response to the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the IGC opened for the first time an issue-specific call for proposals and requests for research relating to the economic impacts of Ebola. The IGC’s economics of Ebola initiative was launched to ensure the results of IGC-funded research have policy relevance and answer critical emerging policy questions in the Ebola response, recovery, and post-Ebola planning processes. The Initiative hosted a researchers’ conference with the objective of taking stock of progress, results, and policy implications six months into the initiative.

This conference brought together researchers and teams funded by the economics of Ebola initiative as well as a few external researchers with complementary work to discuss the findings of their research on the economic impacts of Ebola and the implications for recovery and post-Ebola policy planning. The aim was collectively determine a concrete set of policy recommendations (if any can be made) that the IGC will use to support policymakers and development partners in Liberia and Sierra Leone. It also served as an opportunity to review the initiative as a whole, given that it is the first of its kind for the IGC, and discussions included innovative research methodologies used in an emergency environment. This forum further presented areas for continued or new research engagements in these two countries based on emerging policy questions IGC researchers were positioned to address.