Enhancement local laboratory diagnostic: Research – sophisticated Technology – wastewater-based monitoring (epidemiology)

The capacities of the Agricultural University Tirana's laboratories had been extended by the microbiological laboratory for wastewater-based monitoring on COVID-19, viruses and AMR with a PCR-based real-time detection method. 

Close collaboration and knowledge transfer between TZW and AUT is one main important enabling factor as well as the provided budget (COVID-19 response) for the infrastructure of the laboratory by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

For the furnishing of the laboratory specific conditions had to be fulfilled, f. ex. furnitures, aeration systems, safety regulations to be respected, which were time consuming.

Facilitation inter-sectoral – inter-ministerial cooperation

The Early Warning System is structured on three levels: the scientific level consisting of the participating water and wastewater utilities as basis, the political level with the Public Health Institute and the policy and strategic level with the inter-sectoral and inter-ministerial exchange The later were facilitated and national and international cooperations with research institutes and universities assisted.

Institutionalised communication and exchange are important for the intersectoral cooperation and collaboration. The political will for the implementation of the Early Warning System is elementary.

The timeline plays an important role for the implementation and continuation of the early warning system, initiated by the COVID-19 pandemics.

Early Warning System - a multi-block building solution

The implementation of Albania’s early warning eystem on viruses and AMR is based on processes of enhancement local laboratory diagnostics, capacity development (laboratory planning, training), knowledge transfer and the facilitation of intersectoral and inter-ministerial cooperation.

 

  • Early Warning System
  • Facilitation inter-sectoral – inter-ministerial cooperation
  • Enhancement local laboratory diagnostic: Research – sophisticated Technology – wastewater-based monitoring (epidemiology)
  • Training

Apart from international exchange and knowledge transfer, awareness of characteristics of the health and water sector and interfaces are relevant as well as the human factor to overcome silo-thinking and encouraging strong engagement. Trainings and exchange between skilled staff is elementary and the political will needed.

Information, sensitisation and awareness rising for all institutions involved in the early warning system, well described win-win-situations, and a regular transparent communication as trust building process are the basis for the success. The time required for the implementation shouldn't be underestimated.

Integrated Approaches to Peacebuilding Through Joint Livelihoods

The PEACECORE project uses sustainable, climate conscious livelihood support as a tool to restore traditional, and create new, trade and exchange opportunities for farmers and herders in 6 Local Government Areas of Plateau State, Nigeria. The aim is to replace negative conflict behaviors with mutually beneficial economic relations, while mediation and dialogue also supported through the first building block. Participants from communities affected by conflict have been brought together and trained across various organic agricultural and dairy value chain opportunities, cooperative formation and operation, and conflict resolution. Through such efforts we have been able to bring together conflicting livelihood groups of farmers and herders to establish trade agreements and form cooperatives around value chains including organic fertilizer supply, supply of cow dung and crop waste for briquette production, fodder and forage production, dairy and tofu production etc.

  1. The selection of value chains that are beneficial to both parties such as fodder production, organic fertilizer.
  2. Strong reputation of GIZ in implementation of agricultural and development programmes meant participants were willing to trust the process.
  3. Willingness of conflicting partners to find solutions to the conflict.
  4. Availability of resources for the project and initiatives such as technical skills and equipment, financing etc meant that participants could create tangible structures and operations.
  1. Trust building is essential as well as involving participants across all stages of project interventions.
  2. Adding value to existing business and products is a useful first step to engagement.
  3. New ideas and processes are welcome as long as the benefits can be perceived.
  4. Using connectors (things that both parties need in common) is essential.
Decentralized Community Dialogue Platforms

The project has brought conflicting parties using platforms such as the Community Peace Architecture Forum CPAF and the People First Impact Method P-FIM. This approach has succeeded in bringing people at the community level together to discuss and resolve their issues at the local level using community driven solutions. Communities have been able to resolve disputes arising through mediation of the CPAF and articulate their needs, and goals through P-FIM. All of which have helped the project to design and deliver on its objectives with the buy in of local communities.

1. Involvement of local actors, stakeholders and capacities for peacebuilding.

2. Creating a safe space for dialogue and discussions.

3. Strengthening the capacities of local civil society organizations familiar with the communities and trusted by them to better implement.

4. Decentralised strategy.

5. Empowering structures to mediate directly in conflict, with links to relevant authorities.

1. Mediation is easier at local levels where the conflicts occur, than through centralized strctures which might be more cumbersome and present generalized solutions which might not be adequate to local challenges.

2. Communities have capacities for resolving conflicts and addressing their developmental issues by themselves. These should be identified and supported over external solutions as they are often more sustainable.

3. Bottom to top approaches are more effective than top to bottom approaches.

4. Decentraization of dialogue structures at community level, reduces the logistics of conducting such dialogues and encourages their continuation after projects exit.

Project Map

The Project Map serves as a tool on our website for a better visibility and visualization of projects implemented by the International Alliance member organisations: both projects funded by the Alliance and projects run independently by the Alliance's members.

As an interdisciplinary and inclusive multi-stakeholder platform bringing together different disciplines, the Alliance invites efforts on a wide range of topics related to the work and goals of the Alliance to be presented on this project map, for others to see and get connected.

  • willingness of member organisations to show and present their projects
  • maintenance of the website

In order to give the first incentive for other members to present their projects, you need an existing collection of projects to be shown at the beginning.

