1. Engage communities - Community engagement reduces transmission and resistance to health providers, and instils safe practices of care. Rather than see communities as key to tackling the epidemic in West Africa, they were viewed instead as part of the problem. But top-down, medically oriented messaging focused on the extreme risks of Ebola fostered stigma, triggered treatment avoidance and resulted in people seeking support from traditional healers.
2. Manage the epidemic as a broad-based humanitarian emergency - The spread of a dangerous disease requires a broad response that goes beyond medical provision. Treating Ebola predominantly as a health crisis meant that the surge capacity and emergency funding characteristic of a large-scale humanitarian crisis were not triggered. Wider implications - for instance for food security, livelihoods and education - were neglected, and respondent were unclear on how or where to engage.
3. Build on existing leadership and coordination structures - Since Ebola was initially framed as a health emergency in West Africa, the leadership and coordination arrangements typical of a large-scale humanitarian response were not triggered. Instead, the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) was created. As a new mechanism, it was not a success.
https://www.istat.it/storage/icas2016/g45-gunjal.pdf
https://reliefweb.int/report/world/how-manage-crisis-lessons-west-africa-ebola-outbreak
https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/struggling-scale-ebolas-lessons-next-pandemic.pdf
https://www.odi.org/blogs/16779-covid-19-five-lessons-ebola
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/423511560254844269/pdf/Impact-of-the-West-African-Ebola-Epidemic-on-Agricultural-Production-and-Rural-Welfare-Evidence-from-Liberia.pdf
