Local participation and action featured prominently in this risk management effort. Organisers brought together 22 participants from a community that has experienced emergencies such as avian influenza and flooding. These personnel included representatives from government agencies, traditional councils, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), local associations, community-based organisations (CBOs), etc. The purpose of this workshop was to introduce a communication framework that was largely centred around the design of a telephone tree assembled to help the community plan and carry out an emergency communication system.

Specifically, the telephone tree provided a visual for workshop participants that demonstrated who should be involved in communication during emergencies to ensure that the community is informed. Each group presented their plan and telephone tree and received feedback on how they could be improved. At the end of the workshop, participants took ownership of future strategies to be implemented, and confirmed they would ensure that a formalised plan would be developed within Tema Municipality.

Health, Natural Resource Management.

AI.COMM was created by the United States (US)-based Academy for Educational Development (AED) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It is an effort to provide behaviour change technical assistance for avian and pandemic influenza.