On the second day of the Burkina Faso Government Pandemic Disaster Response Tabletop Exercise, May 15, 2012, participants began meeting in five task-oriented groups.

The operations command group, health group, humanitarian assistance and logistics group, rescue group and security group each were assigned a team leader. The group members chose a recorder to document their progress, challenges and best practices in order to improve Burkina Faso's Pandemic Disaster Response Plan. The breakout sessions will continue for three more days.

The exercise is designed to stress-test Burkina Faso's Pandemic Disaster Response Plan by creating a realistic scenario of a severe health-related disaster. Group members, who represent civil agencies, military and humanitarian organizations within Burkina Faso, regional African partners, the United Nations and other international organizations, will have to contend with the disaster and its after-effects.

The groups, which have 7-13 members, will receive information about developments, or injects, in the health crisis throughout the duration of the exercise. The exercise will be conducted in five phases as the health threat grows in severity and spreads throughout the geographic region, the continent and the world.

These injects were approved by the host nation, in order to tailor training to specific issues the government wants to address.

According to General Director of the Civil Protection General Directorate Colonel Lazare Yago, the government-approved injects include a flu pandemic, flooding, food shortages, refugees, civil unrest and the kidnapping of a humanitarian aid worker.

The choice of these scenarios turned out to be especially appropriate: Between the approval of the injects and the beginning of this exercise, Burkina Faso received 56,000 refugees due to political unrest in a bordering country. Prior to the refugees' arrivals, the country also experienced less rain than normal, negatively impacting food production.

As Burkina Faso was dealing with feeding the refugees and policing the tension between its citizens and the refugee population, the country experienced unusually heavy rain, which led to flooding.

Yago said, "We haven't had an aid worker abducted, but we wanted to prepare for the possibility of it happening so we will be prepared."

The groups have begun discussing the information and coordinating with one another on how best to handle various situations.

"This event will continue to significantly improve the readiness of the government and, in fact, the whole Burkina Faso community to respond to a pandemic flu or any other major disaster," said Lieutenant General (Retired) Joe Inge, the exercise coordinator. "One of the greatest outcomes of this event is the development of professional relationships among individuals within the government of Burkina Faso and, in fact, across the continent and the world."

As the pandemic health disaster grows in scope, it will be more difficult to deal with. Groups will have to manage their resources wisely, because once a resource has been expended it is not available for later use.

The goal of the exercise is to create the most realistic and challenging simulation possible in order to conduct a baseline review of the Burkina Faso military's ability to support the government, civilian, United Nations and international aid organizations during a pandemic health threat.

Approximately 100 civilian and military representatives from seven African nations, the United States and three United Nation organizations took part in the exercise, which was held in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.

The Burkina Faso Government Pandemic Disaster Response Tabletop Exercise is hosted by the government of Burkina Faso, organized by U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Assistance Medicine (CDHAM).

The exercise is part of AFRICOM's Pandemic Response Program (PRP) and is funded by USAID as part of its umbrella program Humanitarian Pandemic Preparedness Initiative. Implemented by the U.S. military, PRP is structured like a traditional USAID project with a focus on long-term sustainable results through the "whole-of-government" approach.

PRP's objectives are to train senior and mid-level military leaders, government agencies and international aide organizations in cooperative disaster management and humanitarian assistance situations with a particular focus on pandemic preparedness. It aims to ensure military, government agencies and international organizations in participating "pandemic preparedness" nations have developed detailed plans of action directly supporting national plans and to conduct exercises to stress-test the implementation of these plans and identify deficiencies.

See also: Pandemic Influenza Table Top Exercise Begins in Burkina Faso