Avian Influenza (AI), or bird flu, has recently emerged as a disease of worldwide significance in both the animal as well as human health sectors. Besides incurring tremendous losses in the poultry sector, a majority of the incidences and fatalities since 2003 had occurred in the Southeast Asian countries, comprising almost 3/4 of the human cases and approximately 4/5 of the deaths, thus making the region a hotspot for AI infections and a reason for global health concern.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), through the ASEAN Foundation has therefore initiated the Communication and Information System for the Control of Avian Influenza (CISCAI) project with financial support from the Japan-ASEAN Solidarity Fund provided by the Government of Japan. The project aims to deploy a suite of information technologies that will shortly be field tested initially in two selected pilot countries, namely; Lao PDR and Viet Nam.

The purpose of the study is to gauge the performance of these developed systems in terms of the hardware, software and people ware aspects, in order to provide the requisite and timely information for concerned officials to act on in a rapid manner for the effective control and management of AI outbreaks. The CISCAI Project is expected to run for 3 years with a budget of around USD 1 million.

A Research Methodologies for User Need Assessment Training was conducted in Vientiane, Lao PDR on 21-25 July 2008. The training served as the first formal activity of the CISCAI project and therefore represented the launch of the project itself. The training participants came from respective concerned agencies dealing with agriculture, health, natural resources and environment and information technology (IT) in Lao PDR and Viet Nam, plus an IT technical support team

from Thailand. The participants were introduced to the various research methodologies available for determining user needs for information required in the effective management of bird flu such as, one-on-one interviews, focus group discussions, and Delphi method. They were then familiarized with the application of these techniques through group discussions and presentations.

 source : CISCAI  (21 “ 25 July 2008, Vientiane , Lao PDR