Rearranging target audiences. From right: Gamal El-Naggar, Nabil Ahmed Ibrahim, Md. Fathi, Malcolm Dickson, Samir Zein, Md.Ali, Murad Ahmed.

Abbassa, Egypt. Sunday 22 July, 2012. Following a focused two days’ of meetings with Peter Ballantyne and the Addis Ababa communications team, Fiona Chandler, Director of the Communications and Donor Relations Division, and Samuel Stacey, New Media Communications Intern, travelled to the WorldFish office in Cairo to workshop the WorldFish Egypt communications plan.

The goals were simple: work with the WorldFish Egypt team to create a communication plan to further the reach and impact of WorldFish scientific research in Egypt, and create a synergy between the work of WorldFish and that of the ILRI-led CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish.

Committed to the undertakings of creating such a plan, WorldFish Egypt Country Manager Dr. Gamal El-Naggar and the other members of staff at the Abbassa research station, engaged in what was a very productive meeting of the minds.

Battling high heat and the first day of Ramadan, the participants collaborated in going through the elements of communication planning – communication objectives, identifying and prioritizing target audiences and their needs, looking at relevant and appropriate communication tools and approaches – and came up with some concrete actions for communication products and processes over the next 12 months.

The result at the end of the day was a commitment to good and effective communication and the steps required to carry this forward that will guide the communications activities of the staff in the Egypt office for both WorldFish communications and Livestock and Fish material.

Participating in the workshop were a total of 11 staffmembers, ranging from the Country Manager through to genetic scientists, research associates, accountants and grounds keepers.