Lilongwe, 17 - 19 May 2016 - The Disaster Risk profiling workshop, which was organized by the World Health Organization started on 17 May at the Golden Peacock Hotel in Lilongwe for participants from Ministry of Health and its partners ended on 19 May 2016. The workshop was facilitated by a team of experts from WHO Geneva and the African Region Office (AFRO). The facilitators were Mark Shapiro and Adrienne Rashford both from Preparedness Support Team, WHO, Geneva and Dr Joyce Hightower, Consultant, Preparedness, Service Delivery and Safety also from WHO Geneva. Dr Charles Mugelo, Technical Officer, Health Security and Emergencies from WHO African Region Office was also among the team.

The participants were from the Ministry of Health HQ, the District Health Offices, the health zones, Meteorological department, UNICEF, UNFPA and the Red Cross. The objective of the workshop was to provide a systematic, transparent and evidence based approach to identify and prioritize risks for common hazards in Malawi. In addition, by the end of the workshop the participants were expected to define the national preparedness and readiness to mitigate the hazards and guide the implementation of the national contingency plans.

The WHO experts used a tool called a Strategic Tool for Assessing Risk which is used by countries to conduct a systematic assessment of risks and profiled them accordingly. At the end of the three days, Malawi rated mass casualties, cholera, internally displaced populations and typhoid as high on the profile list, while measles outbreaks, drought and emerging diseases such as Yellow fever, Ebola Virus Disease, Dengue fever and the Zika Virus Disease followed. Prior to the mission in Malawi the WHO experts assisted the Ministry of Health in Ethiopia to achieve similar workshop objectives. This work was funded by the DFiD and the project in Malawi is worth close to 10,000 pound sterling and will be implemented till September, 2016.

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For more information, please contact:

Wenji Hudson Kubwalo, Health Promotion Officer, Tel: +2651772755/450, Mobile: +265888878011, Email: wenjikubwalo [at] gmail.com