Learning from the Ebola Response in cities: Population movement

Author(s)
Leah Campbell
Publication language
English
Pages
24pp
Date published
02 May 2017
Publisher
ALNAP
Type
Lessons papers
Keywords
Disasters, Epidemics & pandemics, Urban
Countries
Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone
Organisations
ALNAP

The West African Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in 2014/15 posed a number of urban-specific challenges to humanitarians responding to the crisis. ALNAP's Learning from the Ebola Response in cities series brings together the lessons learnt from the response in West Africa, with each paper focusing on a topic: quarantine, population movement, and engaging with communities.

Population movement

Population mobility is a critical area of concern in any infectious disease crisis, and particularly in those spread through human-to-human contact, such as Ebola. During the West African Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in 2014/15, population mobility within and between urban and rural areas became a key challenge for humanitarian response. This paper explores the urban dimensions of population mobility, including forces for and drivers of mobility as well as the implications for humanitarian response.