Health and Human Security in the Mano River Union

This book is a study of the challenges facing the Mano River Union (MRU) countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Côte d’Ivoire, with respect to health security and human security. The study is conducted against the backdrop of the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, and in conjunction with the impact on human security of the civil wars that engulfed Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Côte d’Ivoire in recent decades. The author explores the state of public health and national health systems across the sub-region with a view to identifying the underlying institutional and societal challenges facing each nation-state, as well as the potential for enhancing national health systems and creating an integrated regional system of health security. Furthermore, the author examines the challenges facing the MRU countries in the broader context of human security which encompasses physical and mental health; food security; environmental security; political security including law and order; and community security, such as the protection and empowerment of vulnerable segments of the population. The author concludes by recommending deeper regional integration, supranational governance and sovereign collective self-reliance within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as the most viable strategic approach to the pervasive health and human security challenges in West Africa.