On Wednesday May 12, 2021 the Coastal Community Resilience to Climate and Diarrhoea (C2R-CD) held its maiden Annual Meeting at the Tomreik Hotel in East Legon through a combination of virtual and in-person participation. The meeting was chaired by Prof. Abraham Kwabena Annan, director of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) and moderated by Dr. Yaw Boafo, a member of the C2R-CD research team.
The Director of the Institute, Prof. Kwasi Appeaning Addo who welcomed the participants was full of praise for the Principal Investigator (PI) of the project, Dr. Dzidzo Yirenya-Tawiah for her role in winning the grant and leading the research. Solidarity messages from foreign (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark, Aarhus University) and local partners (EPA, People’s Dialogue on Human Settlements) expressed profound happiness in collaborating with IESS towards achieving the objectives of the research. Specially invited guests for the occasion included the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Coastal Development Authority (CODA).
In providing an overview, the PI indicated that the meeting was intended to provide an overview of the project activities for the first year, explore strategic directions into the second year and discuss pertinent issues for achieving the project goals. She noted that some significant activities including the reconnaissance and the selection of study communities including Keta Municipality (Anyako), Anloga District (Anyanui, Atiteti), Ablekuma West (Opetekwei) and Gomoa West (Mumford), the organisation of a Transdisciplinary Research (TDR) Workshop and the start of data collection by some of the work packages.
| Work Packages (WP) | Main Objective |
| WP 1: Climate Related & Biophysical Studies | Generate climate related biophysical information |
| WP 2: Public Health & Transmission Pathways | Assess the epidemiological, environmental drivers and transmission pathways issues of the project |
| WP 3: Community & Institutional Dynamics | Explore the socio-cultural and economic factors and community level institutional arrangements in disaster risk management and diarrhoea prevention and management |
| WP 4: Integrated Assessment & Scenario Building | Collate data generated from WPs 1-3 and model scenarios to inform disease management |
| WP 5: Community Involvement, Mobilization & Education for Impact | Integrate community participation into the research process and implementation of innovative strategies that will be informed by the various WPs |
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Discussions and presentations on work package-level activities for the first year followed the overview presentations. Key issues highlighted from the work package deliberations include among others how to strengthen engagements community level for improved visibility, improving research team communications and work package-specific activities for the current year. The annual meeting also saw the unveiling of the projects website (still under construction) and social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) platforms.
