LEADERSHIP DURING A PANDEMIC: What Your Municipality Can Do
Preparing for and responding to a pandemic requires coordinated actions and communications by all levels of government and all segments of society. To address this need, the U.S. Agency for International Development and its U.S. Government partners are coordinating international preparedness and response measures.
Through its 16 missions in the Latin American and Caribbean region, the U.S. Agency for International Development is working with host governments and other partners to raise awareness and plan for an influenza pandemic. These efforts include an assessment of the pandemic preparedness of host countries and the provision of technical assistance.
As part of this initiative, a number of organizations are collaborating on the development and dissemination of a toolkit for municipal-level pandemic influenza preparedness and response in the Latin America and Caribbean region. The U.S. Agency for International Development/Latin America and Caribbean partners for pandemic influenza preparation include the Pan American Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Naval Medical Research Center, Management Sciences for Health’s Stamping Out Pandemic and Avian Influenza, Technical Assistance to Non-Governmental Organizations, and Links Media.
- ensure the participation of stakeholders in the development of the toolkit;
- enhance sustainability via linkages to national disaster agencies, ministries of health and agriculture, and uniformed forces;
- provide a minimum feasible package (including applicable Sphere standards);
- promote the mitigation of impact by saving those who can be saved (triage);
- provide a demonstration of value added; and
- ensure that the toolkit is customizable to country and municipality (with shared components).