With mining operations in Liberia, we were at the heart of one of the areas most severely affected by Ebola, but the company resolved to continue business as usual. Working hard to understand the virus and protect our employees, we hired experts to advise the company, mobilising specialist medical equipment, and putting a management committee, procedures and systems in place.
ArcelorMittal was recognised by the Clinton Global Initiative for our leadership in responding to the 2014 outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa, which is now accepted as the most extensive outbreak in the nearly four-decade history of the disease.
But we recognised that our response would be more powerful if we were not acting alone, so we founded the Ebola Private Sector Mobilisation Group (EPSMG). This was initially a platform for sharing information between companies to help combat Ebola, which quickly grew to include international advocacy for a global response to the Ebola outbreak, and the mobilisation of in-country resources to support humanitarian and healthcare first responders. At the peak, more than 100 companies, and almost 50 public bodies and NGOs participated in the EPSMG from a wide range of sectors and countries.