ABSTRACT
On August 8, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a “public health emergency of international concern,” a rare designation by WHO. This chapter examines regional health governance convergence, defined as the process in which regional political and social practices are harmonized and become more constant over time. It addresses two broader issues of regional health governance. The chapter situate the relevance of public health and regionalism, addressing the extent to which health is integrated into regionalization schemes, with a focus on the lack of bottom-up approaches to public health regionalism. It briefly provides a context for public health in West Africa, highlighting the pervasiveness of communicable diseases, providing a basis for understanding the perceptions of public health in ECOWAS. As the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa demonstrated, health crises could ravish the livelihood of people rapidly.
