The reason why collaboration was difficult between those departments within WHO needs to be further explored, however, it is conceivable that the heads of the respective departments did not communicate well, or that there were delays in issuing decisions and instructions by supervisors in both departments. However, because intervention was called for after the situation had acutely worsened, and because the humanitarian community was not familiar with the Ebola virus, it was determined that a response would be difficult using the cluster approach with OCHA at the core. In addition, rapid access to a large amount of funding was imperative at that time, but that would have been difficult using the usual funding process of OCHA, the Humanitarian Programme Cycle consisting of five elements (needs assessment and analysis, strategic response planning, resource mobilization, implementation and monitoring, and operational review and evaluation). It was assumed that more time would be required to reach a consensus on using the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for the Ebola virus disease response, which is different than what is used for ordinary natural disasters and armed conflicts.