Project Implementation

The project combines two teams comprising of two international research institutes, two universities and an intergovernmental organization. These teams will in turn work in close collaboration with national research institutions and other stakeholders involved in HPAI risk management in selected countries.

Team 1

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI, lead) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) will address HPAI in East and West Africa and Indonesia. This research will be carried out by modelling the spatial spread; evaluating the cost-effectiveness of alternative control strategies, and assessing impacts thereof on the poor. This is in part anticipatory research – addressing what will happen if and when HPAI spreads further in Africa- which aims to aid decision makers in improving their preparedness and forward planning capabilities.

Team 2

The Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO, lead), Royal Veterinary College and University of California at Berkeley will assess policy responses to the threat of HPAI in the Mekong countries (Viet Nam, Cambodia and Thailand) through retrospective and prospective studies to develop learning from HPAI epicentre countries in South East Asia.

The international teams will be working collaboratively with multidisciplinary national teams in each of the study countries. In all the modules care will be taken to enable the national collaborators to use methodologies or models which are likely to be of continued relevance within the study countries in the context of animal disease risk management. For some of research question, in the spirit of pushing the research envelope, the international teams may be doing some additional analysis.

An important part of the programme will be to ensure that any lessons learnt during the programme are disseminated to the relevant policy makers as quickly as possible, and that representative users of the research outputs are involved in the process from the outset. This will generate a participatory approach to designing the programme’s communication strategy, and will ensure that research products are demand-driven with users’ needs in mind.