Training event
Brighton
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation short course
Organizer(s)
Institute of Development Studies
International Centre for Climate Change and Development
Format
In person
Venue
Institute of Development Studies, Library Road, University of Sussex
Date
-
The course will cover topics including:
- What is climate change and its different types of impacts – and how DRR needs to take account of these differences
- Understanding the social construction of disasters, and their links with climate change and development
- Gender issues in the context of climate change adaptation and disaster preparedness
- Knowledge and power: integrating indigenous and external knowledge for effective DRR
- Adaptation in the face of the unknown: how do people adapt to uncertainty?
- Assessing vulnerability and capacity: using participatory tools for risk reduction
- Integrating early-warning systems in regard to climate-related hazards
- Community-based disaster risk reduction: constraints and benefits
Course structure and outcomes:
The course will promote practical tools and be based on participatory methods. These will include the Climate Smart Disaster Risk Management approach developed recently by IDS with its partners in ten countries of Africa and Asia. Participants will be encouraged to prepare a work plan for completion during the course that shows how they will work differently as a result of the course, and how they might influence their organisation for better integration of DRR with climate change adaptation.
By the end of the programme participants will be able to:
- Understand the basics of how global warming is affecting extreme events and increasing vulnerability to hazards
- Have increased awareness of the need to integrate DRR with adaptation to climate change, in the context of development and poverty-reduction activities
- Understand the significance of gender as a factor in both disaster risk and effects of climate change
- Awareness of how they need to act differently on a personal and institutional level in order to deal with disasters in the context of climate change
- Competence in use of tools and methods for participatory risk assessments
- Understanding of the benefits and constraints of community-based disaster risk reduction and adaptation, especially the problems of the mismatch between people’s livelihood needs and living in dangerous places, and the cultural factors in perception of risk that reduce effective DRR.