The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2020 29 AnInterviewwithJeremyKonyndyk Jeremy Konyndyk mines his experience leading the U.S. Ebola pandemic response effort to offer insights into meeting the challenge of COVID-19 today. THERE’S A PLAYBOOK Jeremy Konyndyk led the U.S. response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa while serving as director of USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance. He is currently a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development. The FSJ had an opportunity to interview Mr. Konyndyk on May 5. The interview was conducted over Zoom by USAID Career Min- ister (ret.) Jim Bever, a recent FSJ Editorial Board member who was USAID mission director for Ghana during the Ebola crisis. The following is an abridged version of the 50-minute interview. Jim Bever: As the head of USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance during the Ebola crisis in West Africa, what was it like for you to lead and be part of the leadership team for the Ameri- can people’s global response? Jeremy Konyndyk: There was a very clear sense of purpose and ownership with Ebola, from the president on down; the U.S. government was going to do whatever was necessary to end this outbreak. One of the difficult things about outbreaks is that they require a really uncompromising approach. In normal day-to-day activities of governance, we’re used to a certain amount of compromise. You’re never going to get everything you want. In an outbreak, you have to stop every case. Your job has ended when the last person who has the disease does not pass it on to another person. It takes this immense and uncompromising discipline, rigor and sustained commitment to defeat an enemy like this. Our normal systems of governance are not set up for that, and it takes an adjustment. By definition, because it’s a novel situation, no one has turf that covers all of what needs to be done, so everyone has to go outside their comfort zone and do things that are unusual. FOCUS ON PANDEMIC DIPLOMACY FromEbola to COVID-19