A number of our staff have been awarded medals by the British Government for their work on effective governance during the Ebola response in West Africa.

The British High Commissioner to Sierra Leone, Peter West presented AGI’s Sierra Leone team with their medals in Freetown last night in a ceremony attended by the staff of the National Ebola Response Centre. The Ebola Medal for service in West Africa is the first campaign medal ever to be issued as part of a humanitarian crisis response.

All current and former British Institute staff in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea who met the eligibility criteria will receive the official medals. Special wooden replicas have been commissioned by the Institute for non-British staff in order to recognise their work during the last 18 months.

The Government of Sierra Leone paid tribute to AGI’s work saying:

“Whilst other organisations were pulling staff out, AGI was putting staff into what was a very chaotic, unpredictable and dangerous environment. They have stayed with us all the way. The support of your country team, led by Kate Dooley, has been crucial to our success.”

Nick Thompson, said:

"I am incredibly proud of the role our teams played in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, alongside countless others, during the Ebola response over the last 12 months; and I am delighted to see this recognition of their efforts from the British Government. My congratulations to Victoria, Jo, Ally, Rupert, Rich, Nisha, Peter, John, Pete, Elizabeth, and Henry as well as the team members from other countries who worked alongside them. I know they would all want me to say too that the true heroes of this story are our Sierra Leonean, Guinea and Liberian colleagues who stepped up when their countries needed them – and still do as we push for a ‘resilient zero’.”

AGI teams were already working in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea when the outbreak began in early 2014 and have continued to work alongside their government counterparts throughout the response. They worked on establishing systems for ambulance despatch, dead body management and Ebola case reporting in late 2014, as well as providing support to district level responses as case numbers began to fall in 2015.

The following people are proud to have worked for AGI on the Ebola response in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia: 

Malado Kaba, Antoine Morel‑Vulliez, Kate Dooley, Felix Veronneau, Victoria Parkinson, Ali Readhead, Emily Stanger, Ally Arnall, Jo Evans, Joanna Penn, Rupert Simons, Richard Murray, Efayomi Carr, John Heine, Elizabeth Smith, Jonathan Said, Peter St. Quinton, Peter Harrington, Dan Hymowitz, Nisha Makan, Christina PioCosta-Lahue, Hendrike Braun, Louise Leah and Henry Joynson.

The work described here was carried out by the Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative, it is now being continued by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.