Food Security Impact of 2014-2015 Ebola Virus Epidemic

In 2014, the Ebola epidemic in West Africa was taking a severe toll in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in terms of human deaths, crumbling health systems, an economic crisis, extensive commercial restrictions and, of course, food insecurity and an increase in the number of people exposed to food deprivation and undernourishment. The main purpose of this paper was to provide forecasts of the number of people that would have been exposed to undernourishment in 2015.

The evolution of the epidemic has necessitated an update of the economic forecasts made in 2014. The spread of the outbreak has been relatively limited compared to the High Ebola scenario outlined for 2014 and as a result the regional economic impact has been revised downwards. However, in the updated report the economic cost of the outbreak to the two of the three most affected countries, Guinea and Sierra Leone, is predicted to be greater than previously envisioned and though Liberia is showing slight improvement, economic stagnation is set to continue.