AFRICA: GLOBAL: Interview with David Nabarro, UN coordinator for avian flu

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

NAIROBI, 31 Mar 2006 (IRIN) - David Nabarro, the United Nations coordinator for avian and human influenza, attended a conference in Libreville, Gabon, on 20-21 March, where representatives from 46 African countries, the UN and the donor community discussed a response to avian influenza. With the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu detected in Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Egypt, Nabarro told IRIN that African nations were taking the challenge very seriously.

QUESTION: You’ve just returned from Gabon. Are you optimistic or concerned about the state of local capacity, available funding and the ability of local actors to contain avian influenza in the region?

ANSWER: The meeting in Gabon was extraordinary, because of the degree to which officials - and there were very senior officials and ministers from African nations - have come together to focus on the nature of the challenges they face. Despite the fact that they are dealing with many other development crises at the moment, despite the fact that many of them are in countries affected by instability, they didn’t come saying, “We can’t yet have another difficulty to deal with.”

They came saying, “We know we have potential problems ahead; we know we are dealing with real problems now, and we need to focus on how best to deal with these.” I think they recognised that there is not a big bucket of money somewhere that it is going to be accessible to quickly implement these new activities. Instead, they are recognising that they need to prioritise; they need to use existing resources to deal with the avian infection and to prepare for a potential pandemic.

The potential humanitarian consequences of both the avian infection and the pandemic are clearly understood by the governments concerned. For example, we’ve seen the Nigerian government addressing the issue by looking for vulnerabilities and trying to provide relief to communities that are affected.

And it was good to have OCHA [UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] engaged in the Gabon meeting, communicating - both in the main plenary and in private discussions with representatives - that humanitarian experience was on offer to help deal with some of these potential and major problems associated with the avian disease and the potential pandemic.

Q: Are you suggesting that a lot can be done with minimal resources and through prioritisation? Are there low-cost solutions for addressing avian influenza?

A: In real life in a developing country, the majority of actions that are taken to deal with a new problem are not primarily funded through external assistance. It’s always a team of national officials, of community leaders and the resources that are available to them, that are the primary fuel for their activities. The external assistance comes in and helps out, but I have to keep reminding people that the majority of the resources come from the people and the communities of that country.

There are measures going on already in African nations. They are going to be using preparedness of the kind we have seen for other crisis situations. Part of the discussion was on what are the triggers; what are the priorities; how to work with communities, so they can be at the centre of the response; and how to draw on standard disaster preparedness, based on prior action with the UN. I think that’s the right way to go.

Q: Is avian influenza going to have the greatest impact in countries that are already affected by drought, crisis and HIV/AIDS? Or, do you expect that a broad humanitarian presence, in places such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, will be able to effectively counter the disease and pandemic?

A: I think that the ease with which any country is able to deal with a stress like avian influenza is entirely dependant on the capacity of the authorities in that country to carry through and ensure the implementation of quite complex programme activities. That applies whether it’s a national government or whether it is a government structure that is strongly reinforced through international assistance. Where capacity to implement is strong, then the results will be good. Where capacity to implement is not so strong, then it is going to be much more difficult.

Q: Are you satisfied with the US $1.9 billion that was pledged [at the International Pledging Conference on Avian and Human Influenza in Beijing in January] to tackle avian influenza?

A: A lot of colleagues have said to me, “Surely $1.9 billion is such a lot of money that there will be plenty to go around for all the countries concerned.” My response is, let’s look at that $1.9 billion. It’s a pledge. It’s not an actual set of grants. It’s a pledge of loan money that can be obtained through the procedures by which governments obtain loans. These are not actually straightforward, and they have to go through an appraisal. Twenty-two countries are having their plans appraised before they can get hold of the loan.

The other billion or so is grant money, and a lot of that is linked to particular programmes or agencies that are high priority. Some of it is also linked to regions of the world that are known to be in need, particularly Asia.

So accessing these resources is possible, but it’s not a simple process of a government [requesting] $100 million and the money being available the next day. There is a process of dialogue, negotiation and investigation that has to take place because these are complicated activities being implemented.

I do think that we would need in due course a special window through which African nations can access resources -with technical assistance, with operational support - to help them to deal with some of these issues. That was discussed in Gabon, and it’s going to be discussed again over time. Either that will come out of the existing $1.9 billion, or it may be necessary to supplement a bit. All this is still in the midst of discussion. I’m pleased to report to all potential donors that I did see signs that African nations were taking their challenges seriously and in a timely manner.