Together with the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), our Economic and Trade Mission on Tuesday, 28 March 2023 organized a breakfast meeting to discuss emergency preparedness and crisis management in Ghana. The event brought together over 15 government agencies in Ghana. The event focused on communication, disaster management, emergency preparedness and public safety, search and rescue during earthquakes and flooding. 

Disasters, both natural and man-made, are a common phenomenon all over the world, some of which escalate into emergencies as a result of their magnitude. Ghana in the recent past has experienced some disasters and the seeming absence of a plan to deal with such incidents has the propensity to aggravate an already bad situation. Good emergency and crisis planning aims to reduce, control or mitigate the effects of emergencies such as natural disasters, spills of hazardous materials, fires, explosions, and security threats. While pre-planned emergency response is most effective for the immediate tackling of any predictable event, the unpredictable nature of crisis, often from unforeseen risks that could threaten the existence of the country. This means that innovative technologies that are robust enough have to be adopted to mitigate the unforeseen. 

Addressing participants at the breakfast meeting, H.E. Shlomit Sufa remarked that “I am excited about this morning’s event. Although every nation is unique, many of the lessons that Israel has learned may be broadly applicable to preparation for mass-casualty incidents in countries such as Ghana. I am therefore happy that our Economic and Trade Mission has taken this initiative with NADMO to bring all of us together to have this important conversation.” 

 She added that “As an embassy, we are excited about this partnership because, it adds to the many initiatives we work on through our many channels of activities in Ghana. I hope that through this meeting, some of the innovative solutions that has been developed in Israel can be applied in Ghana to enhance emergency preparedness and crisis management.”

The forum will also introduce Israeli innovative solutions and technologies in the emergency preparedness and crisis management sectors that can be adopted to improve Ghana’s capacity to deal with emergencies and manage crisis. Israeli companies have developed some of the world’s most innovative solutions to help countries better manage emergency and crisis situations. 

Some of these solutions are in the areas of Communication, Disaster Management, Emergency Preparedness and Public Safety, Search and Rescue. In view of this, stakeholders were introduced to some of the innovative and advanced disaster management technologies and innovations from the State of Israel -  YTcom, RT - Advanced Aerostat Systems, Robotican Ltd., SeismicAI and Atlas Simulators.