Cities experience serious incidents that prevent them from continuing their normal functioning. Such incidences can range from flood or fire to severe outbreaks of epidemics. During such emergencies, the affected cities are saddled with increased risks, mainly when the disaster management team is not well prepared to anticipate, cope with, respond to, and help in the recovery of the affected communities. City authorities have a constitutional responsibility to recover from such incidents in the minimum amount of time, with minimum disruption and at minimum cost. The ability of Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to adequately meet such unexpected challenges, requires careful preparation and planning.

To this end, within the project “Developing Risk Management Approaches for Climate Risks”, the Public-Private Partnership between Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and Allianz Reinsurance has supported three MMDAs in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA), Ghana in building capacity to develop contingency plans and an associated monitoring tool.