Community-Based Fire Preparedness and Response Strategy

With more than 5,300 buildings in the George Town Heritage City, it is important to proactively prepare the site in reducing the risk of fire incidents. GTWHI is working proactively to provide at least one smoke detector and a fire extinguisher for every building within the World Heritage Site. A fire safety training session was also held under this programme, in collaboration with the Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia. Participating communities were trained on practical measures to prevent and mitigate a fire emergency (installing a smoke detector, using a fire extinguisher and others).

 

Since July 2020, fire extinguisher maintenance has been conducted for the first phase Community-Based Fire Responders. The GTWHI team went on house visits to all 50 participants to check their fire extinguishers condition, renew the Fire and Rescue Department’s certificate which is displayed on the fire extinguisher, and understand the issues and challenges faced by them during the difficult times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The partnership and close collaboration between the Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia and GTWHI has allowed the community-friendly design and implementation of this training activity. 

The aim of the Community-Based Fire Preparedness and Response Strategy is to create awareness for the public on the pragmatic steps in enhancing the safety of cultural heritage from fire. GTWHI has collaborated with the Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia to organise these capacity trainings for the local communities on effective intervention during fire emergencies, avoidance to fire incidents, and correct approach in using fire extinguishers, among others. Besides learning about information related to fire emergencies, local communities also had the chance to build trust and understanding with the local Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia and GTWHI.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Informative Posters

Informative posters is one of the disaster risk reduction toolkit developed by GTWHI to raise awareness on disaster mitigation measures and emergency response preparedness. The posters introduce fire and floods as key hazards, with information on risks, vulnerabilities, prevention and reduction strategies. These posters have been produced in four local languages – English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil – to address the multicultural communities in Malaysia.      

To further expand the awareness campaign within and beyond the World Heritage Site, GTWHI printed posters in four languages, which received a great reception from the public. The design and content were based on the feedback received from the community during the community training workshop. Raising awareness through posters is a more practical approach for local communities as these materials are visually clear and easier to understand.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Informative Posters increase disaster risk awareness and preparedness among the people, in particular the residents, building owners and daily users of the town. The dissemination of an easy-to-use and visually accessible infographic toolkit is a practical approach to address issues on site. It is also essential and necessary to involve the local community in content development (in particular during the developing stage) as it provides a user-friendly and place-based strength to these posters. 

Community-Based Capacity Training

Community-based workshops and awareness campaigns on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management have been organized by GTWHI for local communities. Representatives from local communities (caretakers of heritage buildings or residents alike) attended the trainings to identify risks, discuss preventive measures, and develop emergency actions. These sessions enhanced local communities understanding of disaster preparedness, enabling them to identify hazards, assess vulnerabilities and possible factors, as well as reducing the potential impacts of disasters on the site.

 

The workshops were structured as follows:

  1. Introduction of key concepts with examples, site mapping and imagination games.
  2. Participants shared disaster scenarios and proposed mitigation measures for people and heritage, drafting emergency response strategies.
  3. Participants detailed the risk analysis and identified possible actors and their roles before, during and after a disaster
  4. Participants presented their case studies with Standard Operation Plan for the before, during and after a disaster.
  5. Participants presented their cases at the Experience Sharing Workshop on DRR Strategy for Heritage Cities in Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Africa.

GTWHI organised several 2-hour workshops over 7 months, with gradual and progressive capacity building to introduce the DRR concepts to the local communities.

Capacity building and awareness raising are key for the execution of sustainable community-based capacity training. In particular, continuous and meaningful involvement of local communities in disaster risk prevention, planning, and management are critical to the project outcomes.

 

Thus, all capacity building activities are conducted using a language the local community most comfortable with, and sessions are conducted at the time that they are available (avoiding busy work periods and or timeframes during the day).

 

GTWHI moved away from jargon-oriented academic-compact workshop training styles and executed multiple-day workshops that use relatable and receptive terms and examples. GTWHI provided technical assistance to participants before, during and after their presentations, and offered participants chances and platforms in sharing their strategies with UNESCO as well as international and national agencies (for example the Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia).

3. Action planning based on the outcome of the SAGE assessment

Development of an action plan after the SAGE process was very crucial as it ensured that recommendations provided in the SAGE process were addressed in a systematic and targeted manner whereby key stakeholders who participated in the SAGE process were also engaged in the action planning process hence, they drew the roadmap for implementation of those recommendations.

 

In addition, recommendations which came out of the SAGE process informed Honeyguide on areas of priority in designing WMA governance capacity building programs.

 

The overall successful preparation of an action plan after the SAGE process required the following;

  • A clear understanding of the assessment findings and recommendations provided
  • Clear goals and objectives to be achieved
  • Strong leadership and coordination with key stakeholders
  • Adequate resources
  • Willingness and commitment from all key stakeholders.

Overall success of the action planning phase based on the outcome of SAGE process provided an opportunity to learn important lessons related to;

  • Keen selection and active engagement of key stakeholders in the planning process
  • Thorough understanding of the local context
  • Effective prioritization and goal setting by all key stakeholders
  • Inclusiveness of all key stakeholders in adequate resource mobilization

These lessons learned can be used as a good source of information to future development planning and programming organs of the WMA and can help to ensure that development interventions are effective, inclusive, and sustainable over the long term.