The international community’s response to the outbreak thus far has once again highlighted many concerning and apparently unresolved issues related to the ability of national and international organizations to manage complex crises. The response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis, and the West Africa Ebola crisis have all suffered from similar weaknesses—a lack of coordination and an absence of unity of effort, a focus on high profile projects overlooking critical unglamorous but high impact actions, competing national and international objectives, and bureaucratic obstacles to the efficient allocation of donated resources, not to mention an inability to track and monitor where and how funds were spent.

The Atlantic Council’s Africa Center, in partnership with Aspen Healthcare Services, which has continuously operated a full-fledged clinic in Monrovia through the current crisis, will thus convene an expert panel of practitioners to discuss the current crisis and to identify critical lessons that need to be learned, or relearned, and acted upon.